The Forbidden Black Rice Supplement

[T_Nation]

The Once-Banned Health Food

Black rice contains a natural substance that shrinks fat cells and enhances nutrient uptake in muscle. Here's the science.

The legend goes like this: Thousands of years ago in China, farmers noticed that some of their rice crops were coming up black – a natural genetic mutation, though they didn't know that back then. Those who ate it said they noticed numerous health benefits, so the farmers cultivated and selectively bred it.

These black rice crops were low-yield and coveted, so the rulers in the Tang and Song dynasties decided it was too precious for the common folks. They reserved black rice exclusively for the emperor and the aristocracy. It was henceforth called "forbidden rice" or "emperor's rice."

Was this rice special? Did it have health and physique-promoting properties? As it turns out, yes. Forbidden rice contains C3G (cyanidin 3-glucoside (Buy at Biotest)), an anthocyanin also found in blackberries and blueberries.

C3G Benefits

Here's the short list of what we know now:

• C3G profoundly enhances glucose uptake in muscle fibers instead of being stored as fat.
• C3G, taken before a workout, helps shuttle energy from workout nutrition (Buy at Amazon) directly to muscle cells.
• C3G raises adiponectin levels, which regulates glucose levels and increases fatty acid breakdown.
• C3G compares favorably to a pharmaceutical glucose-disposal agent.
• C3G shrinks fat cells and limits fat gain and abdominal obesity.
• C3G improves endurance by increasing the production of chemical intermediates involved in producing ATP, the cell's energy source.
• C3G reduces blood sugar, triglycerides, and cholesterol.
• C3G increases mitochondrial number and function.
• C3G increases and enhances the activity of brown adipose tissue, which is metabolically active and calorie-burning.
• C3G reduces systemic inflammation.
• C3G promotes stomach and intestinal-lining health.
• C3G improves night vision and helps prevent eye fatigue.
• C3G promotes heart and liver health.
• C3G mimics the life-extending benefits seen in calorie-restriction diets.

C3G's biochemical pathways that allow it to do all these actions are diverse. Here's a quick rundown.

C3G and the Cellular Master Switch

First and foremost, C3G has profound effects on a chemical called adenosine monophosphate kinase, or AMPK. AMPK is found in every cell in the body and serves as the body's master regulating switch, determining in large part how fat you are, how muscular you are, and even how long you'll live.

According to at least one study involving humans, ingesting C3G increases the production of AMPK by a factor of 2.88. In turn, these increased levels of AMPK cause a massive up-regulation of a "transcriptional activator" known as PGC-1 alpha, which increases exercise capacity, fatigue resistance, and oxygen uptake, contributing to additional muscle mass.

C3G Mimics the Actions of the Most Powerful Hormone

Insulin is the most powerful hormone our bodies make. C3G activates insulin receptor substrates, which in turn activate insulin-signaling proteins. These signaling proteins then stimulate glucose uptake by skeletal muscle tissue instead of fat cells.

Assuming you've got your exercise and lifestyle ducks in order, the take-home point is that you could eat more food than maintenance amounts, and any weight gain would go to muscle instead of fat.

But C3G's insulin-like properties don't stop there. One of several laboratory experiments involving C3G showed two dosage-related drops in blood sugar of 33% and 51%, prompting the study's authors to remark on how favorably it compared with a powerful pharmaceutical glucose-disposal agent.

C3G Sends Fat Cells to Fat Camp

C3G also activates adiponectin, causing fat cells to function as another endocrine organ (like the thyroid or adrenals), regulating insulin sensitivity, lipid metabolism, and inflammation. When the C3G-related increase of adiponectin occurs, insulin sensitivity increases, inflammation decreases, and fat cells disgorge fatty acids into the bloodstream, causing them (and you) to get slimmer.

The increased adiponectin also helps produce more cellular engines known as mitochondria. In theory, if you control mitochondrial health and growth, you could at least double your lifespan without any of the diseases typically associated with aging. From an athletic perspective, controlling the vitality and number of mitochondria in your muscle cells could lead to huge strength and endurance improvements that don't decline with the passing of years.

This increase in mitochondria, in some cases, causes the metabolically sluggish white fat to turn into the more metabolically active, calorie-burning brown fat. It also induces palmitate oxidation and citrate synthase activity, both intermediates in the production of ATP, making cells chug along faster and longer.

Can I Just Eat Black Rice?

C3G from food sources has very low bioavailability. You'd have to eat bushels of black rice and dark berries to get all the muscle-building, fat-burning, life-extending, and heart-protective C3G benefits.

Taking supplemental C3G is the way to go. A daily serving of Biotest's Indigo-3G (Buy at Biotest) supplement provides 300 mg of this powerful anthocyanin derived from black rice extract.

How To Take It

• Before Dinner: Take 4 Indigo-3G capsules on an empty stomach 30 minutes before your evening meal.
• Pre-Workout: On workout days, take 4 Indigo-3G capsules 30 minutes before ingesting your workout nutrition so that insulin sensitivity is quickly enhanced and the carbs you consume fuel only muscle.

The Ultimate Supplement?

There are several great supplements out there. Some work by manipulating your anabolic/androgenic hormones. Some address a specific muscle-building pathway, while others are powerful anti-inflammatories. But there's no other substance that appears to do as many things, from so many biochemical angles, as cyanidin 3-glucoside.

The difficulty in extracting the substance from natural sources makes the Indigo-3G (Buy at Biotest) supplement a bit pricey, but it's worth it.

References

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2. Wei X et al. "Cyanidin-3-O-β-glucoside improves obesity and triglyceride metabolism in KK-Ay mice by regulating lipoprotein lipase activity." J Sci Food Agric. 2011 Apr;91(6):1006-13. PubMed: 21360538.
3. Guo H et al. "Cyanidin 3-glucoside attenuates obesity-associated insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis in high-fat diet-fed and db/db mice via the transcription factor FoxO1." J Nutr Biochem. 2012 Apr;23(4):349-60. PubMed: 21543211.
4. Sasaki R et al. "Cyanidin 3-glucoside ameliorates hyperglycemia and insulin sensitivity due to downregulation of retinol binding protein 4 expression in diabetic mice." Biochem Pharmacol. 2007 Dec 3;74(11):1619-27. PubMed: 17869225.
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6. Guo H et al. "Cyanidin 3-glucoside protects 3T3-L1 adipocytes against H2O2- or TNF-alpha-induced insulin resistance by inhibiting c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase activation." Biochem Pharmacol. 2008 Mar 15;75(6):1393-401. PubMed: 18179781.
7. Tsuda T et al. "Microarray profiling of gene expression in human adipocytes in response to anthocyanins." Biochem Pharmacol. Biochem Pharmacol. 2006 Apr 14;71(8):1184-97. PubMed: 16483547.
8. Tsuda T et al. "Gene expression profile of isolated rat adipocytes treated with anthocyanins." Biochim Biophys Acta. 2005 Apr 15;1733(2-3):137-47. PubMed: 15863361.
9. Grace MH et al. "Hypoglycemic activity of a novel anthocyanin-rich formulation from lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton." Phytomedicine. 2009 May;16(5):406-15. PubMed: 19303751.
10. Tsuda T et al. "Dietary cyanidin 3-O-beta-D-glucoside-rich purple corn color prevents obesity and ameliorates hyperglycemia in mice." J Nutr. 2003 Jul;133(7):2125-30. PubMed: 12840166.
11. You Y et al. "Cyanidin 3-glucoside attenuates high-fat and high-fructose diet-induced obesity by promoting the thermogenic capacity of brown adipose tissue." Journal of Functional Foods. 2018 Feb;41;62-71.
12. Shi M et al. "The effect of cyanidin-3-O-β-glucoside and peptides extracted from yoghurt on glucose uptake and gene expression in human primary skeletal muscle myotubes from obese and obese diabetic participants." Journal of Functional Foods. 2018 Dec 51:55-64.