Re: Tip#6: sorbitol sweeteners in gum may encourage glycosilation

[Guest guest]

Steve: thanks for pointing this out. Would any of you chemists out there

verify this? Iris?

on 2/17/2003 1:17 PM, S Rudek at s_rudek@... wrote:

> Suggest you avoid " sugarless " gums (and anything else)

> which contains Sorbitol. Although sorbitol has a

> lower glycemic index, it IS, actually, equivalent to

> sugar (it is chemically a " sugar alcohol " ). Sorbitol

> is the intermediate molecule in the conversion between

> glucose and fructose:

>

> glucose <--> sorbitol <-->fructose. These conversions

> are intermediated by the enzymes aldose reductase and

> aldehyde reductase, respectively.

>

> More important, SORBITOL IS IMPLICATED AS *THE*

> " CAUSE " OF PROTEIN GLYCOSILATION in diabetics (and

> probably in non diabetics as well) via the " sorbitol

> trap " . In other words, you don't want to do anything

> to encourage higher than necessary levels of sorbitol.

>

>

> I'm guessing a bit here, as most research centers on

> intracellular accumulation of sorbitol in diabetics,

> but I'd think you might want to skip sorbitol entirely

> and minimize eating high glucose or high fructose

> foods, not merely minimise calories, if you want to

> minimize the proven damage from glycosilation.

>

> In the case of sorbitol, at least, its low " glycemic

> index " is not a good thing at all -- it is the

> mechanism for its accumulation to toxic levels.

>

>

>

> " sugar " in the Sorbitol is implicated as THE (at

> least the one I bought recently)

>

>> 6) Chew sugarless gum - gives you the feeling of a

>> dessert -keeps your mouth busy and aids digestion.

>

[Guest guest]

> >6) Chew sugarless gum - gives you the feeling of a

> >dessert -keeps your mouth busy and aids digestion.

>

> Suggest you avoid " sugarless " gums (and anything else)

> which contains Sorbitol.

I'm not an artificial sweetner fan either - but perhaps

chewing gum may not be recommended for other reasons as well.

Those who have looked into the apparently positive effects of

chewing gum on memory have hypothesised insulin release as a

likely mechanism - e.g.:

``When you chew the body releases insulin, which is probably a

conditioned response that occurs in anticipation of a meal.

The same thing happens when you smell food cooking. Insulin

mops up glucose and helps you feel hungry.''

Personally, insulin boosting is not something I want to get into.

Generally chewing gum seems likely to provoke the body into thinking

it's about to receive food when it's not. That seems unlikely to be

very sensible - and might cause problems. If I'm going to secrete

stomach acid I'd prefer to dilute it with something.

If the above quote is anything to go by it might have a counter-

productive element in terms of its effect on hunger as well.

Maybe chewing gum helps some people - but I think this is probably

one of the more suspect CRON tips.

One of my favourite tips on that list was the " safe food " one.

After first reading it I started to see many foods in terms

of " safety " - with things like " celery " being extremely " safe " , and

things like " cashew nuts " being pretty dangerous, with the rating

being a crude, one-dimensional concatenation of lots of factors -

including calories, satieity, morishness, nutrient density

freedom from toxins and anti-nutrients - and so on.

I gave celery as an example of a safe food. Unfortunately I find

it hard to eat much celery.

One of my preferred " safe foods " at the moment is " wild rocket " -

but many other green salad vegetables seem to fit the bill as well.

I generally allow myself to eat as many of these foods as I like.

I try to make sure they are the easiest foods to access - so when I

feel like eating, they are the ones that come to hand.