glucose

For the Love of Carbs

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 18:58:50 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Resistant Starch Is Not Something to Resist Eating

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:06:37 +0000

Sometimes it is hard to enlist volunteers for a study, but I don’t think that will be the case for the appropriately named SPUD Project launched by researchers at the University of Surrey in the U.K. The volunteers will have the tough task of eating mashed potatoes prepared in various ways. Some potatoes will be stored at different temperatures before being boiled and then will be cooled to different temperatures before being reheated in the oven or the microwave! Some batches will have no fat added, others will be prepared with butter or with different vegetable oils.

Marathoners Owe Debt of Gratitude to Remarkable Research Team

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 19:03:21 +0000

This article was first published in the Montreal Gazette.

“Find me a cure,” implored Otto Radnitz in 1920 when his daughter Gerty graduated from medical school in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Allure of Allulose

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 22:54:04 +0000

My first meeting with (3R,4R,5R)-1,3,4,5,6-pentahydroxyhexan-2-one, less formally known as “psicose” or “allulose,” was way back in my graduate school days. I was studying the molecular structure of simple sugars, a category of carbohydrates to which allulose belongs. I wasn’t interested in its biochemistry or its sweetness, my focus was on distinguishing it from fructose by the then relatively novel technique of carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (C-13NMR).

Cancer’s Sweet Tooth

Nancy Liu-Sullivan, PhD — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 22:29:44 +0000

To the surprise of many, however, cancer cells are defective at producing the very fuel they need to grow and spread, but manage to overcome the innate “disability” and out-compete normal healthy cells? How?

The Sweet and Sticky Science of Sugar

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 23:31:20 +0000

Sugar is sweet and sticky. That’s a fact. In fact, during the reign of Edward the Confessor in the early eleventh century, "ale tasters" were employed to check on the work of brewers. They would test the ale by spilling some on a wooden seat and sitting on the spill in their leather breeches. If they had difficulty getting up after a short time because their breeches stuck to the seat, they knew that the ale had been sugared. Today we don't have to worry about such adulteration of our ale, and I think in any case we would have a hard time finding leather breeches. But the stickiness o

Fake Tans Came About Due to an Incidental Finding

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 21:27:31 +0000

Glycogen storage disease is a rare genetic condition characterized by deficiencies of particular enzymes. These enzymes are involved in converting glucose into glycogen, the form in which sugars are stored in the liver, or in converting glycogen back into glucose, which can then be used as a source of energy. One of the symptoms of glycogen storage disease, is, therefore, a lack of energy. In one particular type of glycogen storage disease, dihydroxyacetone (DHA), an essential enzyme required to release glucose from glycogen, is missing.

Here's How Some Diabetics Can Save their Money

Christopher Labos MD, MSc — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 15:48:42 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Fingerprick Blood Sugar Tests: How They Work and Why We Still Use Them

Ada McVean B.Sc. — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 16:09:16 +0000

We are living in the future. We have robotic personal assistants, watches that replace credit cards, phones that recognize our faces, and self driving cars are just around the corner. But for all our advancement, patients with diabetes still need to stab themselves multiple times a day to check their blood glucose levels. There has to be a better way, right?

Hereditary Fructose Intolerance

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 23:18:53 +0000

Most of us can hardly wait to finish our dinner so that we can plunge into the dessert and satisfy our craving for sweets. We threaten to withhold dessert from our children until they polish off every last vestige of vegetables on their plate. But for about 1 in 20,000 people, this lust for sweets is a completely foreign concept, just the thought of sweetness can make them ill. They suffer from a disease known as hereditary fructose intolerance. When we use the word sugar in everyday language, we generally refer to the stuff we put into our coffee or tea.

Thinking About Coconut Oil

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 01:06:44 +0000

Think about this. What has no mass, doesn’t occupy space, has no mobility, cannot be touched and yet exists? A thought! And what a mysterious thing it is! Just about all we know for sure is that it is created in the brain and that there is an energy requirement to generate it.

Whenever we think, the brain “burns” more glucose, which is its main fuel supply. It stands to reason that any sort of inhibition of this glucose metabolism can have a profound effect on brain function. We know, for example, that a rapid drop in blood glucose, as can be precipitated by an overdose of insulin, quickly causes a deterioration in cognitive performance. This is because so much glucose is absorbed by muscle cells that little is left for the brain.

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by a progressive decline in the rate of glucose metabolism in the brain. This impaired use of glucose is paralleled by a decline in scores on cognitive tests. Exactly why glucose use is affected in Alzheimer’s is not clear. It may be a function of the buildup of “amyloid” protein deposits that are the hallmark of the disease, although it is also possible that the deposits are not the cause, but the result of impaired metabolism. In any case, improving the brain’s ability to generate energy in the face of low glucose metabolism seems a worthy avenue to explore.

The most obvious approach would be to supplement the diet with glucose and provide sufficient insulin for its absorption into cells. But insulin cannot easily be delivered specifically to the brain and its systemic administration can cause problems in other tissues. So is there another option? A clue can be found in studies of people who are experiencing starvation. When there is a lack of glucose available from the diet, the body tries to meet the brain’s demand for energy by tapping its abundant stores of body fat.

Fat, however, cannot be used directly as fuel, it first has to be converted to smaller molecules called “ketone bodies.” The buildup of these in the bloodstream results in “ketosis,” a condition that is not encountered when there is an adequate intake of carbohydrates, the source of glucose. It can, however, occur in diabetes when an insulin shortage prevents glucose absorption into cells which then have to resort to the use of ketone bodies to supply energy. That’s why acetone, a “ketone body,” appears in the breath of diabetics who fail to administer their insulin properly. Ketosis can also be encountered when low carbohydrate regimens such as the Atkins diet are followed. It is the breakdown of fat to yield ketone bodies that results in weight loss.

Is there any reason to drink coconut water?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 14:52:24 +0000

Yes. If you like the taste and don’t mind unloading your wallet, drink it by all means. But if you are thinking of making coconut water a part of your life for some perceived health benefit or as the beverage to consume to replace your electrolytes after intense exercise, forget it. So what is coconut water and why the current enthusiasm about drinking it?

Lipozene and Weight Loss

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Tue, 12 May 2015 12:00:43 +0000

The "active" ingredient in Lipozene is glucomannan, a form of dietary fiber that is extracted from the root of the konjac plant. Fiber, by definition, is any type of food component that cannot be digested and consequently makes its way to the large intestine or colon, where bacteria may break it down into smaller compounds. Most of these, along with intact fiber, are excreted. Glucomannan is made of glucose and mannose molecules joined together in long chains, but unlike digestible carbohydrates like starch, it is resistant to breakdown by our salivary or pancreatic enzymes.

Cinnamon and Health

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 03:06:23 +0000

Just mention cinnamon, and I can smell and almost taste my mother’s apple strudel. She made it from scratch, gently pulling the pastry on a table until the dough was paper thin. The filling was made with fresh apples, and of course a liberal sprinkling of cinnamon. Who would have ever thought that the cinnamon had medicinal value? But judging by a recent study carried out at a Pakistani University, the brown powder which originates from the inner bark of a type of evergreen grown in Asia, can help control blood glucose levels while it reduced triglycerides and cholesterol.

What is the Difference between Type I and Type II diabetes?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 23:15:52 +0000

Most people have witnessed, at some point a friend or a family member inject themselves with a needle after a meal. What causes them to do this? Diabetes! They are injecting themselves with insulin, a hormone that is in short supply in diabetics. Insulin is produced by the pancreas, a small gland near the stomach. Its primary function is to control the levels of sugar in the blood by facilitating the entry of glucose into body cells. Cells need glucose, a sugar that serves as a prime energy source. If cells in our bodies lack insulin they will not have access to glucose.