Life Extension Magazine July 2013
Stop Starch-Induced Glucose Surges
By Scott Rackinow
About 35 years ago, the federal government revised their dietary guidelines to advise Americans to increase the amount of carbohydrates they consume to around 60% of their daily food intake. The objective was to achieve a healthier lifestyle.1
The latest guidelines from the Institute of Medicine recommend a daily carbohydrate intake of up to 65% of daily food intake.2
The catastrophic result has been an epidemic of life-threatening obesity, type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other diseases.2
The reason is simple. Starch is one of the largest dietary sources of blood sugar and dangerous after-meal blood glucose spikes.3,4 Even if you eat so-called “healthy grains” such as whole wheat and brown rice, these all convert into sugar during digestion.5
Fortunately, researchers have uncovered a dual-action enzyme known as transglucosidase (pronounced trans-gluco-side-ace) that blocks the conversion of starch into sugar and tranforms it into beneficial fiber.6
While you can’t eliminate all starch from your diet, you can neutralize its negative impact on your body. Transglucosidase represents a novel mechanism for protecting against the harmful effects of dietary starch.
Impressive laboratory studies have shown that when transglucosidase comes in contact with starchy foods and natural enzymes in the digestive tract, there’s a 31% reduction in rapidly digested starch (the kind that causes blood sugar to spike right after a meal) and an 11% increase in slowly digested starch (which gets converted to sugar more slowly, if at all).7
Together, that means approximately 40% of the starch you ingest is less likely to be rapidly absorbed into your bloodstream.
Human clinical studies have confirmed the ability of transglucosidase to reduce blood glucose and insulin levels.
For the typical aging adult, this offers a powerful way to help prevent crossing the line into prediabetes or overt diabetes, preserving pancreatic function, protecting against deadly glucose/insulin surges—and ultimately leading to a longer, healthier life.
Hidden Dangers of a High-Starch Diet
If you’re a diabetic—or experiencing even slightly elevated blood sugar—you probably know that sugar is one of the worst things you can put into your body. What you might not know is that one of the biggest sources of sugar in your diet is starch.7 Because even whole grains are converted to sugar during digestion, every gram of starch you eat could represent one gram of free glucose in your blood.5,8
That means that even seemingly healthy food choices (whole grain bread, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta, for example) can lead to increases in blood sugar and insulin—and ultimately an increased threat to your health—especially if you already suffer from insulin resistance (prediabetes) or diabetes.
Starchy foods are rich in glucose precursors such as amylopectin, which is the main form of rapidly digestible starch in the human body.9 Because the starch in various foods is converted into sugar at different rates, it results in variable rates of blood sugar elevation, insulin response, and satiety (the sense of fullness you get after eating a portion of each food).5,10
Regardless of the form of starch you eat however, be it whole grain bread and brown rice or cookies and cake, the fact remains that all digestible starch gets turned into sugar as it passes through the digestive tract.5,7,8 And that results in elevations in blood sugar and dangerously higher insulin levels—whether you suffer from diabetes or not.
When sugar (glucose) binds to your body’s proteins, it produces advanced glycation end products, which are “sugar-coated” proteins that have become stiff, inflexible, and dysfunctional.11-13 Advanced glycation end products trigger inflammation and oxidization, leading to massive amounts of the tissue damage that underlies chronic disease—and aging itself.12,13
Impact of Insulin Excess
In response to surplus blood sugar, your body has to pump out far too much insulin.6,14,15 Insulin is a hormone that’s essential for carbohydrate and fat metabolism. But when it’s secreted in excess, insulin becomes a “death hormone.” Chronically elevated insulin levels put you at increased risk of dying from diseases as diverse as cancer, obesity, heart attacks, and strokes, and can ultimately lead to a “burnt-out” pancreas incapable of any glucose control at all.14,16-18
Even people with “normal” fasting blood sugar levels are at an increased risk if their after-meal glucose levels rise too high, too fast.19,20 That’s why, even if you’re not diabetic, you need to be doing all you can to keep your blood sugar and insulin levels under control.
Too many Americans are living in a dangerous “gray zone” with their health. Even though they think they’re safe from harm, their glucose and insulin levels are precariously approaching abnormal. You could be living on the brink of a major health disaster—and not even know it.20
Conventional Doctors Missed the Boat
Modern-day physicians aren’t helping the situation because they typically wait far too long before they respond to a patient’s “pre-diabetic” state (technically called impaired glucose tolerance, or insulin resistance). And when they do respond, it’s often with costly prescription drugs that don’t fully address the underlying problems. In the end, prevention makes the most sense.
Fortunately, researchers have discovered a unique enzyme that can help prevent you from crossing the line into prediabetes or overt diabetes by mitigating the harmful effects of dietary starch.6 This transformative enzyme is called transglucosidase.
Aided by your body’s own starch-digesting enzymes, transglucosidase literally rearranges the molecular structure of starch. Instead of allowing starch to be converted into free sugars that spike your blood glucose and trigger deadly insulin release, transglucosidase converts starch into beneficial, indigestible, prebiotic fiber—right in your own digestive tract.6,7,21-23
With the help of transglucosidase, you can achieve multiple life-saving goals with a single supplement:
- You’ll convert less starch to sugar, ensuring a smaller glucose load, especially in the critical after-meal period.6,21,22
- You’ll release less insulin, thus reducing your risk of excess insulin’s deadly health effects.6,21,22
- You’ll be providing yourself with additional prebiotic fiber, further reducing your risk of diabetes and enhancing intestinal health.7,23-29
Neutralize Dietary Starch
As stated earlier, regardless of the form of starch you eat, all digestible starch gets turned into sugar as it passes through the digestive tract.7,8 And that results in elevations in blood sugar and a rise in insulin levels into the danger zone. The riskiest period is the two hours immediately following a meal; studies show that this after-meal blood glucose and insulin surge is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.12 Fortunately, transglucosidase can help eliminate the dangers of this after-meal period.
So what does happen to the starch you just ate? That’s the second part of the transglucosidase story.
In addition to blocking the conversion of starch into sugar, transglucosidase converts that harmful sugar into beneficial prebiotic dietary fiber.6,23,30
We know that the more fiber you consume, the better your health. High-fiber diets may help you live longer for several reasons.31 Prebiotic fiber feeds the beneficial bacteria living in your colon; those bacteria in turn convert other types of fiber into healthy molecules that lower levels of inflammation in your body, slow excessive weight gain, reduce your blood cholesterol, shrink your risk of cancer, and—importantly—help normalize blood glucose and insulin levels.32-36
But despite the American Dietetic Association’s recommendation that healthy adults should consume 20 to 35 grams/day of dietary fiber, most people don’t come anywhere close to this level of intake, partly because it’s hard to find good, palatable sources of fiber.32
When you supplement with transglucosidase, however, you are capable of converting unhealthy starches with high sugar release and low fiber content into healthy prebiotic fiber—directly in your own digestive tract.6,21,22
Human data confirms the benefit of transglucosidase for improving the health of the beneficial bacteria that reside in the digestive tract. In a group of forty type II diabetics receiving transglucosidase for 12 weeks, 67% had considerable improvement in the health and balance of bacterial colonies in their digestive tract.37 Researchers believe that the modulation of gut bacteria by transglucosidase may be one of the main mechanisms by which transglucosidase supports control of glucose levels and promotes weight loss in type II diabetics.
That means transglucosidase has the potential to radically change the equation when it comes to the dangers of starch in your diet. Given its dual mechanism of action—blocking the release of harmful sugar from starch and converting it instead into beneficial fiber—transglucosidase has the power to help prevent you from crossing the line into prediabetes (insulin resistance) or overt diabetes, preserving your pancreatic function and protecting you from dangerous insulin surges—and ultimately prolonging your life.
Reduce Your Risk of Developing Diabetes
Transglucosidase has been studied around the world, and it’s one of the only known natural enzymes that can prevent the progression of prediabetes to full-blown diabetes.6
People with prediabetes often have fasting glucose levels near the upper limits of “normal” (near or above 100 mg/dL) and have already lost the ability to control after-meal glucose and insulin surges. Prediabetics have a high risk of progressing to full-blown diabetes—but even if they don’t, these “mild” elevations in blood sugar still correlate strongly with diseases such as heart attack, inflammatory bowel disease, and cancer.6,38
In a study including prediabetics, one group received a “low dose” of 450,000* units of transglucosidase, one group received a “high dose” of 900,000 units of transglucosidase, and a third group received a placebo.6 The subjects took the supplements along with a test meal of white rice (high in starch) that is readily converted to glucose.
Over the course of three hours following the control meal, the subjects’ total blood sugar rose into dangerous territory, as would be expected for people with prediabetes.6 But the people who supplemented with transglucosidase at either dose had significantly lower total blood sugar concentrations over the three-hour period, along with a trend towards lower insulin levels. There were no significant side effects.
What this means for you is that, if you are a prediabetic, you can safely limit the negative impact of a starchy meal—and can slow your rate of progression towards diabetes.6