Children are being served food grilled at excessively high heat levels, which may be causing inflammatory food toxins, found even in infants. Why are infants being fed fried, grilled, or processed foods, even if you don't cook them and serve them ready-to-eat from the containers?
Check out the October 5, 2011 news release from The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine, "New study shows inflammatory food toxins found in high levels in infants." Those processed foods fed to infants may be high in AGEs. Research also indicates reduction in intake of food toxins improves diabetes in adults. Could infants be consuming the AGEs via breast milk or through processed foods eaten by the mother breastfeeding the infant?
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found high levels of food toxins called Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs) in infants
Excessive food AGEs, through both maternal blood transmission and baby formula, could together significantly increase children's risk for diseases such as diabetes from a very young age. A second study of AGEs in adults found that cutting back on processed, grilled, and fried foods, which are high in AGEs, may improve insulin resistance in people with diabetes. AGEs -- toxic glucose byproducts previously tied to high blood sugar -- are found in most heated foods and, in great excess, in commercial infant formulas.
The first report, published in Diabetes Care in December 2010, showed that AGEs can be elevated as early as at birth, indicating that infants are highly susceptible to the inflammation associated with insulin resistance and diabetes later in life. Helen Vlassara, MD, Professor and Director of the Division of Experimental Diabetes and Aging, working with Jaime Uribarri, MD, Professor of Medicine and colleagues at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, looked at 60 women and their infants to see if there was a passive transfer of AGEs from the blood of mothers to their babies. They found that newborn infants, expected to be practically AGE-free, had levels of AGEs in their blood as high as their adult mothers.
Could the food toxins be coming from infant formulas that may contain ingredients processed at high heat?
Within the first year of life, after switching from breast milk onto commercial formulas, the infants' AGEs had doubled to levels seen in people with diabetes, and many had elevated insulin levels. Formulas that are processed under high heat can contain 100 times more AGEs than human breast milk, delivering a huge AGE surplus to infants, which could be toxic.
"Modern food AGEs can overwhelm the body's defenses, a worrisome fact especially for young children," explained Dr. Vlassara, in the news release, New study shows inflammatory food toxins found in high levels in infants. "More research is certainly needed, but the findings confirm our studies in genetic animal models of diabetes. Given the rise in the incidence of diabetes in children, safe and low cost AGE-less approaches to children's diet should be considered by clinicians and families."
A modest cut in foods high in AGEs also may improve insulin resistance in adults with diabetes
The work led to a second report in Diabetes Care, in July 2011, which demonstrates that a modest cut in foods high in AGEs may improve insulin resistance in adults with diabetes. AGEs were found to be elevated in most grilled, fried, or baked foods. Cutting back on the consumption of foods that are heat-processed, but without reducing fat or carbohydrate consumption, improved insulin levels and overall health in patients already treated for, but remaining, insulin resistant. The findings are a dramatic departure from standard clinical recommendations for the management of diabetes.
For four months, 18 overweight people with type 2 diabetes and 18 healthy adults were assigned to an AGE-restricted diet or a standard diet consisting of the same calories and nutrients they ingested before beginning the AGE-restricted diet. An AGE-restricted diet emphasizes poached or stewed foods, such as mashed potatoes instead of fries, stewed chicken instead of grilled chicken, and boiled eggs instead of fried eggs.
The results showed that the subjects with diabetes assigned to the AGE-restricted diet had a 35 percent decrease in blood insulin levels, well beyond that achieved by their previous therapeutic regimen. This was associated with improved markers of inflammation and a restoration of compromised native defenses. This is the first study to show in humans that AGEs promote insulin resistance and possibly diabetes. The study also shows for the first time that restricting the amount of AGEs consumed with food may quickly restore the body's defenses and reduce insulin resistance.
"This clinical study begins to expose the double role food AGEs play in obesity and in diabetes, a major concern for everyone today, particularly young children. It is especially exciting that a simple intervention such as AGE-restriction or future drugs that block AGE absorption could have a positive effect on these epidemics," said Dr. Vlassara in the news release. "The tenets of the diet could not be simpler; turn down the heat, add water, and eat more at home." Dr. Vlassara's laboratory has been under the support of a NIA MERIT grant, a NIDDK grant and a National Institute of Research Resources grant.
Should you cut off the crusts of bread you feed to children or adults with diabetes? Crusty foods may worsen heart problems associated with diabetes
In another study, a University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences study suggests avoiding cooking methods that produce the kind of crusty bits you'd find on a grilled hamburger, especially if you have diabetes and know you're at increased risk for cardiovascular disease because of your diagnosis.
"We see evidence that cooking methods that create a crust—think the edge of a brownie or the crispy borders of meats prepared at very high temperatures—produce advanced glycation end products (AGEs). And AGEs are associated with plaque formation, the kind we see in cardiovascular disease," said Karen Chapman-Novakofski, a University of Illinois professor of nutrition, according to an October 22, 2012 news release, "Crusty foods may worsen heart problems associated with diabetes." For years nutrition experts have advised people with diabetes to bake, broil, or grill their food instead of frying it, she said in the news release.
"That's still true, but if you have diabetes, you should know that AGEs—byproducts of food preparation methods that feature very high, intense, dry heat—tend to end up on other tissues in the body, causing long-term damage," she added, according to the news release. If you're fighting this vascular buildup anyway, Chapman-Novakofski thinks that consuming products containing AGEs could worsen the cardiovascular complications of diabetes.
People with higher rates of cardiovascular complications ate more glycated food products containing AGEs
In the University of Illinois study, the scientists compared the 10-day food intake of 65 study participants in two ethnic groups: Mexicans (who have higher rates of diabetes and a greater risk of complications from the disease) and non-Hispanic whites. "We found that people with higher rates of cardiovascular complications ate more of these glycated products. For each unit increase in AGEs intake, a study participant was 3.7 times more likely to have moderate to high risk for cardiovascular disease," said Claudia Luevano-Contreras, first author of the study.
The study showed that non-Hispanic whites had a higher intake of AGEs, and they consumed more saturated fats. However, the association between AGEs and cardiovascular disease was stronger than for saturated fats and heart disease, she said in the news release.
Food preparation may be important: Why burgers may contain more AGEs than a whole cut of meat
Eating less saturated fat and more fruits, vegetables, and fiber are important for people with diabetes, but this study shows that food preparation may be important too, she added in the news release. "AGEs are higher in any kind of meat, but especially in ground meat," she said. "If you put hamburgers or brats on the grill, you'll likely have a higher AGEs content than if you chose a whole cut of meat, say round steak or chicken," said Chapman-Novakofski.
Boiling or stewing meat would reduce your AGEs intake further. And scrambling an egg with cooking spray instead of frying it leads to a significant reduction in AGEs, she added in the news release. The scientists said more research is needed before definite recommendations can be made. They are planning another study in which they'll examine past AGEs intake of diabetes patients.
"These findings are preliminary, but they give us ample reason to further explore the association between AGEs and cardiovascular risk among people with diabetes," Chapman-Novakofski noted, according to the study which is available online in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. Co-authors are Claudia Luevano-Contreras of the University of Illinois and Eugenia Garay-Sevilla and Monica Preciado-Puga of the University of Guanajuato, Mexico. Partial funding was provided by the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT).
What advanced glycation end products (AGEs) do in the body
Have you heard about advanced glycation end products, also known as AGEs? Age researchers sometimes use AGEs as useful markers and parameters to measure for the aging process. What happens is that cellular debris builds up. And age markers incorporate a measure of cumulative oxidative injury inside your body.
As you age hormones diminish and physiology changes. Sometimes there is accelerated aging. And research has linked high blood glucose that happens after a person eats lots of certain types of carbohydrates with hastening the aging process, cataracts, and other degenerative diseases of old age--premature old age. Check out the new book, Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis, M.D. (Rodale Books.com).
Sometimes eating too much bread from processed wheat may lead to high blood sugar spikes for some people. Others react with sugar surges and spikes from other foods, including gluten. And wheat has gluten. Advanced glycation end products (AGE) is the name given to foods that cause high blood sugar spikes and contribute to the formation of cataracts, dementia, hardened arteries, and other degenerative diseases of aging. But the problem is these may happen before you're old enough to expect it to happen when you have constant high blood sugar spikes from eating the wrong type of carbohydrates for you.
The older you get, the more AGEs can be found in your kidneys, eyes, liver, skin, and other organs
The issue is whether two or more decades of eating the wrong foods has aged you faster than you might be genetically programmed to age had you eaten other foods. You don't want to end up with a bunch of glucose-protein molecules collectively called AGEs.
They disrupt your body from the organs to the bloodstream and arteries. AGEs accumulate, forming clumps of debris of the type that the body can't get rid of by digestion or cleansing. So why choose the domino effect? You can check your fasting glucose to see whether it's too high for what's normal for your body. AGEs come from high blood sugars that complicate various types of health issues in your body.
You don't want to develop type 2 diabetes or impaired kidney function. So think of it this way: The higher your blood sugar and the longer blood sugars remain high, the more AGE products will be building up, and may be followed by more organ damage. Your first step is to find out what your blood glucose fasting rate is, and whether that number is healthy for you.
How slowly do you want to age?
That's not the end of the problem. AGEs form even when your blood sugar is normal, but at a lower rate compared to when you have high blood sugar. How slowly do you want to age? For example AGE formation is what makes a 50-year old look age 50. Beware of the age-accelerating effects of high blood glucose.
Maybe it's time to try foods that don't result in quick sugar spies, foods low on the Glycemic Index such as breads or crackers made from flax seeds, ground nuts, coconut flour, and other non-grain flours that are known not to cause a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. Watch out for those wheat bagels, muffins, and focaccia breads because wheat, because of its particular ability to make the blood-glucose levels rise (at least in some people) could make you age faster. You could speculate who'd win out in a contest between wheat and ice cream to raise your blood sugar higher.
You need to measure your blood glucose levels at fasting levels and after you eat different foods. You could buy a blood glucose meter and strips for testing at a pharmacy. Or you could go into your doctor for blood tests of fasting levels and levels after eating various foods.
Blood glucose levels and various commercial baked goods
Just think, if you eat pasta made from the usual commercial wheat flour with a few slices of bread and some bread pudding for dessert, you can measure how high your blood glucose level rises perhaps all the way up to 150 to 250 mg/dl for about four hours after you eat. But you'd need a blood glucose meter. Then you could eat a cracker made from seeds and nuts or coconut flour and see what happens to your blood glucose level.
Or use pasta made from non-grains and measure that response. It's common sense what to choose to eat: foods that don't keep your blood sugar levels too high all the time because the high the blood sugar levels, the more insulin pours into your blood, and the faster you age from having too much insulin in your blood all the time and too much sugar resisting the insulin. Or you may have a problem of not enough insulin or insulin resistance. Check out the article on the Dr. Oz website, by Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD, "A spoonful of sugar: how many calories?"
Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs) also what happens when you eat excess sugar or foods heated at very high temperatures such as frying foods in vegetable oils or animal fats
If you buy those little cartons of yogurt, find out how many teaspoons of sugar are in them. Sometimes it has been said that those cartons of yogurt may contain around 7 teaspoons of sugar, unless the yogurt says unsweeted.
And with nondairy milks from nuts, sugars may be added. So check the box because sometimes plain nondairy milk substitutes may contain sweeteners, but no sugar or similar sweeteners would be added to a carton that reads 'unsweetened.' There's a difference between plain and unsweetened.
How AGEs form in your body
Glycation that creates AGEs (advanced glycation end products) is the result of the bonding of a protein or lipid molecule with a sugar molecule, such as fructose or glucose, without the controlling action of an enzyme, according to the Wikipedia definition of glycation. All blood sugars are reducing molecules.
Glycation may happen either inside the body (endogenous glycation) or outside the body (exogenous glycation). Doctors may tell you that when sugars are added to protein or fats, then certain types of enzyme action starts in your body. There's a name for this process: glycosylation.
The main point to understand is that glycation impairs the functioning of biomolecules. And glycosylation happens at specific sites on certain molecules. You might want to know that glycosylation is required in order for each of your molecules to function. If you go back to the Wikipedia website to look up these definitions, you'll find a reference to further look at noting that a lot of early laboratory research work on fructose glycations used inaccurate assay techniques that led to drastic underestimation of the importance of fructose in glycation.
There could be seven teaspoons of sugar in a half cup of processed frozen yogurt
In plain language, for most shoppers, you need to understand that in one small serving of frozen yogurt, about a half cup, there may be up to 7 teaspoons of sugar. Think of how much sugar is in one glass of soda pop or in a slice of cake. And how much sugar is in a half cup of ice cream? Just read the ingredients label in grams of sugar.
Most people buying a pint of frozen yogurt or ice cream probably will finish the pint in one day. Not everyone eats the one serving listed on the container, which represents a half-cup or four ounces of frozen dessert sweetened with sugar.
Add to that the sugar portion of fruit, or adding sugar to coffee or tea, or other sweeteners that act like sugar in the body when it comes to wrinkling the face. If you can visualize the sugar breaking down the collagen and elastin in your face, you'll get the big picture of what happens.
Additionally, the sugar changes the ratio of calcium to phosphorus in your body
And when the phosphorus levels rise and get out of balance with the calcium, your teeth can start to decay from the inside out. That's why some holistic dentists can tell when you've eaten candy, by a sudden rise in phosphorus levels, which unbalances that delicate ratio of calcium to phosphorus your body needs to fight tooth decay and infections. So yes, sugar can cause your face to wrinkle, and so can sunburn.
Overeating sugar causes wrinkles through the process called glycation, in which the sugar in your bloodstream attaches to proteins to form harmful new molecules called advanced glycation end products (or, appropriately, AGEs for short). What can you do to stop the damages of AGEs?
The more sugar you eat, the more AGEs you develop
Those AGE's build up day after day for a lifetime. They pile high, and damage adjacent proteins in a domino-like fashion. Ask any dermatologist how sugar damages your skin.
Sugar breaks down collagen and elastin, the protein fibers that keep skin firm and elastic. Collagen is a protein that's all over your body. When it is damaged, especially in your face, the collagen and elastin turns dry and brittle. Look at a wrinkled face that also sags.
The reason why it looks that way is because the collagen is brittle and diminishing. The look of aging, especially from a high sugar diet starts at about age 35 and increase rapidly after that, according to a study published in the British Journal of Dermatology. Some women at age 33 or 34 notice aging first by the fat sagging under their eyes causing bags.
How a high sugar diet changes you is that it changes the type of collagen that you were born with, making your skin less resistant to wrinkling.
There are three types of collagens in your skin. Let's say you have a lot of type 3 collagen in your face. Glycation changes that type III collagen into the fragile type I collagen.
Your skin loses its elasticity and feels more like thin, wrinkled, aged skin. As you keep eating excess sugar, the AGEs put a stop on your body's antioxidant producing enzymes. That sets you up to get more damage from sunburn quicker. And your face keeps on aging faster.
The AGEs can stop your body's antioxidant-producing enzymes from doing their job
You can see the effects of what sugar does to people. For example, people with high blood sugar such as diabetics who aren't controlling their blood sugar levels sometimes show signs of aging skin when much younger than people who eat a low or no added sugar diet.
Some diabetics may have up to 50 times the number of AGEs in their skin than those with normal blood sugar levels. But nutritionists now can explain that you may be able to build new collagen with products containing retinoids, if done safely under your dermatologist's care. It's possible to prevent too many AGEs from forming. All you have to do is stop the damage from sugar and sunburn.
It's never too late to turn back the clock on sugar-wracked skin
One way is to build new collagen with products that contain retinoids — look for retinol in OTC serums and lotions or prescription creams such as Renova, Avage, and Differin. But then again, you may or may not be allergic or sensitive to those prescription creams. So talk with your health care team.
To keep this new collagen supple, you need to prevent more AGEs from forming by taking steps to minimize the damage sugar causes to your skin. Stop eating sugar and sweets. The grains you eat and the fruit also turn into glucose--sugar. Even this type of sugar fuels glycation. All you can do is limit added sugar. You can't cut out vegetables, grains, and fruits totally or you'll wind up with other health problems.
What you can do is cut back on sweets and eat more foods that don't turn to sugar as soon as they're digested
Keep sweets to less than 10% of your meals. The average American consumes 31 teaspoons per day of added sugar, or the equivalent of 465 calories. Just keep your sugar intake to less than 6 teaspoons for a woman and 9 teaspoons for a man--maximum.
You're going to get sugar in processed foods such as ketchup and barbeque sauce. Don't consume ready-to-eat foods with barley malt, corn syrup, dextrose, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, and turbinado sugar. They'll damage your skin by breaking down the collagen and elastin just as much as if you added sugar to a pie or cake and ate the whole thing.
What's most difficult for the average shopper to figure out is how many teaspoons of sugar each serving contains
That's something nutrition students are given on an exam. All you can do if you're in a hurry is look at nutrition label for sugars which are listed in grams under total carbohydrates, and then divide that number by 4 (each teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4 g) to convert it to teaspoons.
For example, if the sugars in that pint of frozen yogurt or ice cream are listed as 12 g, per half-cup serving, you're eating 3 teaspoons of sugar per one half-cup serving. Only in most pints of ice cream, it's not 12 g per half-cup.
It's more like 21 g of sugars per half cup serving. And the box usually will tell you there are four servings of yogurt or ice cream per pint. That means 1/2 cup per person. But who actually eats only a half cup of frozen yogurt or ice cream? Not many, unless you've just had a huge meal right before you gulp the tiny dessert.
Facial wrinkling and sweets
You could cut down facial wrinkling by avoiding excess high fructose corn syrup. Factories process the sugar in cornstarch to make fructose. But the problem there is that fructose, at least in excess, is believed to produce more AGEs than other types.
Some critics report that the reason fructose is put into foods is not because the companies want to preserve and extend your longevity and health that much, but rather it's because manufacturers want to give a longer shelf life to processed foods. That way, if the foods last longer on the shelf, there's an opportunity to make more money for the manufacturers and distributors as well as the stores who won't have to keep buying more processed foods that don't expire as quickly.
One another note: Looking for a study that looks at a more 'natural' solution to leukemic cell issues? You might take a look at another study done in vitro that examined what happens when turmeric and taurine are combined to treat leukemic cells. If this study interests you, check out the abstract, "The Potential Role of Curcumin and Taurine Combination Therapy on human myeloid Leukemic cells Propagated In-vitro." Curcumin and taurine are natural products that have been used in this purpose to evaluate their therapeutic effect on the myeloid leukemic cells propagated in vitro, notes the abstract.
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