Glyconährstoffe

Nicht alle Vitalstoffe sind wirklich nötig. In manchen fällen werden herkömmliche "Kohlenhydrate" als etwas besonderes verkauft, nur weil der Verbraucher nicht den Zusammenhang in der Ernährungskette durchschauen kann. Ein Beispiel dafür ist der Trend, die Nahrung mit Glyconährstoffen aufwerten zu wollen. Glyconährstoffe, auch "Glyconutrienten" oder engl. "Glyconutrients" genannt, sollen Immunsystem stählen und Krankheiten heilen. Allerdings gibt es bisher keine überzeugende Beweise, dass diese Supplemente das Immunsystem stärken. Im folgenden daher ein Interview zu Glyconährstoffen in Englisch:

A: There’s no convincing evidence that these supplements enhance the immune system, let alone fight AIDS, colitis, diabetes, high cholesterol, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, or any other medical condition.

Sold primarily by the supplement manufacturer Mannatech under the product line Ambrotose, glyconutrients contain eight monosaccharides (that is, simple carbohydrates, or sugars). Mannatech alleges that because of soil depletion and overprocessing, our diets are lacking in all but two—glucose and galactose—of these sugars.

You may be surprised to know that sugars are not just "empty" calories but do, in fact, play an essential role in many biological functions, including cell-to-cell communication and immunity. There’s actually an emerging and important field of science, called glycobiology, which explores the function of carbohydrates in health and disease. But glyconutrient marketers take a big leap when they say that consuming sugars in supplements has health benefits.

First, we are not deficient in any sugars. Our bodies are able to convert the sugars in foods (such as fruits and vegetables) from one form to the other forms as needed. There is no evidence that toxins, stress, drugs, or other factors interfere with the conversion process, as the marketers claim. Nor is there evidence that relying on our bodies to create the sugars instead of ingesting them in food or supplements causes any problems.

Marketers provide long lists of studies that supposedly support the use of glyconutrients for all kinds of medical conditions, as well as for general health. But these are unpublished conference presentations, anecdotes, and lab or animal studies, or they are from obscure journals of questionable reputation. We could find no well-designed research showing health benefits of glyconutrient supplements. Don’t waste your money on these expensive products.

Keep in mind: Glyconutrients are sold primarily via multilevel marketing. If you buy the product, you can become a distributor and then sell it to your friends and relatives, who sell it to their friends, etc., with profits passing up to the top of the pyramid, at least in theory. Such marketing often involves questionable practices and dubious health claims. Indeed, Mannatech is being sued by investors on such charges.

There are essential fatty acids. There are essential amino acids. There are not essential sugars. We’ve received so many questions about glyconutrients, I feel it’s necessary to respond here at the blog.

For the record, “glyconutrients” are worse than bogus - they are a scam. This term was invented by a multi-level marketing company called Mannatech. (While MLM’s aren’t all bad, they can certainly be a red flag.) In this case, the entire concept of supplementing with “glyconutrients” - minute amounts of plain old simple sugars - is not only unscientific; it’s just silly. There is simply no compelling evidence to support the glyconutrient claim that the human body is somehow deficient in certain forms of sugar due to our modern lifestyle. Among the many dubious and weasel-worthy “explanations”, the central claim is that scientific discoveries in recent decades have shown that there are 8 types of sugar and that your cells - gasp - use these sugars. I’ve had burps that are more mind-blowing than this “science”.

Those selling glyconutrients often have appealing websites and fairly standard marketing blurbs about good health beginning at the cellular level. (E.g. “When your cells are healthy, so are your glands and organs.” No sh*t, Sherlock.) Please pardon my French, but I really hate to see this sort of meaningless malarkey being bandied about like it’s genuine science. The numerous warning letters, lawsuits, and scathing breakdowns on many reputable scientific action sites - it’s almost painful, really - should be sufficient to keep people away from those selling this worthless sugar pill supplement, but I still get a lot of questions. I don’t normally like to directly criticize supplements, but in this case, I have to speak up.

(This is the best single website analyzing glyconutrients. Do a search on any reputable science organization’s site, or check out a scientific glossary, for that matter, and you’ll see that “glyconutrient” is not even a scientific term. We might as well say “aminonutrient” or “lipidnutrient”.)

Glyconutrient supplementation purports to provide your body with certain special types of sugar that aren’t available, apparently, in our modern food supply. (The important one, evidently, is mannose, hence Mannatech.) The glyconutrient claim is utterly specious. The body converts one form of sugar to another quite easily whenever it needs to - there is absolutely no “deficiency” issue here, period. While we need to get essential fatty acids and the complete profile of amino acids to function, we do not need to supplement with simple sugars. The supplement won’t hurt you, but you may as well suck a lollipop if you’re after “glyconutrients”. My guess is that the lollipop is not only tastier, but cheaper.