by Tanya Zilberter, PhD
Some
carb blocking drugs (e.g., amylase inhibitors) work right in the mouth
by
preventing the saliva enzyme amylase from starting the digestion of
sugars and starches. But there is a very common herb that does wonders
working the same way, plus being very beneficial for many other health
conditions. I
am talking about green tea.
Part 2: How it works. What's on shelves. click here
Believe it or not, this is a clinically proven way to cheat. Though it seems to concern mostly low carb dieters, when you look into it closely, you see that once in a while anybody can use it. Here is why.
The most dangerous aspect of Holiday eating is the food combining aspect. The worst thing you can do to your body is eating high-fat, high carb foods and lots of them. Excluding either fats or carbs would make your holiday treats much less dangerous. You can exclude them directly but you might feel deprived. Or, you can use the fact that there're means to prevent fats or carbs from being digested. This is how.
Let's start with fats. Fat-blockers are well known supplements but the problem is, their efficiency is either rather low (Chitozan) or, in the case of prescription strength blockers like Orlistat, it comes together with completely un-holiday-like side effect. As one of the users put it "If you need to go to the bathroom, you have to go there NOW"
Because of this, let's talk about reducing carbs. Even if you are not a low-carber, it does make sense to reduce the excess of them for the holidays.
The idea of so called carb blockers is not a new one, far from that. Doctors prescribed them for reducing carbohydrate digestion of diabetic patients for quite a while. The drugs work by blocking carbohydrate-converting enzymes in saliva or/and in the intestines so that carbohydrates would just pass through the digestive tract instead of going to the blood and eventually to fat depots.
The very fact that carb blockers (e.g., the drug Acarbose) work well for the diabetics suggests that they were tested in clinics. They indeed were. Acarbose produced a statistically significant reduction in insulin requirement compared with placebo in a double-blind controlled study.
The above example concerned prescription drugs, but how about herbs, do they work as well? They do. For instance: hot teas made of the roots of the Sophora family plants prevented the increase in blood glucose. The concentration of glucose in the blood after sugar solution ingestion was 15 times lower when it was ingested along with Sophora tea than without it.
Some carb blocking drugs (e.g., amylase inhibitors) work right in the mouth by preventing the saliva enzyme amylase from starting the digestionof sugars and starches. But there is a very common herb that does wonders working the same way, plus being very beneficial for many other health conditions. I am talking about green tea.
In a French clinical study, there were two groups of overweight
women on the same diet and exercise program. The only difference was,
that
women in one group were instructed to have 6 to 8 cups of green tea a
day
while another did not. In the end of this 8-week program, weight loss
difference
reached almost 4 kilograms or about 8,7 lb.
Part 2: How it works. What's on shelves. click here
Sources
- Bioscience, Biotechnology & Biochemistry. 62(6):1225-7, 1998
- Diabetic Medicine. 15(5):393-7, 1998
- Diabetes Research & Clinical Practice. 28(2):81-7, 1995
- Diabetes, Nutrition & Metabolism - Clinical & Experimental. 13(1):7-12, 2000
- Gastroenterology. 91(1):41-8, 1986
- Folia Pharmacologica Japonica. 97(6):329-37, 1991
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 70(6):1040-5, 1999
- International Journal of Obesity & Related Metabolic Disorders. 24(2):252-8,
- 2000
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