The case for carbohydrates from starch

R

Resistense

Guest
I want to introduce this topic in terms of advocating for a threshold of glucose/carbohydrate intake from starch, and then maybe argue for small amounts of fructose or galactose, or something else, as well.

The main supporting argument to start I'll cite from

"PerfectHealthDiet"
ht__tp://perfecthealthdiet.com/category/zero-carb-dangers/ [links left in and active because I think they're good]

Background: Glycogen, Glycoproteins, and Water Weight​

Sugars are hydrophilic. If you put some water next to some sugar, the sugar will soak it up. As a result, a person’s water weight depends in part on the weight of sugars in the body. More sugars, more water, more weight.

It’s commonly stated that each gram of glycogen is associated with four grams of water; let’s take that as a general ratio for organic sugars.

A typical adult has around 500 grams of glycogen, roughly one-third in the liver and two-thirds in muscle. With associated water, this would add about 2.5 kg or 5 pounds to body weight.

But there are also several pounds of glucose in glycoproteins throughout the body:

  • Mucus in the digestive tract and airways may be as much as 80% sugar by dry weight.
  • The glycocalyx, a protective polysaccharide coat around cells, is primarily composed of sugars.
  • Hyaluronan, glucosamine, and other compounds that enable joints to move freely have much of their weight as sugar-water associations.
    [Ed.:Glycosaminoglycans(GAGs) Wiki: Heparin/heparan sulfate (HSGAGs) and chondroitin sulfate/dermatan sulfate (CSGAGs) [...] ... forming proteoglycans. Keratan sulfate may modify core proteins through [...] the proteoglycan. The fourth class of GAG, hyaluronic acid [hyaluronan]...]
These sugar-containing molecules with their associated water add a lot of weight to the body. Glycogen we’ve said accounts for as much as 5 pounds; mucus probably accounts for several pounds at least; and other glycoproteins must add at least a few pounds more.

Are Glycogen and Glycoproteins Lost on a Low-Carb Diet?​

It’s commonly asserted that much of these sugar-containing molecules, and their associated water, are lost on a low-carb diet. From a review of Gary Taubes’ Why We Get Fat, linked today by CarbSane:

etween 5-10lbs of weight are lost on a low-carb diet due to the mobilization of the water stored with glycogen …
I argued in my “zero-carb dangers” series that a danger of zero-carb dieting was that the body would downregulate production of glycoproteins; and that reduced production of these might be quite dangerous.

For instance, reduced production of mucus in the digestive tract might increase the risk of gastrointestinal cancers, bowel diseases, and entry of infectious pathogens through the gut.

If it’s true that low-carb diets reduce water weight by 5 to 10 pounds, there must be a substantial loss of sugar-containing molecules. This is hardly likely to be healthy. Glycoproteins are essential for good health. Indeed, the evolution of glycoproteins was a prerequisite for the evolution of multicellular life!

So I would find this kind of water-weight loss quite alarming.


From this short discussion, the inference to be made is that there is a turnover or loss of these molecules that are comprised of glucose or other saccharide molecules. This can be supplied from other places, because glucose, fructose, etc., can be produced in the body. However, it is probably more energetically expensive to produce monosaccharides than it would be to acquire them through eating starch.
 
Back
Top Bottom