Advanced Glycation Endproduct, more commonly known as Glucose occurs in a chemical reaction.
So let’s say you’re looking at a piece of sautéed chicken and plate full of fresh, cold strawberries—and you wonder to yourself: which one of these is a worse option for me?
Now if you’re allergic to strawberries—it’s definitely the strawberries.
However, if you’re okay with strawberries—it’s definitely the chicken.
Why? It’s because of something called AGE or Advanced Glycation Endproduct. Never heard of it? That’s probably because if it ever was covered in 9th grade biology, it was discussed under a different name—namely, glucose.
Ah, now you’ve heard of it—right? But do you know what glucose (AGE) actually is?
AGE is the technical term for a protein plus a sugar. Proteins are all over the place—whether it’s in the form of an enzyme or a structural protein like the ones in your eyes or heart. Proteins get sugar coating and that makes them dysfunctional. It’s kind of like the bottom of a ship that gets barnacles and then it won’t float so well anymore. When this happens, the body has to throw out those proteins or recycle them—or its very stressful to the body, and it’ll wear down.
As we age, we burn sugar for energy and then we all form these AGE’s— whether we’re diabetic or not.
Sure, diabetics have it worse. We may take years for our mechanisms to break down but diabetics have an accelerated situation—double or triple the blood sugar that we normally have! All of us succumb to this eventually—but diabetics are doing it at hyper-speed.
If you look around, you’ll realize that you probably see AGEs all the time. Think about it: every time you cook something—sauté an onion, toast bread—that dry, high heat helps sugar attach itself to the protein. These are also bad for you because they can stick to your kidneys and blood vessels. Even grilled and sautéed vegetables can have a negative effect with the creation of AGEs.
So what can we do to slow down the aging process in our bodies? It’s simple. Just keep your glucose level as close to normal as possible. (This of course being one of the major challenges to diabetes.)
One way you can do this is to choose alternative cooking methods to sautéing and frying such as steaming or even eating more raw vegetables.
Your body is also forming its own anti-AGEing squad using benfotiamine and thiamine. Just taking simple vitamin B supplements every day can be a powerful defense against the wear and tear normally caused by unsteady glucose levels. Benfotiamine is a vitamin from the thiamine family that allows enzymes that process sugar to work much faster and efficiently . When taken daily, benfotiamine supplements, help the body keep Hemoglobin A1C under control.
Diabetic or not—staying on top of your glucose levels is the AGE-old key to a longer, healthier life!
Bentofiamine tablets can be purchased directly from Dr. Santa Maria’s office.
