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Trehalose (glycemic index 32)

Specific Recommendations:

• Trehalose at Amazon.com

News & Research:

• How Sugar Substitutes Stack Up - National Graphics, 7/17/13 - "Xylitol is five percent less sweet than sugar, but it has 40 percent fewer calories (9 calories versus sugar's 16) and a low glycemic index" - Note: Sounds like a no-brainer. Add 5% more if you want the same sweetness. I snack on pumpkin pie. For the sugar part, I replace it with a third inulin, a third trehalose and a third xylitol. See inulin at Amazon.com, trehalose at Amazon.com and xylitol at Amazon.com.
• Natural sugar defends against metabolic syndrome, in mice - Science Daily, 8/23/18 - "a natural sugar called trehalose blocks glucose from the liver and activates a gene that boosts insulin sensitivity, reducing the chance of developing diabetes. Activating the gene also triggers an increase in calories burned, reduces fat accumulation and weight gain, and lessens measures of fats and cholesterol in the blood ... In mice, this gene is turned on as part of what seems to be the normal fasting response. Our data suggest that fasting -- or giving trehalose with a normal diet -- triggers the liver to change the way it processes nutrients, in a beneficial way. And if glucose can be blocked from the liver with a drug, it may be possible to reap the benefits of fasting without strictly limiting food ... Aloxe3 in the liver -- whether activated by fasting or trehalose -- leads the mice not only to make better use of insulin, but to increase calorie burning, raise body temperature, reduce weight gain and fat accumulation -- including fat deposits in the liver -- and lessen measures of fats and cholesterol in the blood. Further, they found that mice fed an obesity-inducing diet and mice that eat freely and are genetically prone to obesity are protected from metabolic disease if given trehalose in their drinking water ... activating Aloxe3 in the mice given trehalose improves insulin sensitivity in a way that is similar to how thiazolidinediones work" - See trehalose at Amazon.com.
• Type of sugar may treat atherosclerosis, mouse study shows - Science Daily, 6/7/17 - "a natural sugar called trehalose revs up the immune system's cellular housekeeping abilities. These souped-up housecleaners then are able to reduce atherosclerotic plaque that has built up inside arteries. Such plaques are a hallmark of cardiovascular disease and lead to an increased risk of heart attack"
• Natural sugar may treat fatty liver disease - Science Daily, 2/23/16 - "a natural sugar called trehalose prevents the sugar fructose -- thought to be a major contributor to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease -- from entering the liver and triggers a cellular housekeeping process that cleans up excess fat buildup inside liver cells ... In general, if you feed a mouse a high-sugar diet, it gets a fatty liver ... We found that if you feed a mouse a diet high in fructose plus provide drinking water that contains three percent trehalose, you completely block the development of a fatty liver. Those mice also had lower body weights at the end of the study and lower levels of circulating cholesterol, fatty acids and triglycerides ... Trehalose is a natural sugar found in plants and insects ... We know the mice that received drinking water with three percent trehalose lost weight, and we suspect that weight loss was due to loss of fat, but we can't be certain that's the only effect"

Abstracts:

• Trehalose improves palmitic acid-induced apoptosis of osteoblasts by regulating SIRT3-medicated autophagy via the AMPK/mTOR/ULK1 pathway - FASEB J 2022 Sep - "Accumulation of lipid substances decreased the activity of osteoblasts. Trehalose is a typical stress metabolite to form a protective membrane on cell surface which has been demonstrated to regulate lipid metabolism. This activity of Trehalose indicates the potential effect of osteoporosis treatment ... Trehalose could inhibit the bone mass loss with HFD. Our study revealed the effect and mechanism of Trehalose in the treatment of osteoporosis" - See trehalose at Amazon.com.
• Trehalose Suppresses Lysosomal Anomalies in Supporting Cells of Oocytes and Maintains Female Fertility - Nutrients 2022 May 22 - "Our results suggest that autophagy maintains the healthy state of the supporting cells of human oocytes by suppressing the formation of lysosomes. Thus, our results provide insights into the therapeutic effects of trehalose on female fertility"
• Trehalose Suppresses Lysosomal Anomalies in Supporting Cells of Oocytes and Maintains Female Fertility - Nutrients 2022 May 22 - "Electron microscopy analysis revealed the proliferation of abnormal lysosomes in chloroquine-treated KGN cells. Conversely, the addition of an autophagy inducer, trehalose, suppressed chloroquine-driven problematic lysosomal anomalies and ameliorated ovulation problems. Our results suggest that autophagy maintains the healthy state of the supporting cells of human oocytes by suppressing the formation of lysosomes. Thus, our results provide insights into the therapeutic effects of trehalose on female fertility" - See trehalose at Amazon.com.
• Trehalose inhibits ferroptosis via NRF2/HO-1 pathway and promotes functional recovery in mice with spinal cord injury - Aging (Albany NY) 2022 Apr 10 - "Spinal cord injury (SCI) is the main cause of severe damage to the central nervous system and leads to irreversible tissue loss and neurological dysfunction. Ferroptosis is a cell death pattern, newly discovered in recent years. Ferroptosis is an oxidizing cell death induced by small molecules, and is an iron-dependent process caused by the imbalance between the generation and degradation of lipid reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells. As an antioxidant, trehalose can effectively prevent lipid peroxidation. Studies have reported that trehalose can improve the prognosis of SCI ... trehalose inhibited the expansion of cavities in the nerve tissue of mice with SCI, inhibited neuron loss, and improved functional recovery. In terms of mechanism, our results indicate that the neuroprotective effect of trehalose is due to the activation of the NRF2/HO-1 pathway, which in turn inhibits ferroptosis and ferroptosis-related inflammation"
• Glycemic, insulinemic and incretin responses after oral trehalose ingestion in healthy subjects - Nutr J. 2017; 16: 9 - "Trehalose is hydrolyzed by a specific intestinal brush-border disaccharidase (trehalase) into two glucose molecules. In animal studies, trehalose has been shown to prevent adipocyte hypertrophy and mitigate insulin resistance in mice fed a high-fat diet. Recently, we found that trehalose improved glucose tolerance in human subjects ... 20 fasted healthy volunteers consumed 25 g trehalose or glucose in 100 mL water. Blood samples were taken frequently over the following 3 h, and blood glucose, insulin, active gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) and active glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) levels were measure ... Trehalose ingestion did not evoke rapid increases in blood glucose levels, and had a lower stimulatory potency of insulin and active GIP secretion compared with glucose ingestion. Conversely, active GLP-1 showed higher levels from 45 to 180 min after trehalose ingestion as compared with glucose ingestion. Specifically, active GIP secretion, which induces fat accumulation, was markedly lower after trehalose ingestion" - Note: It's a 2017 study but I threw it in because from my ice cream and pumpkin pie recipes, I've been substituting the sugar with a third inulin, a third trehalose and a third sugar cane. If anything, it improves the taste. Plus it's good for the liver.
• Can one teaspoon of trehalose a day mitigate metabolic syndrome and diabetes risks? - Nutr J 2021 Mar 15 - Note: It doesn't have an abstract but I take it to protect my liver.
• Using trehalose to prevent and treat metabolic function: effectiveness and mechanisms - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2019 Apr 24 - "Trehalose and its analogues are promising cardiometabolic therapeutic agents with pleiotropic effects across tissue types. It is likely that we are only beginning to uncover the broad efficacy and complex mechanisms by which these compounds modulate host metabolism" - See trehalose at Amazon.com.