The Health Benefits of Glyconutrients

Glyconutrients are a specialized type of nutraceuticals. Nutraceuticals is an unofficial phrase that was invented by combining the words nutrition and nutraceuticals. What this is supposed to mean is the natural food based nutrition that have healing effects on our bodies. Glyconutrients is a part of this study. Glyconutrients is a way to rid the body of toxins. Unlike chelation where something is added to the body to rid it of toxins, glyconutrients is about adding nutrients to the body so that these toxins will either die on their own or not be able to grow at all. And glyconutrients is the supplement that is added to the body. Glyconutrients are eight essential polysaccharides which are complex carbohydrates including starch, glycogen and cellulose, which are the most common. In other words, glyconutrients are sugars. These eight polysaccharides cause our cells to communicate with each other, which keeps us healthy.

The claims of glyconutrients are they decrease body fat, increase lean muscle mass, improve the body’s inflammation response, improve the immune system, slow the aging process and build endurance and including preventing the common cold. The claim is that they block bacteria from being able to attach to cells, since bacteria cannot attach to the cells then that would strengthen the immune system keeping us from getting sick.

Companies such as Mannatech sell glyconutrient powders and capsules that have glyconutrients in them. They developed the first glyconutrient supplement in 1996. They write that they were inspired by aloe vera saccharide research. In 2001 the FDA warned this company about their claims. I don’t mean to pick on this company, but they do come up the most.

One product of Mannatech is called Advanced Ambrotose for optimal health; the listed ingredients are arabinogalactan and saccharides from aloe with fucoidan-rich Undaria pinnatifida.

• Arabinogalactan is a phytochemical extracted from the wood of the larch tree. It is an immune system boosting herb also found in Echinacea, tomatoes, red wine, leeks, carrots and pears.
• Saccharides are the carbohydrate sugars
• Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide found mainly in seaweed such as kombu, wakame, mozuku, limu and hijiki.
• Undaria pinnatifida is once again wakame, edible kelp.

This one product costs $46 for 120 capsules. Another product is Advanced Ambrotose and it seems to have the very same ingredients. It costs $146 and it also says 150g. I will guess that’s the weight of the product and not the amount of “glyconutrient” per capsule.

There have been studies that seem to confirm that seaweed is very healthy and can help in the fight against cancer. A study released in 2005 by Japanese researchers has indicated that seaweed can inhibit tumor growth [1]. The Japanese have been eating seaweed for centuries and is still common there and worldwide to have a bowl of miso with wakame or kombu in it. Seaweed is also a part of the macrobiotics diet. Carbohydrates from whole wheat and brown rice are known to be healthy and phytochemicals are also known to be healthy.

The term glyconutrient doesn’t seem to have much of a meaning, glyco means sugar and nutrient means a substance that is useful to the body. There doesn’t seem to be any research backing up the claims that their product is special and after more then 10 years I would think there would have been.

It seems to me that glyconutrients is a fancy made up work for dried and powered fruits, vegetables, whole grains and seaweed mixed together and sold at a very high price. I couldn’t find anywhere on these products the actual amounts in them of these ingredients such as mg or mcg etc. I am a believer in seaweed and have often had it in miso. The individual ingredients are healthy enough, but sold in this form under the phrase glyconutrients has yet to be proven any more beneficial than just eating the separate foods. Maybe some day this will turn out to be the silver bullet in fighting cancer.

 Sam Montana © 03 February 2009

[1] Aisa Y; Miyakawa Y; Nakazato T; Shibata H; Saito K; Ikeda Y; Kizaki M (2005 Jan). "Fucoidan induces apoptosis of human HS-sultan cells accompanied by activation of caspase-3 and down-regulation of ERK pathways". American Journal of Hematology 78 (1): 7–14. doi:10.1002/ajh.20182. PMID 15609279 doi:10.1002/ajh.20182.