>Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 04:55:43 +0000
>Reply-To: Raw Food Diet Support List <[log in to unmask]>
>Sender: Raw Food Diet Support List <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Judy Pokras <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Cooked foods and aging (long)
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Here's another article (from the Picower Resaerch Institute) on how cooked
>foods cause aging in the body. It talks about diabetes, but note (where I
>have placed asterisks) that the aging implications apply to everyone.
>
>The Picower Institute on ABC News
>
>Research at The Picower
>Institute was featured in the Solutions segment on World
>News Tonight with Peter Jennings; on Tuesday, February 4,
>1997, at 6:30 pm EST. The piece was filmed on location at The
>Picower Institute with ABC News correspondent
>John McKenzie and director Nicholas Regush.
>
>More information on the segment is provided below.
>
>Send a e-mail to: [log in to unmask]
>if you would like additional information about
>this topic or about The Picower Institute.
>
>Here is expanded information on the topics presented in the
>segment:
>
>COOKING METHOD MAY POSE NEW RISK FOR DIABETIC
>COMPLICATIONS
>Browning Foods Increases Levels of AGEs
>
>(Press Release)
>CENTER
>
>Research presented at the American Diabetes Association annual
>meeting in June 1996, revealed for the first time that dietary
>AGEs (Advanced Glycation Endproducts), previously thought to be
>harmless in foods, are potentially toxic and may pose a new risk
>for diabetic complications, especially in patients with kidney
>dysfunction. Foods containing sugars, when cooked, form far greater
>quantities of AGEs and, as a result, may carry the greatest health
>threat.
>
>This study is significant because it shows that certain dietary
>AGEs or glycotoxins are reactive agents, that, when absorbed by
>the body, remain chemically active and may bind with proteins
>to form a molecular glue that adheres to the lining of tissues
>and organs, stiffening them. A large body of evidence implicates
>AGEs as a primary contributor to damaging complications in diabetics,
>such as kidney and heart disease.
>
>Because food-derived AGEs are just as reactive as those
>AGEs that form internally in diabetics, there is reason to think
>that they are at least equally damaging," said Helen Vlassara, M.D.,
>study
>investigator and Head of the Laboratory of Diabetes and Aging at
>The Picower Institute for Medical Research.
>
>*****What Are AGEs?
>
>*****AGEs are products that form spontaneously in all natural environments
>where proteins and lipids come in contact with glucose or other
>sugars. AGEs are known by food chemists to exist in cooked foods,
>such as baked goods, glazed meats, and roasted coffee but were
>not believed to be toxic or absorbed into the bloodstream or to
>have any biological effect other than imparting flavor and color.
>AGE formation, also known as the Maillard or browning reaction,
>occurs independently and slowly inside the human body. In a sense,
>human beings are perpetually cooking internally over many years.
>
>*****AGEs accumulate in everyone, but at a faster rate when blood
>glucose is elevated, as in patients with diabetes. In fact, people
>with diabetes typically have 2 to 3 times higher levels of AGEs
>than nondiabetics. In diabetic patients with kidney dysfunction,
>the risk of complications is more pronounced because the AGEs
>are retained in the body longer due to impaired urinary clearance.
>
>The food AGE findings described here were discovered by the same
>researchers who, together with others, first showed that in diabetic
>patients elevated levels of blood sugars accelerate this process
>and contribute to the development of diabetic complications. The
>combination of accelerated AGE formation due to diabetes, plus
>the daily ingestion of AGEs from cooked foods over the years,
>may pose an increased risk to the vascular system and kidneys.
>
>The Study's Findings
>In the study, normal and diabetic subjects with and without
>kidney disease received a single meal consisting of egg heated
>for two hours with sugar or without sugar. Urine and blood samples
>were monitored for three days for AGE levels. Less than one-third
>(30 percent) of the AGEs consumed were excreted in the urine in
>the first day, suggesting that the remaining 70 percent of food-derived
>toxic AGEs linger in the body for a longer period. Diabetics with
>existing kidney impairment retained over 95 percent of their dietary-AGEs
>(glycotoxins), putting these patients at an even greater risk
>for diabetic complications.
>
>Our study showed that patients on the diet that contained
>high levels of AGEs had significantly higher levels of AGEs in
>both their blood and urine samples compared to those on the non-sugar
>diet. These levels, though elevated in all the patients studied
>-- normal and diabetic patients -- remained higher for much longer
>in diabetic patients with kidney dysfunction, said Dr. Vlassara.
>
>*****The formation of AGEs occurs slowly at normal temperatures but
>heating causes the process to accelerate vastly. Broiling, roasting
>and baking amplifies browning, producing great amounts of AGEs.
>Our research suggests that limited intake of dietary-AGEs
>may be of benefit to diabetic patients with kidney dysfunction.
>
>Analysis of AGE levels in food cooked in a variety of ways is
>imperative if we are to assist first, and most importantly, patients
>with diabetes. Avoiding foods rich in glycotoxins may, in the
>future, prove beneficial for people with vascular disease, renal
>disease or hypertension, as well as for the elderly; noted
>Dr. Vlassara.
>
>Diabetes is the fourth-leading cause of death by disease in
>the United States. This year alone, more than 160,000 people will
>die from diabetes and its related complications. 20,000 new cases
>of kidney disease occur in people with diabetes each year. Diabetes
>is also the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease, accounting
>for 36 percent of new cases annually.
>
>The Picower Institute for Medical Research, located in Manhasset,
>New York on the campus of North Shore University Hospital, is
>dedicated to facilitating basic and clinical research focused
>on human disease. Founded in July 1991 with an endowment from
>The Jeffry M. and Barbara Picower Foundation, The Picower Institute
>for Medical Research applies the insights gained from basic laboratory
>and clinical research to the cure of disease.
>
>AGING AND ASSOCIATED
>DISEASES
>Backgrounder
>
>Aging is inevitable, and is often accompanied by ailments
>that reduce both the quality and quantity of life. The elderly
>are most susceptible to the nation's top killers -- heart disease,
>cancer, and diabetes -- and their treatment and prevention represents
>major challenges to biomedical science.
>The Picower Institute scientists are studying how the body ages and what
>causes aging. To do so they are studying diabetes because its long-term
>complications and propensity to shorten lifespan are similar to the coronary,
>renal and visual problems that plague the aged. The key difference
>is that they occur quicker and earlier in the diabetic. Aging
>research at The Picower Institute began with work examing the
>role of the blood sugar glucose in damaging the body's proteins,
>lipids, and nucleic acids. Glucose, the body's principal sugar,
>is central to metabolism and is essential for life. Unfortunately
>glucose also participates in spontaneous chemical reactions which
>can produce toxic, damaging compounds which result in cellular
>and organ dysfunction later in life. Because of their elevated
>blood glucose levels, diabetics more rapidly accumulate these
>compounds, called advanced glycation endproducts, or
>
>*******A.G.E.s.
>They are familiar to everyone as the golden-brown colors which
>form during the cooking of foods, and are enhanced with the application
>of a sugar glaze. These products of the caramelization process
>also cause toughening by cross-linking, or gluing together at
>the molecular level, of protein molecules in food. In the body,
>such cross-links damage proteins and activate various cellular
>processes which ultimately derange their associated cells, tissues
>and organs.
>
>****Researchers at The Picower Institute identified the role of
>A.G.E.s in the complications of diabetes
>
>*****and aging and developed
>the compound aminoguanidine, which blocks the formation of A.G.E.s.,
>and prevents the development of diabetic complications in animal
>models. In addition, they have identified a new class of compounds
>to break pre-existing A.G.E.s, in order to eliminate them from
>the body. Current research is directed at identifying A.G.E. receptors
>on various cell types which are believed responsible for initiating
>the deleterious effects of A.G.E.s on blood vessel walls, kidney,
>and other susceptible organs. Exploring of the link between A.G.E.
>formation and Alzheimer+s disease is another active research area
>in this group.
>
>Recently, Picower Institute scientists have begun to explore
>why certain risk factors other than diabetes influence the development
>of complications of aging, especially vascular disease. Smoking
>is a known risk factor for coronary disease; low-level alcohol
>consumption seems to reduce the risk. Early studies point to an
>association of AGE with these factors. Cigarette smoke contains
>large quantities of AGEs which enter the body through the respiratory
>system and may induce cellular and organ damage in much the same
>way that AGEs arising internally from elevated blood glucose occur
>in diabetic individuals. Alcohol metabolism may chemically subvert
>the formation of AGEs to less damaging compounds. From studies
>to elucidate the mechanism of a disease e process will undoubtedly
>come new means to intervene.
>
>THE PICOWER INSTITUTE
>FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH
>
>The Picower Institute for Medical Research, founded in 1991,
>is a diversified human health research institution dedicated to
>discovering treatments and preventions to problems associated
>with aging, infectious diseases and inflammatory diseases. The
>primary goal of this unique Institute is to move discoveries gained
>from basic laboratory research into clinical use as quickly as
>possible. Scientists at The Picower Institute have established
>a highly creative and interactive team approach to the study of
>many long-standing and perplexing human health problems.
>
>Key research areas under investigation at The Picower Institute
>include: Aging and; associated diseases....
>
>The Picower Institute for Medical Research is currently headed
>by interim chief executive officer, Charles L. Massey, former
>chief executive officer of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
>Massey, an experienced administrator, was instrumental in the
>Salk Institute's founding and was the first President Emeritus
>of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.
>
>The staff at The Picower Institute includes more than 80 scientists,
>postdoctoral investigators and technical research assistants as
>well as administrative and support staff....
>
Kirt Nieft / Melisa Secola
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