08 May 09 THE POWERFUL EFFECT OF ACID ON G.I. (VINEGAR, LEMON JUICE, SOURDOUGH BREADS)
Within the last few years, several reports in the scientific literature have indicated that a realistic amount of vinegar or lemon juice in the form of a salad dressing consumed with a mixed meal has significant blood sugar lowering effects.
As little as 20 ml of vinegar in a vinaigrette dressing (20 ml vinegar and 10 ml oil) taken with an average meal lowered blood sugar by as much as 30 per cent. These findings have important implications for people with diabetes or individuals at risk of diabetes, coronary heart disease or the metabolic syndrome (impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension and high blood lipid levels).
The effect appears to be related to the acidity because other organic acids (such as lactic acid and propionic acid) also have a blood sugar lowering effect but the degree of reduction varies with the type of acid. Our findings show that amongst the various types of vinegar, red wine vinegar was the best. And lemon juice was just as powerful. It is well known that acidity in food pulls the brake on stomach emptying slowing the delivery of food to the small intestine. Digestion of the carbohydrate in the food is therefore slowed and the final result is that blood sugar levels are significantly lower. Good news for people with diabetes! The take home message is that a side salad with your meal, especially a high G.L meal, will help to keep blood sugar levels under control.
Sourdough breads in which lactic acid and propionic acid are produced by the natural fermentation of starch and sugars by the yeast starter culture, also produce reduced levels of blood sugar and insulin compared with normal bread. The area under the plasma insulin curve was 22 per cent lower with the sourdough product. In addition, there was higher satiety associated with breads having decreased rates of digestion and absorption. Thus there is significant potential to lower blood sugar and insulin and increase satiety with sourdough bread formulations.
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28 Apr 09 DIABETES: HUMAN, BEEF AND PORK INSULINS
How are beef and pork insulins made?
Pancreases are collected at the abattoirs from beef or pork. They are quickly frozen and taken in refrigerated vans to the insulin extraction plant of the pharmaceutical company making the insulin. The pancreases are then mixed up with alcohol (spirit) and salt (brine) and acid. The insulin goes into solution in the acid-brine-alcohol mixture and therefore can be separated in solution from the remaining pancreatic pulp, which is washed free of the insulin.
After the insulin is in solution and separated from the rest of the pancreas, it is precipitated out from the solution and is purified and crystallized out as a powder. Bacteria which might cause an infection at the injection site and other impurities are also removed at this stage. The pure insulin is then dissolved in a fluid and bottled ready for use. Further processes may be carried out to combine this pure insulin with protein or zinc or modify it in some other way to produce the various other forms of insulin with a longer duration of action for the modern control of diabetes.
How is human insulin made?
Human insulin is now made by a process which involves genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is a term that describes our ability to take one gene (in this case the insulin gene) and insert it into the genetic structure of another living cell which then acquires the feature of the new gene (in this case the ability to produce insulin). To understand genetic engineering, we need to know about genes and cell DNA. The development of all living cells is governed by the inheritance of their characteristics from previous generations of cells. The inherited characteristics are passed on by genes contained in the cell and the genes are part of a complex substance called DNA. All cells contain DNA. Within the DNA substance of the human islet cells is the gene which produces human insulin.
Human islet cells are not easy to grow in the laboratory, and when they do grow, they do not multiply and produce large quantities of insulin. On the other hand, some cells such as yeast cells and bacterial cells have the ability to multiply very rapidly, so that if they could be given the ability to produce insulin, they could do so in large quantities.
It is now possible to synthesize the gene that is responsible for producing insulin in the human body. One way in which human insulin is produced by genetic engineering involves incorporating the synthesized human gene for insulin into ordinary bakers’ yeast cells. This is the starting point of the process for insulin manufacture, the steps of which are as follows:
1. The gene responsible for producing insulin is first synthesized chemically.
3. The insulin gene is now inserted (by chemical process) into the place that was cut into the DNA material from the yeast cell.
4. Now that the yeast DNA has acquired the human insulin gene, it is inserted back into the yeast cells.
5. The yeast cells are allowed to grow in glucose solutions in large tanks over a period of three weeks. As they multiply and grow, they release insulin into the tank.
6. The insulin is extracted from this solution and the yeast cells discarded.
7. This insulin is purified by a series of processes. No detectable impurities of any sort remain.
8. This insulin is in a pure crystalline form. It may be dissolved as the quick-acting unmodified insulin, or may be modified chemically to prolong its action as cloudy longer acting insulin.
The actual process is of course more complicated than this. For instance, living cells have to make insulin through first producing a larger molecule called pro-insulin which is later broken down to insulin itself. The process of purification also involves a number of steps to ensure the end product is entirely safe.
Other manufacturers use somewhat different processes and may use bacterial cells rather than yeast cells. The end product, of course, is the same as the insulin produced by the human pancreas.
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