In response to your second comment – I wasn’t clear. Glycation occurs two ways: through ketosis (at twice the rate of normal), and through excess sugar. It is hard to control carbohydrate intake to a degree where you get a happy medium and avoid the Malliard pathway/glycation altogether, at least from what I have read.

Hope that this helps -
-Nicki

Sorry about that – I didn’t mean to sound misleading (hence why I was careful to put “SOME” sugar instead of “LOTS OF” or just “sugar”).

But yes, you are correct, one healthy way to avoid ketosis is to eat some fruits in the AM and refined grains throughout the day. Another way is to have a fun-size candy bar, haha, although you are right – refined sugar isn’t as good for you.

Hope this helps -
Nicki

“However, carbs turn into sugar once they are in the body, so it would be hard to eat enough carbs to avoid glycation through methylglyoxal (sugar deprivation pathway) AND through the regular Malliard pathway of sugar (excess sugar pathway).”

I’ve read this a few times and don’t understand it. Why would it be hard to eat enough carbs to avoid glycation via the mechanism described above?

1. A commenter mentioned it was an extreme Atkins diet

2. You mentioned that ketosis is the trigger

It is very easy to avoid ketosis by eating beans and whole grains, while never touching anything with simple sugar in it.

Refined sugar in essentially all of its forms is simply bad for you, not only in terms of glycation, but also in terms of insulin resistance, how the body stores those immediately absorbed simple carbohydrates (empty calories if not immediately utilized to manufacture ATP), etc.

No, a candy corn or three a year isn’t going to kill you, but essentially you need to distinguish between “avoiding ketosis” and “avoiding sugar.”

To avoid ketosis, one should still skip the refined sugar and eat some fruits in the AM and moderately intake beans and whole grains.

problem solved, and, you still can’t indulge in Snickers bars. Sorry, folks.

I am from Bangladesh and our diet is highly carb based thats why I avoid extra sugar as much possible. I am not exactly on atkins diet but I try to minimize my curb intake as well. I have been thinking, how much sugar is in that case balanced sugar? Thanks for your reply in advance.

That’s an interesting theory. However, carbs turn into sugar once they are in the body, so it would be hard to eat enough carbs to avoid glycation through methylglyoxal (sugar deprivation pathway) AND through the regular Malliard pathway of sugar (excess sugar pathway). Keep in mind that it is difficult to have a low-carb diet that is high sugar, or a high-sugar diet that is low-carb.

Hope that this helps!
Sincerely,
Nicki

Please keep in mind that p-scores’ significance increases with lower numbers. For instance, for most studies, regardless of the number of subjects involved, any p-score LESS THAN 0.05 is considered to be significant. The fact that the referenced study has a p-score of 0.0002 makes it highly significant. I can see where this is counterintuitive and confusing, but it is true.

I agree with you, however, that the study should be repeated for a larger sample size. Regardless, this is a significant finding.

Thanks!
Best,
Nicki

could you avoid collagen glycation by eating enough carbs, even if you avoid sugar or is sugar specifically needed to prevent this? I think ketosis only happens when carbs are lacking (but not necessarily sugar, right?)

keep up the good work!!

I read once that humans evolved to crave fat and sugar, as increased insulin levels increase fat storage, which is useful as insulation during cold winter months. As such, I think that’s one feature we haven’t sorted through evolutionarily.

Who knows for sure though? =)
-Nicki