Eight Essential Glyconutrients: Arabinogalactan

Arabinogalactan is a glyconutrient that is water soluble and can be found in various plants, fungi and bacteria. It is most commonly extracted from the Larch tree but is also available in leeks, carrots, radishes, black beans, pears, maize, wheat, red wine, Italian ryegrass, tomatoes, ragweed, sorghum, bamboo grass and coconut meat and milk.

This glyconutrient is most widely known for it’s immune-enhancing abilities. So it comes as no surprise that the widely accepted medical herbs echinacea and astralgus are rich in arabinogalactan. It helps the body to fight infection by increasing the activity of natural killer cells and other areas of our immune system. It has been found in some studies that decreased natural killer cell activity can be linked to a variety of chronic diseases including chronic fatigue syndrome, viral hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

Arabinogalactan is also beneficial for our digestive system, it is a very important source of dietary fibre increasing the production of short-chain fatty acids which are essential for colon health. It is considered to be a prebiotic and acts as a food supply for "good" bacteria in the gut as well as helping to eliminate "bad" bacteria. Many Doctors use prebiotics to prevent and treat intestinal conditions like diverticulosis, leaky-gut, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as well as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis.

Arabinogalactans – another of the essential glyconutrients.

Read More......

Eight Essential Glyconutrients: Fucose

I have talked a lot about these glyconutrients that we are NOT getting in our diets, why they are so essential to our health and why we need to supplement them, so I thought that I would start to discuss in more detail what the individual glyconutrients are and what they do.

The first to get this detailed treatment is Fucose. This nutrient occurs most commonly in fucoidan which is a brown algae found in seaweeds. It is also found in some mushrooms, brewers yeast and human breast milk. When attempting to increase our intake of all whole foods these days we need to be aware of where they are produced due to increasing pollutants in the world.

Why do we need Fucose? It is involved in many of our body processes and research has shown that it influences brain development, acts as an immune modulator by retarding tumour growth/spread and improves cell communication. It also provides protection from respiratory tract infections and inhibits allergic reactions. The transfer of fucose to newborns in breast milk is thought to be the catalyst for improving their immunity.

Here we have it: Fucose, the first in my series of essential glyconutrients!

Read More......