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!