These links are essential sugars which have become commonly known as Glyconutrients. Glyconutrient is a term used to describe dietary supplements that contain a blend of the eight simple sugars (monosaccharides) which are found in glycoproteins.
What are Glyconutrients?
In essence, Glyconutrients are simply food. They are nutrients which are not readily abundant in the modern-day food chain. We are no longer hunter-gatherers of the land, and as a result, we don't have direct access to these essential sugars which are available from plants, roots, seeds, grains, barks, shrubs, and fungus. The few sugars that are found in the food chain are usually processed out of our foods.
Glyconutrients are plant saccharides which are necessary to support cell-to-cell communication. They include mannose, galactose, fucose, xylose, glucose, sialic acid, N-acetylglucosamine, and N-acetylgalactosamine. These sugars support the need to send and translate commands from one cell to another throughout your body's 50 trillion cells (Ask Yahoo). Getting the vital sugars in from a direct source may provide your body with a ready supply of raw materials in greater quantities. No combination of vitamins, minerals, amino acids or herbals can take their place.
Why don't many doctors know about Glyconutrients?
Most physicians attended medical school before this technology came about. It wasn't until 1996 that one of the primary medical textbooks, Harper's Biochemistry, published a chapter on Glycoproteins. Although there are several thousand articles that have been published on glycobiology, it is still not common knowledge.
Physicians are swamped with new information which is primarily from pharmaceutical companies. Latest estimates are that about 7000 articles on health get published each day worldwide. If they were to read everything that was published they would have no time to work, let alone eat or sleep!
In effect, Glyconutrients are Nutraceuticals. The reality is, they are less likely to be known by today's doctors. At best, only doctors who have graduated in the last couple of years have been schooled in this new reality.
What are Nutraceuticals?
The next era of nutrition will focus on pharmaceutical grade research and development of the naturally occurring properties provided from sources such as plants, fruits, and vegetables which aid, enhance, and facilitate your body's natural functions. Nutraceutical is the new term used by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine in the USA to describe these newly discovered food/nutrition products with a proven effect on the human body.
About Nutraceuticals
Today an ever expanding body of medical and scientific evidence documents the importance of a proper diet and the benefits of nutritional supplements. These supplements are for health maintenance and prevention of disease. This growing mass of information has created a demand for proven and effective, natural food supplements.
The next era of nutrition will focus on the naturally occurring properties provided from plants, fruits, and vegetables which support good health. Nutraceutical is the new term used to describe a highly promising area of health and medicine. The Nutraceutical Industry has become a highly respected industry which provides safe, non-toxic supplements to aid our health and wellbeing.
A Paradigm Shift
The potential for Nutraceuticals to revolutionise our traditional mind-set toward nutrition and health has companies worldwide on a search for new functional food patents. Pharmaceutical companies are buying every functional food patent they can get their hands on, which meets the standard of a Nutraceutical.
These companies are positioning themselves to capitalise on a huge ground swell of knowledge which is building in the general public.