The health benefits of glyconutrients have been known for over ten years now, though there was a time that doctors scoffed at the idea that sugars could benefit your health. However, there was also a time when doctors scoffed at the idea that any nutritional supplement was beneficial to you. They have since been proved wrong, and nutritional supplements of all kinds are not only widely used but most of the common ones have been scientifically proved to be effective.



Glyconutrients are the newest of these to have been found effective. There are 8 glyconutrients that are essential components of your body's defenses against disease. The immune system is the buzz word in the medical world at the moment, and glyconutrients help the body's immune system to fight disease. Probably, the most widely known, and least understood, of the conditions that affect the autoimmune system is AIDS, but there are many others.

One thing should be made clear immediately. A glyconutrients does not cure disease. I will explain what they are in a moment, but they do not cure disease any more than an antioxidant can cure cancer. Like antioxidants, they can help the body to fight against and prevent disease. Glyconutrients are sugars. That's right ? sugars! However, sugar is not just the granular white stuff you put in your tea ? there are others.

It has been proved that these eight sugars are essential to enable your body cells to communicate effectively with each other. It was previously believed that all sugars were converted by the body into energy, and that they were bad for you. That is now known to be false. Sugars are not all converted into energy, but are used to allow cells to communicate their identity to other cells. They can tell other cells if they are friends or enemies, and if that system of communication breaks down then the result can be deadly.

These eight sugars are what are known as monosaccharides. They combine with proteins and fats in the body to form compounds known as glycoform. These glycoforms are the messages that pass between cells, and if the message is wrong then the other cells cannot recognize the erroneous ones and regard them as foreign.

The eight saccharides are Fucose (not fructose), Galactose, Glucose, Mannose, Xylose, Neuraminic N-acetyl acid (NeuNAc), N-acetyl Glucosamine and N-acetyl Galactosamine. Of these, the first three only are contained in our diet and the others are synthesized within our body with the help of the B vitamins and certain minerals such as magnesium, iron, selenium and zinc.

At one time, these three chemicals were consumed naturally in whole grains, berries, nuts and roots. These hunter gatherers were taller and healthier than people today, in spite of what we have been told. Archaeology has confirmed that. They had stronger teeth and bones and their diet was suited to the human biochemistry that developed round the diet. The rise of agriculture and the consumption of blander foods, and then the modern refinement of natural food into a form that seem purer and whiter, has resulted in a dilution of the diet in many of the chemicals essential for a healthy life.

Whole wheat replaced by refined white flour and whole rice replaced by refined polished rice. This has resulted in a lower intake of monosaccharides than is healthy for us, and the effects of this on the human immune system, and our health in general, is even now not fully understood by science. What is understood is that glyconutrients are essential to replace what has been lost in the modern diet.

Although human biochemistry can convert three of these sugars into the other needed for proper cell function, there is little that it can do if there is a deficiency in these three sugars. All eight are essential for the formation of glycoforms, which if any are missing or wrongly constructed, equating to missing or misspelled words in a message, then it will not be understood and the immune system fails.

A lack of monosaccharides can result in any of a large number of conditions including peritonitis, arthritis, psoriasis, slow wound healing, heart problems, synovitis, glandular problems and poor functioning of the organs and immune system in general. Your resistance to colds and flu will be reduced, and the effect of bacterial infections more severe. Some believe that diabetes can be promoted by a lack of monosaccharides in the body.

Taking glyconutrients will not cure these conditions, but will help the body to fight them more effectively by supplementing the intake of the monosaccharides necessary to allow the cells of your body to communicate more effectively. In your body, cells are die and new ones are created in its place. These monosaccharide's are raw materials the body needs to make new stronger healthier cells. Healthy cells will be preserved and ailing cells or foreign invaders attacked and expelled.

It is evident that supplementing the missing saccharides in the body will help the body to maintain healthy cells through the synthesis of the correct amount of glycoforms so that cells can recognize each other. It has been estimated that there are over 300 autoimmune conditions that the human race is currently suffering, the majority thought to be brought on by the modern diet that is low in these essential sugars. There has been too much bad press about ?sugar? in general, without the biochemical knowledge to properly understand what the term means.

Glyconutrition is a new science in nutrition, and is still not full understood by biochemists. However, what has been established is that it is effective in enabling the body to fight immune conditions better. The theory is known and the practice is the use of glyconutrients to supplement the natural intake of the three basic monosaccharides needed to allow the body to produce the other five, and also to supplement the other five also.

The modern diet has a lot to answer for and who knows what else is lurking round the corner that has as yet not been recognized due to our ignorance of the workings of the human body. It is a very complex structure, and the chemistry is also complex, but we must apply what has already been learned. That is that glyconutrients are a necessary supplement to replace what is missing in the diet that our body chemistry was designed to process.

There is still little written about the effect of glycoforms deficiency, and many still believe that sugars in general are not good for your health. The bad press, however, is mainly about sucrose and fructose. Sucrose is refined sugar, with all the other sachharides removed, leaving behind the disaccharide that plays no part in the formation of glycoforms. Medical science is coming round to the belief that glyconutrition is essential for the maintenance of a healthy immune system and there is much education to be carried out. Research is currently being conducted on Glyconutrients by applying glycoform technology to pharmaceuticals in hopes to discover new techniques in fighting disease.

There is still much to be learned about glyconutrients and their benefits on the body, but we must apply what we know today. It is new knowledge, if not new science, and we must take advantage of it if we are to protect ourselves against the rigors of modern living. Environments and diets change, but our body chemistry does not.