Talk Cancer

Question:

You wicked and sinful person you …attaching a pdf file to a user group post.

And promotional materials at that, double whammy. There are two groups of Japanese who seem to outlive even their compatriots, the Okinawans and a village in Japan itself. Both groups eat yams.

I found a site which claimed that it was traditional for Japanese American families in Hawaii to eat Konjac root once a week. Apparently it’s been eaten in Japan for several thousand years. I normally assume all dietary claims are total bs until proven otherwise 5 times but at first glance this stuff seems worth exploring. Hopefully medline will yield some studies. I’ve been promised sample quantities of amylose and konjac flour, which hopefully will reduce the ‘toughness’ of a high amylose formulation. (amylose forms tight gels which harden with age). Amylose/konjac/olive oil pasta, hmm… Some cites: http://www.opta-food.com/problems/konjafaq.html#start http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/acc_num/198500882.html  shows a picture, looks like it’s from Yoda’s garden (konjac is assumed to be on the left http://konnyaku.com/e_data/konjac2.html http://www.konjac.com/ Regards, Mitch Funk T2

Response:

This post not CC’d by email I’ve attached the pdf file. On page 3 they describe something they call ‘Konjac flour’, a "soluble fiber which significantly lowers glucose, insulin, and lipid (cholesterol levels) in the blood…it can be labelled as Konjac flour or yam flour."

You wicked and sinful person you …attaching a pdf file to a user group post. On the other hand the difference between a sinner and saint is mostly religion. Thanks mate for finding another piece to complete the jigsaw puzzle with.  There are two groups of Japanese who seem to outlive even their compatriots, the Okinawans and a village in Japan itself.   Both groups eat yams. — Quentin Grady       ^  ^  / New Zealand,       #,#< [                     / /     "… and the blind dog was leading." http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin

Response:

This post not CC’d by email "CrystaLean, Opta’s proprietary resistant starch, is slowly broken down to glucose in the GI tract and released into the bloodstream, making it appropriate for use in medical foods for Type II diabetics… And because it is resistant to digestive enzymes, CrystaLean serves as a substrate for beneficial bacteria that leads to the formation of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) in the lower GI tract. These SCFAs are known to be important in the prevention of colon cancer

G’day G’day Mitch,   The research has been done on resistant starch.  There is no reason to doubt the claim.  The key is in producing the right length short chain fatty acids.  Butyric acid with four carbons would seem to be ideal. The cells where the sun don’t shine don’t use glucose for fuel. Instead they use butyrate.  Apparently butyrates even allow slightly damaged DNA in the cells to sort itself out and become normal.  Most people here are aware that fibre which was much touted as a preventative of colon cancer didn’t produce the goods when rigorously tested. IMHO it was a case of misattribution. The positive outcomes were due to resistant starch, phytosterols and maybe a few other things. — Quentin Grady       ^  ^  / New Zealand,       #,#< [                     / /     "… and the blind dog was leading." http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin

Response:

Lots of references to amylose as a slowly digested starch with some possibility of improved glycemic control… opta food ingredients, inc. offers a product made from high amylose cornstarch for which they make some interesting claims… from ‘Fall 1999′ issue at http://www.opta-food.com/optafoods/optafacts.html "CrystaLean, Opta’s proprietary resistant starch, is slowly broken down to glucose in the GI tract and released into the bloodstream, making it appropriate for use in medical foods for Type II diabetics… And because it is resistant to digestive enzymes, CrystaLean serves as a substrate for beneficial bacteria that leads to the formation of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) in the lower GI tract. These SCFAs are known to be important in the prevention of colon cancer. Because of these properties, CrystaLean is an ideal ingredient for foods specially design to control energy release for diabetics and healthy individuals, and to maintain a healthy GI tract." Reference to a study published in Diabetes (vol 46, 1997) is made to back up the first claim (this issue not available online, so I haven’t reviewed it yet). A graph from the study is reproduced (badly) which appears to show the high amylose food with a lower post prandial bg. In the text glucose levels are claimed to be ‘50 to 60 ml’ lower, assume this means ‘50 to 60 mg/dL’ (love that attention to detail). This claim would seem to be consistent with data available online. Don’t know anything about the cancer claim. Maybe bogus, maybe not. Something to try, if free samples are available. Regards, Mitch Funk T2

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