Stevia is good and I have used it for years, but it doesn’t really have any other benefits besides not increasing glucose levels. But, I must say it never caused me gas, bloating, or diarrhea. That’s actually pretty good.
I am now using glycine as a sweetener on my cereal etc. to get my daily dose of “life extending” glycine. It does not spike my blood sugar levels or cause gas or bloating. Some people may not want to use it as it is an amino acid but tastes more like sugar than stevia. IMO
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FWIW
My coffee;
“for its possible life-extension and neurological benefits”
20oz extra caffeine coffee / 4oz of light cream
10mg of spermmidin
15g of trehalose
5g of D-Ribose
5g of Modified Citrus Pectin
15ml of Medium Chain Triglycerides
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Looks good. I really, really like my coffee black. I grind Starbucks Dark Roast, which I get at Costco. It’s actually my second favorite, I like Peet’s Major Dickason’s Blend Dark Roast best, but it is a little pricey for the amount of coffee I drink.
What is the 15ml of Medium Chain Triglycerides you use? Coconut Oil?
The only thing I add to my coffee now is ~7-9 gms of trehalose, it isn’t too sweet.
Personally if were adding cream, which I do occasionally, it would be heavy whipping cream.
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NOW Foods MCT Oil Unflavored
Packaged in a dark glass bottle
When I put modified citrus pectin in my coffee, it jelled. I am considering using it to make pudding.
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I’m not drinking Joseph’s coffee.
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Trehalose autophogy for AMD?
Among the compounds that induce autophagy, we can find trehalose, metformin, and rapamycin. Trehalose is a disaccharide of glucose, a food constituent produced by different organisms, but it is not present in mammals and it is produced under stress conditions. Its production helps to restore cellular integrity, especially cell membranes. More specifically, in the cornea, this sugar suppresses inflammation and neovascularization. In dry eye, it helps to decrease cell death as well as inflammation. Trehalose has been extensively studied to prevent neurodegenerative disorders, principally by promoting autophagy, reducing the presence of toxic proteins or peptides. Besides, it is not toxic and it could be administrated to humans [63, 64]. In fact, there are trehalose-based eye droops that help to preserve viability and the correct function of cultured human corneal epithelial cells during desiccation [64]. However, its participation in autophagy activation and the mechanisms involved in AMD has not been proven. Another potential use of trehalose is the capability to rescue glial cell dysfunction in mice and to induce autophagy in microglial cells, which degrades beta-amyloid peptides and regulates inflammation in mice [63–65]. For these reasons, we propose that stimulation of autophagy might be a potential therapeutic treatment to decrease the drusen burden, the presence of toxic amyloid peptides, and inflammation. It could be a target for the development of new drugs to retain degeneration processes and prevent AMD development.
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I can never say for sure when it comes to no-calorie sweeteners until more research is done - haven’t looked in-depth only sporadically because I don’t crave to put sweeteners and simply follow AHA guidelines on added sugar (maybe you could point to literature if you’re familiar), but I simply avoid any sucralose, aspartame, stevia or monk fruit extract, etc - it’s really not that hard for most people to adhere to with both prescription and natural alpha-glucosidase inhibitors. The gut-brain axis produces appetite suppressants and involves GLP-1 anyways. Much cheaper than peptide injections for $12,000 a year but I doubt anyone would be going that route of acarbose etc anytime soon.
Article Summary:
Literature:
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I always wonder when they warn us against artificial sweeteners if dosing is the main issue. When they talk about diet soft drinks- there’s all kinds of other stuff in there.
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Yeah, dosing may be the main issue. I just don’t know when it comes to the doses used and there’s just not enough evidence to go either way - weak recommendation or weak recommendation against is not quite there yet from what I have seen so far.
Slowly weaning down sugar intake and using alpha-glucosidase is my go-to strategy for my SO. Doesn’t seem to make sense to mess with it when there are viable options that can be high adherence for most people already used in Okinawan centenarians.
We do have some mice data that suggests feeding the “good bacteria” with sucrose/starch+acarbose is better than stevia but I suppose I am somewhat biased when it comes to comparisons since I use alpha-glucosidase inhibitors (and alpha amylasei) and don’t keep up to date with things like stevia.
Looks like stevia and splenda might not be so safe. What exactly do you use?
I mainly use purple sweet potatoes, green tea, shell ginger, purple turmeric, etc. Non-herbal or food extracts. Just “normal” amounts. There are quite a few options.
I also use Precose prn with high starch meals, especially if eating out for social reasons. Just not convenient to bring out a bunch of foods and herbs.
Any opinion on allulose or you just don’t go there?
I simply don’t know enough about allulose to have an educated opinion on it. From my understanding, PA was mostly into keto/LCHF - not sure if he still is - but I don’t really keep up with everyone’s diets carefully simply because there’s too much ideology going on. I simply suspect my time is better spent elsewhere. Ideological veganism is probably the most obvious and their playbook has changed a lot. And unfortunately, it works like a charm.
I just go with distancing myself from the crowd and going off on independent research and then throwing out my ideas from what I’ve read or found. Could turn out I’m wrong.
I used to be into “carb cycling” and keto mostly when I was working out much more hardcore (hypertrophy training only, very little cardio) almost every day many, many years back. It worked for me to retain muscle mass but I was also taking other things like ephedrine/caffeine which could be confounding. I found high carb (but more fermentation in gut), low-moderate protein (significantly less complete protein, high glycine, low methionine) with long enough fasting periods (which produces ketosis, faster in lean subjects) and occasional “cheat meals” + acarbose for social reasons is my personal preference and what I currently favor. Breaking your diet occasionally and eating elevated amounts of BCAAs from diet occasionally, particularly on workout days - but not breaking meal timing isn’t going to kill you IMO. Okinawans ate occasional pork (red meat!) and seafood.
I mean even one dose of antibiotics isn’t going to kill all your gut bacteria - maybe 1/2 - assuming you’re not supplementing with synbiotics. I just like to keep my gut bacteria well most of the time - it appears to be a much better way to make supplements for you as I’ve seen enough cheating in the supplement industry.
This is partly due to SCFAs and gut flora which is still controversial. I’m not tied to it - may change in the future. I mean even 30% or higher CR without malnutrition isn’t as robust as people think as the trials on humans are limited. There might be a 1/3 chance it reduces lifespan in some humans. I wouldn’t bet on it too hard - mostly mild CR is okay for me - until there’s enough data.
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I very much agree with Peter on this. Allulose is my go to sweetener now, erythritol coming in at second.
Not only can it reduce glucose levels but it may decrease visceral fat as well.
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Same here. I really like allulose in my morning coffee. It appears to be quite safe, and the research on potential health benefits is compelling.
I was just on the verge of replacing my (low) stevia use with trehalose, but is allurose to be preferred over trehalose? I’m neither a chemist or a HCP.
FWIW
If you review the start of this thread, the original subject was using trehalose and rapamycin for Alzheimer’s disease.
How did the subject go to other compound’s for replacement “sweeteners”?
From 1st posting;
"Trehalose treatment significantly upregulated autophagy in the hippocampus and frontal cortex, while the combined treatment was more efficient in inducing autophagy than monotherapies in the amygdala and dentate gyrus.
Conclusion
This study shows that the induction of autophagy by trehalose alone or in combination with rapamycin in general is more beneficial than rapamycin-only treatment in an animal model of AD. This points out the importance of activating the mTOR-independent pathway to address neurodegeneration.
The authors argue that unlike rapamycin, which acts through mTOR, trehalose affects the expression of several transcription factors, including FOXO1 and TFEB, which, in turn, regulate the expression of autophagy genes. This leads to an increased production of lysosomes."
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Unfortunately, all of the wonderful “oses” trehalose, allulose, etc., have a common effect on me; just a little too much produce, gassiness, bloating, and diarrhea.
For my particular needs, I prefer D-Ribose. It is much sweeter than trehalose so that I can actually use much less of it as a sweetener.