Advanced Glycation End Products
AGEs You!

Advanced Glycation End Products are called AGEs for Short and That's Exactly What They Do to Your Body. AGEs are Implicated in Many Age Related Chronic Diseases.

What are Advanced Glycation End Products
or AGEs?

Glycation can be described as the binding of a glucose molecule to a protein molecule resulting in the formation of damaged protein structures.

The sugar molecule will end up in the wrong place on the protein or fatty acid molecule and your body will not be able to metabolize or get rid of it very easily.

Here's a Visual Aid:

The glycation process is what turns your Thanksgiving Turkey brown and is exactly what can happen to the proteins inside of your body.

Where Do AGEs Come From?

Cooking foods using heat and without water or other liquids, causes sugars to bind non-enzymatically with proteins or fats and form AGEs or Glycotoxins.

A more descriptive term for AGEs is "Glycotoxin" since they are toxic to the body.

Foods high in protein and fat (like animal foods) and foods high in sugar (like fructose) that are cooked, heated, or processed at high temperatures will be loaded with Glycotoxins or AGEs.

Once you've eaten, your body can still undergo glycation with the sugars left in your blood and produce AGEs internally.

And fructose and galactose undergo glycation at about 10 times the rate as glucose - Yikes!

How Does The Body Deal With AGEs?

The half life of AGEs is about double that of your average cell life.

This means that damage can last for quite some time, especially in your nerve cells, brain cells, eye and collagen proteins, and your DNA.

Unfortunately, AGEs are highly resistant to the protein renewal that is needed to maintain the healthy tone of body tissues and organs.

And your body's ability to remove AGEs through excretion is pretty limited.

About 10% to 30% of the AGEs you eat are absorbed, about 2/3's are retained in your body, and 1/3 will be eliminated in your urine.

These AGEs or Glycotoxins accumulate in our brains, eyes, collagen of our skin, nervous system, arteries and vital organs.

AGE Related Diseases

The glycation process creates proteins in your body that are crosslinked and barely functional.

These types of proteins accumulate in your body, along with free radicals and inflammation.

How to Protect Yourself?

A lower intake of sugar in combination with a careful diet in terms of reduced AGE consumption is optimal for management of AGE formation.

You should consider steaming, boiling, poaching, stewing, stir frying, or even using a slow cooker to cook your foods.

These methods not only cook foods with a lower amount of heat, but they create more moisture during the cooking process.

Water prevents these sugars from binding to the protein and fat molecules and preparing food at temperatures less than 250 Degrees F minimizes the formation of AGEs.

Eating rare or medium-rare meats will contain fewer AGEs than well-done.

Include more fresh foods in your diet like low glycemic fruits, green vegetables, raw seeds or nuts, and other unprocessed, raw foods.

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