Alfred Nobel

- The Man Behind the Nobel Prize .....

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace. The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize. But who was Alfred Nobel? Articles, photographs, a slide show and poetry written by Nobel himself are presented here to give a glimpse of a man whose varied interests are reflected in the prize he established. Meet Alfred Nobel - scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, author and pacifist

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Sorbitol: a hazard for diabetics ?

Today's advanced treatments have transformed the less severe form of diabetes (type 2) from the rapid killer it once was to a disease which can be readily controlled. But with that control have come increasing numbers of long-term complications -- problems that never before had time to develop.

The enzyme that causes problems is called aldose reductase. In the body, it converts glucose into a related sugar called sorbitol -- a process that takes place to a small extent in all of us, even though it serves no known purpose.

Conversion of glucose to sorbitol is greatly accelerated in diabetics, and that can cause dangerous complications over time. Since sorbitol can't exit from your cells very fast, and is not used in the body, it accumulates and attracts water. This causes the cells to swell, which can result in nerve, eye, kidney and blood vessel damage, as well as development of cataracts.
Up to this point, medical research has focused on more and more precise means of controlling blood glucose levels as the way to head off long-term complications of diabetes. Some progress has been made, and new high technology methods of delivering insulin to the body may achieve that goal. But on a more immediate and practical level, diabetics still have unavoidably large changes in blood glucose, and drugs to reduce levels of sorbitol by inhibiting the aldose reductase enzyme are viewed as a simpler, more effective way to achieve the same result.

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Sorbitol

" Sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol are all sugar alcohols and are not SCD™ legal. They fall under the category of indigestible carbs and sugars, and so allow companies to label things 'sugar free', even though they are providing nutrition to the bacteria that live in your digestive tract".

From http://wilstar.com/lowcarb/print-sugaralcohols.htm
" Sugar alcohols are chemically alcohols, but are derived from sugar molecules. They include sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, lactitol, maltitol, and others. They vary in their sweetness, ranging from about half as sweet as sugar to about as sweet.
Sugar alcohols, or polyols, may be used in place of sugar by most people on a low-carbohydrate diet or who have diabetes. Polyols are slowly and incompletely absorbed from the small intestine into the blood. Absorbed polyols are converted to energy by processes that require little or no insulin. Some of the polyol that is not absorbed into the blood is broken down into fatty acids in the large intestine.
Since they are incompletely absorbed by the intestine, over-consumption may produce a laxative effect in some people. They are often used in "sugar free" candies and syrups. They have about half to three-fourths as many calories as sugar."
These are exactly the kind of sugars we want to avoid, because they are designed, literally, to stay in our gut and not be absorbed. We can't digest them, but they are beloved by the bugs that live in our guts.

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