Sugar transport and weight gain

[Peter]

I was browsing wikipedia this morning, and came across some stuff on sugar uptake in the GI tract.

Fructose absorption occurs via the GLUT-5[43] (fructose only) transporter, and the GLUT2 transporter, for which it competes with glucose and galactose. A deficiency of GLUT 5 may result in excess fructose carried into the lower intestine.[citation needed] There, it can provide nutrients for the existing gut flora, which produce gas. It may also cause water retention in the intestine. These effects may lead to bloating, excessive flatulence, loose stools, and even diarrhea depending on the amounts eaten and other factors.

I've always had issues with flatulence from carby food and have never put on fat easily, and I wonder if it's at least partly because I have a comparatively small number of sugar transporters in my small intestine, which prevents me from absorbing large quantities of sugar from carbohydrates in my food before the food reaches my large intestine and gets fermented by the bacteria there.  I seem better adapted to eating and digesting meat, nuts, mushrooms and other high-protein foods; they never give me any digestive problems, I find them more appealing and satisfying than high-carb foods and even my teeth are a bit on the sharp and carnivorous side.

It may be that some people who struggle with unwanted weight gain have a large number of these transporters and absorb nearly all the carbohydrates they consume.

[Mr Smith]

I was browsing wikipedia this morning, and came across some stuff on sugar uptake in the GI tract.

Fructose absorption occurs via the GLUT-5[43] (fructose only) transporter, and the GLUT2 transporter, for which it competes with glucose and galactose. A deficiency of GLUT 5 may result in excess fructose carried into the lower intestine.[citation needed] There, it can provide nutrients for the existing gut flora, which produce gas. It may also cause water retention in the intestine. These effects may lead to bloating, excessive flatulence, loose stools, and even diarrhea depending on the amounts eaten and other factors.

I've always had issues with flatulence from carby food and have never put on fat easily, and I wonder if it's at least partly because I have a comparatively small number of sugar transporters in my small intestine, which prevents me from absorbing large quantities of sugar from carbohydrates in my food before the food reaches my large intestine and gets fermented by the bacteria there.  I seem better adapted to eating and digesting meat, nuts, mushrooms and other high-protein foods; they never give me any digestive problems, I find them more appealing and satisfying than high-carb foods and even my teeth are a bit on the sharp and carnivorous side.

It may be that some people who struggle with unwanted weight gain have a large number of these transporters and absorb nearly all the carbohydrates they consume.

Yeah, carbs are often the problem, my digestion is shit, due to gluten intolerrence and poor diet which i'm trying to recify. It can be helped by just eating better, but I've heard of carb blockers available on the market.

[Peter]

I just found this: 

Fructose malabsorption or Dietary Fructose Intolerance is a digestive disorder[1] of the small intestine in which the fructose carrier in enterocytes is deficient. As a result of this problem, the concentration of fructose in the entire intestine is increased. Fructose malabsorption is found in approximately 30-40% of the population of Central Europe, with about half of the affected individuals exhibiting symptoms.

I get all of these, some more often than others:

Symptoms

This condition is common in patients with symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and most patients with fructose malabsorption fit the profile of those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.[8] A small proportion of patients with both fructose malabsorption and lactose intolerance also suffer from celiac disease. Dr. De Meirlier[citation needed] has found that 45% of his patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome suffer from fructose malabsorption and 10% suffer from lactose intolerance.

Typical symptoms of fructose malabsorption include:

    * Bloating (because of fermentation in the small and large intestine)
    * Diarrhea and / or constipation
    * Flatulence
    * Stomach pain (due to muscle spasms, which can vary from mild and chronic to acute but erratic)

Other possible symptoms of fructose malabsorption include:

    * Aching eyes
    * Fuzzy head
    * Fatigue
    * Depression[9] as a result of absorption disorders in the small and large intestines, other substances such as amino acids are not absorbed. Because of missing substances (among others tryptophan), hormones and neurotransmitters cannot be synthesized.

This is particularly interesting, since apples are one of the worst foods for giving me flatulence (I don't eat pears much because I don't like them):

The only aberrantly high fructose fruits are apple and pear, which have twice as much fructose as glucose.

[Mr Smith]

Apples are very good for the bowel though Peter. I wouldn't go by what wiki says too much.

[Peter]

Apples are very good for the bowel though Peter. I wouldn't go by what wiki says too much.

Good for who's bowel?  They make mine bloat up.

[Mr Smith]

Apples are very good for the bowel though Peter. I wouldn't go by what wiki says too much.

Good for who's bowel?  They make mine bloat up.

Are you sure it's the apples doing that?

[Peter]

Apples are very good for the bowel though Peter. I wouldn't go by what wiki says too much.

Good for who's bowel?  They make mine bloat up.

Are you sure it's the apples doing that?

Pretty sure.  I can be fairly confident of imminent digestive trouble if I eat more than one apple in a short period.

[vodz]

Afterall, the saying is an apple a day...etc.

[The Member Formerly Known As Sophist]

Any sort of food intolerance, like gluten intolerance, will trigger inflammation in the GI tract and will reduce nutrient absorption. The amount of inflammation and hence the severity of malabsorption will depend on how severe the reaction is. It will also likely cause symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, abdominal pain, etc.

So, Peter, you could also be gluten intolerant, especially if you do better on no-carb diets.

I would say mild versions of gluten intolerance are much more common than is thought. I think, as a protein, gluten has never been too kind on the human intestinal tract. And it really hasn't been in our diets for very long; only since we started farming.

[vodz]

Any sort of food intolerance, like gluten intolerance, will trigger inflammation in the GI tract and will reduce nutrient absorption. The amount of inflammation and hence the severity of malabsorption will depend on how severe the reaction is. It will also likely cause symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, abdominal pain, etc.

So, Peter, you could also be gluten intolerant, especially if you do better on no-carb diets.

I would say mild versions of gluten intolerance are much more common than is thought. I think, as a protein, gluten has never been too kind on the human intestinal tract. And it really hasn't been in our diets for very long; only since we started farming.

It really is like glue.

Stick to rice, more protein.

[The Member Formerly Known As Sophist]

Any sort of food intolerance, like gluten intolerance, will trigger inflammation in the GI tract and will reduce nutrient absorption. The amount of inflammation and hence the severity of malabsorption will depend on how severe the reaction is. It will also likely cause symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, abdominal pain, etc.

So, Peter, you could also be gluten intolerant, especially if you do better on no-carb diets.

I would say mild versions of gluten intolerance are much more common than is thought. I think, as a protein, gluten has never been too kind on the human intestinal tract. And it really hasn't been in our diets for very long; only since we started farming.

It really is like glue.

Stick to rice, more protein.

I'm nominating Brown Rice for President.  I will wear shirts and put bumper stickers on my car that say "Rice for President 2008".

[vodz]

Any sort of food intolerance, like gluten intolerance, will trigger inflammation in the GI tract and will reduce nutrient absorption. The amount of inflammation and hence the severity of malabsorption will depend on how severe the reaction is. It will also likely cause symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, abdominal pain, etc.

So, Peter, you could also be gluten intolerant, especially if you do better on no-carb diets.

I would say mild versions of gluten intolerance are much more common than is thought. I think, as a protein, gluten has never been too kind on the human intestinal tract. And it really hasn't been in our diets for very long; only since we started farming.

It really is like glue.

Stick to rice, more protein.

I'm nominating Brown Rice for President.  I will wear shirts and put bumper stickers on my car that say "Rice for President 2008".

/groan

[Gluey]

Apples are very good for the bowel though Peter. I wouldn't go by what wiki says too much.

Good for who's bowel?  They make mine bloat up.

Are you sure it's the apples doing that?

Apples would be the last thing I would think to cause gas.

[Callaway]

Any amount of apple juice, no matter how much it was watered down, used to give my daughter horrible diarrhea when she was younger, although she could eat an apple slice or drink grape juice without getting it.  I wondered if it was because she could not absorb the fructose in the apple juice, so it acted like an osmotic laxative in her large intestine.

[Peter]

Any sort of food intolerance, like gluten intolerance, will trigger inflammation in the GI tract and will reduce nutrient absorption. The amount of inflammation and hence the severity of malabsorption will depend on how severe the reaction is. It will also likely cause symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, abdominal pain, etc.

So, Peter, you could also be gluten intolerant, especially if you do better on no-carb diets.

I would say mild versions of gluten intolerance are much more common than is thought. I think, as a protein, gluten has never been too kind on the human intestinal tract. And it really hasn't been in our diets for very long; only since we started farming.

I largely cut out gluten from my diet years ago, so it's not that, and I don't consume milk products either.  Also, if I drink a lot of water with an apple, the effect is a lot worse for some reason.