You may someday be able to feast like a king but fool your body into believing it has received a healthfully small caloric ration.
Researchers at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore have developed a modified form of glucose -- 2-deoxy-D-glucose, or 2DG -- that cannot be used for energy production.
"This competes with glucose in the biochemical pathways and tricks cells into thinking they are receiving fewer calories," says senior researcher Mark Mattson, Ph.D., who presented the findings at the 2002 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. "You can eat a normal diet, but this altered form of glucose has the same effect as eating less."
Didn't we once hear a similar claim about the fat substitute Olestra? Perhaps, but Mattson says that Olestra and 2DG function in completely different ways. Olestra is designed to stay in the intestines, whereas 2DG is absorbed into the bloodstream and brought to cells as if it were glucose. "We're still in the experimental stage, so we won't know for several years whether there are side effects that would preclude it from widespread use," says Mattson.
