Smart Cooks Age Better - The Food Cure: Your Healthy Eating ...

Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs)
What’s in a name In this case…everything.
Advanced glycation end products (AGEs)
will in fact speed up the aging process. But
that’s not all they’ll do.
AGEs have been directly linked to the
cornerstones of chronic disease— inflammation
and insulin resistance—and are also implicated
in the development and progression of
diabetes, vascular and kidney disease, and
Alzheimer's disease.
AGEs are the end-products of glycation
reactions—the scientific term for a sugar
molecule binding to a protein or a lipid.
AGEs can come into the body through the foods we eat (called exogenous AGEs) or
can be produced by our metabolism of foods (called endogenous AGEs). Either way,
we have the power to avoid them.
Here’s why.
Exogenous AGEs come pre-packaged. They are in the brown sauce of a microwaved
meat meal, the caramel hue of a cola and the crisp shell of a crème brulee. They are
preformed and all have something in common—they’re brown.
This ―browning‖ reaction (properly called the Maillard reaction in chemistry) is what
causes carmelization. And carmelization is the visible effect of a sugar molecule
attaching itself to a protein and creating an AGE.
Endogenous AGEs, on the other hand, are manufactured by the body’s metabolic
processes. But to create these aging compounds, the body requires one specific
ingredient. Sugar.
And when it comes to the type of sugar, the rule is this: A sugar molecule is a sugar
molecule. So whether it be from a delicious, nutrient-packed grape or an artificiallyflavored
jelly bean, eating sugar flips the switch to the ―on‖ position of the body’s
AGE process (you’ll learn more about the other reasons to avoid sugar in Your
Guide to Living a Low Glycemic Lifestyle).
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