Potassium research

I have done some short experiments, and I'd like to share some preliminary
results.

I have been researching the "potassium" connection, and am nearly convinced
that the part of "potassium" that works is the gluconate part of the usual
potassium formulation that people take. This is due to personal experience
with zinc gluconate and reports of magnesium gluconate having a calming
effect.

Further research on gluconate led me to investigate other related acids; they
are in the alpha hydroxy acid category, so-called "fruit acids". It appears
that lemon juice in particular might be useful as a counterirritant, and may
even be good (as lemon juice in hot water instead of coffee) when taken
internally.

This lead to further research on glucose itself. I have found that it is the
primary carbon source that is used in the lab to grow yeasts. One reason is
that it is some yeasts' favorite food. In particular, glucose is taken in by
some yeasts 10 times faster than the next common available sugar, fructose,
and 100 times faster than some other more exotic sugars.

This led me to the following experiment. I bought some glucose pills, which
are sold over the counter in pharmacies for diabetics, and used to counteract
bad insulin reactions. I took 25 grams, about the amount you would find in a
soft drink if it were made from glucose instead. I took it on a relatively
calm day at work, but in about six hours or so I was pulling moderately.

So I bought some fructose. This is available in many supermarkets in little
coffee-sized packets. I took 25 grams again, on a hectic day at work.
Nothing.

So, a suggestion for experimentation. People who can control the sugars they
add to their food and/or beverages could try using fructose instead of common
table sugar (which is made of sucrose, a chemically bonded form of half
fructose and half glucose) or instead of honey (which the bees predigest so
that it is a free form of half fructose and half glucose).

There is no free lunch, however. Even though fructose is "natural" and comes
from fruit (hence its name), it has been shown to elevate cholesterol and
triglycerides, and is best used in moderation. If you're going to use it
extensively (and it is quite expensive compared with regular sugar), please
check with your doctor first.

Further research indicates that most fruits aren't sweeet just from pure
fructose, either: most are sweet predominately from blends of glucose,
fructose, and sucrose, but they have other weird sugars too. So I would guess
even if you go the natural fruit sugar route, it may be best for pulling
purposes to go for naturally tart fruits (like apples) over non-tart fruits
(like bananas) because of the possible advantages of the alpha hydroxy acids
in them.

Let see: your mileage will probably vary. But I would be very happy to hear
exactly how. Please let the list know if you try anything with fructose.

John (a naturally sweet man--but not a honey of one)


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Date: Fri, 30 Oct 98 18:32:53 EST
From: "John R. Kender" <jrk@opus.cs.columbia.edu>
Subject: TTM: A bit more on fructose

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Hallopals,

I hate to follow up my own message, but there was a small bug in what I had
sent.

I had said that the 25 grams of glucose that I took was about the amount you
would find in a soft drink if it were "made of glucose instead". I should
have explained better what I meant.

Most soft drinks are now made with "high fructose corn syrup" (HFCS in the
trade). But industrial-grade HFCS is about 55% fructose, 45% glucose. Most
soft drinks have about 40 grams of sugar per 12 ounce can, which is about 22
grams of fructose, 18 grams of glucose. So the 25 grams of glucose I took is
about the amount you would find in a soft drink if it were made of glucose
only, instead of what it really is made of, namely, fructose plus glucose. In
any case, what I took was an amount that was about equal to what I think is
the "guilty" part of a soft drink.

(Actually, this is not quite correct still, since some soft drinks are made
with both HFCS and also some "sugar", presumably sucrose. In that case, it is
hard to figure out exactly how much glucose there is, but in any case I took
at least that much.)

My error. The pulling was real, though.

John

Subject: Re: TTM: Some possible good news on the diet front

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comptons asks how glucose can be bad but gluconate can be good.

Glucose is a basic energy supply and raw building material for most living
things. To get the energy, though, the ring of atoms that make up the
molecule has to be split by the action of enzymes in the cells.

Gluconate is not glucose, but it is closely related to glucose, and in fact
forms a ring of its own once it is in water, called gluconolactone. This last
chemical looks just enough like glucose to fit into the active site of the
critical enzymes, but because it is just different enough from glucose, it
can't be split. In fact, it can't get out. This blocks the enzyme from doing
any further glucose work, and the cell is deprived of the energy it needs.

If there is a yeast involved in pulling, one way that "potassium" might work
is that the gluconate part turns off the yeast's processing of glucose. This
would keep the yeast from making the chemicals that pullers may experience as
itch-making.

That's the gist of it. More details available on request.

John