Eating Less Without Eating Less

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.

Aside from providing fewer calories, a diet that replaces glucose
with 2DG also provides the neurological benefits of a low-calorie diet:
increased production of growth factors and "stress proteins" in the
brain. Two of these proteins are believed to help neurons withstand
damage, and another may actually increase production of new nerve cells
and help existing neurons resist disease and aging.