What Are Saccharides and Why Are They Important?

Excerpted from
Sugars That Heal: The New Healing Science of Glyconutrients
By Emil I. Mondoa, M.D.

Monosaccharide conies from the Greek monos, which means "one," and sakcharon meaning "sugar." From monosaccharides-the simplest form of sugar-more complex molecules are assembled. Two saccharides link together to form a substance with two molecules called a disaccharide. Sucrose (from cane sugar and sugar beets) is a disaccharide, as is lactose. Found in milk, lactose consists of one molecule of glucose and one of galactose. Oligosaccharides consist of three to six monosaccharides and are found in breast milk and plants: they coat our mucus-membrane linings and are present in saliva. Link many monosaccharides together-from hundreds to thousands-and you fashion a very large molecule called a polysaccharide. Starch is a polysaccharide, as is glycogen. Stored in the liver as a backup source of fuel, our bodies convert glycogen back to glucose when we need the energy. The pages on which these words are written are composed of another polysaccharide called cellulose. Unlike other creatures. including deer that feast in your garden and termites that munch the clapboard on your house, we cannot digest cellulose because our guts do not possess die necessary enzyme.

The chemical structures of saccharides convey distinct, stable cellular messages. The saccharide molecule contains component atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen arranged in a ring. The ratio is always 1:2:1. So for every unit of carbon and oxygen there are two units of hydrogen. In the case of glucose, for instance, there are six carbon atoms, twelve hydrogen, and six oxygen.

The way in which the individual sugar molecules are joined to each other determines how the body absorbs and uses them. Consider a piece of coal and a diamond. It's hard to think of two objects more different from each other. Yet both are pure carbon. The difference lies in the way in which the individual atoms bond to each other. Likewise, the way the individual saccharide molecules of the eight essential saccharides bond to each other appears to be nutritionally important.

Saccharides are so important that our bodies have developed a backup process for producing the ones in which our diets are deficient. Indeed, using multiple steps, numerous enzymes, and lots of energy-producing molecules such as ATP, most healthy bodies can create every other saccharide from glucose. Enzymes are basically molecular machines that perform energy transfers, converting molecules to new forms-they're in fact the most advanced micromachines ever devised. Xylose, for example, is several steps and enzymes away from glucose. Yet as anyone who has worked in an assembly line knows, it takes just one machine breaking down to shut down the line.

In much the same way, one enzyme not working properly is all that it takes to jam up the works in the body and create inaccurate cell messages. The viruses, bacteria, and environmental toxins that invade our bodies compete for the same vital enzymes that convert saccharides from one form to another. The result, some scientists now believe, is that under stress the body may not be able to manufacture essential saccharides fast enough, dealing instead faulty messages by manufacturing inaccurate glycoproteins, the substances that contain sugars and proteins. At first, the body won't work optimally. Eventually, illness may result, particularly if the body is put under unusual or prolonged physical or emotional stress. Supplementing with foods and supplements rich in glyconutrients can help prevent potential breakdowns in glycoprotein manufacture and head off illness.

Multicellular Intelligence

Residing in the brain are as many neurons as stars in the Milky Way. It's estimated that, in total, each of us is made up of 50 to 100 trillion cells, give or take a few trillion. A hundred trillion of anything working together is more complex than any system that human society has ever designed. Scientists have only scratched the surface in understanding how the human body operates and how it keeps its act together. Even the Human Genome Project, the thirteen-year effort by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health to identify all 100,000 genes in human DMA, is not dealing in trillions of neurons. When thinking about the complexity of the human body, you have to wonder, How do all the cells gel along? How do they maintain coherence and cohesion?

The answer lies in communication, and saccharides are an important part of the process. The cells in our bodies use saccharides to communicate with each other-what I call "multicellular intelligence." How important are these sugars? Most people know the four major blood types: O, A, B, and AB. What most people don't realize is that saccharides determine the difference between one blood type and another-and transfusing the wrong blood type can result in illness or death.

From the very beginning of life cells communicate with each other using sugars on the surface of the cell. This complex language is part of the glue that holds the complex system of the human body together-and keeps out what doesn't belong. A woman's egg recognizes suitable healthy sperm of its own species from the complex of saccharides at the tip of the sperm that talk to corresponding sugars and proteins on the surface of the egg cell. A sperm cell from a species different than the egg's will not be welcome: a cat-dog creature will never be created naturally because the cat and the dog eggs and sperm have distinct identities conveyed through saccharides. It is a foolproof insurance against genetic chaos. Saccharides enable cells to give and receive instructions, respond to each other's needs, know when to stop multiplying, and respect each other's space. Virtually every change within our multicellular bodies, from conception until death, is to some degree mediated by this language of sugars.

Sugars Versus Proteins

Until recently it was thought that pure proteins alone were responsible for cell communication, whereas saccharides were relegated to a lowly status in the nutritional world as cheap and abundant sources of energy. When I was a medical student twenty years ago I was taught that the unusual sugars found on the coats of cells were mostly a nuisance that prevented scientists from studying the precious proteins entombed within them.

We've come a long way in our thinking since then. While there is no doubt that proteins play a cardinal role in cell communication, there are limits to the number of messages they can convey within a limited space. Two identical amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, can combine to form only one biochemical message, whereas two identical monosaccharides can form eleven distinct molecules. But that's only the beginning: Four different amino acids can form only twenty-four distinct molecules, whereas four different saccharides can potentially combine into 35,560 distinct molecules called tetrasaccharides. We now know that each of these 35,560 different tetrasaccharide shapes is potentially a distinct letter in the language of the cells. Saccharides thus have an overwhelming edge in forming molecular messages over the bulkier proteins. They're ideal for transmitting lots of biological information in compact packages, with a distinct advantage over proteins, which require significantly more mass and space to convey the identical amount of biological information.