How to Protect Yourself Against Dietary AGEs Without Cutting Out the Foods You Love
And yes, that includes sugar & fruit
This is the second article from my series about advanced glycation end products (AGEs).
The first article - “How eating carbs protects against advanced glycation end products (AGEs)” - goes over some key misconceptions about glycation, such as that dietary sugar is the main contributor to the creation of AGEs and that ketogenic diets can limit the creation of AGEs in our bodies.
What are AGEs?
Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are a class of molecules capable of damaging proteins, such as the proteins that make up our skin and even the proteins in our mitochondria that allow our cells to make energy. Apart from directly damaging proteins, AGEs also activate a variety of metabolic pathways that can impair the cells’ ability to make energy, increase oxidative stress, and even cause cell death, and have been seen to contribute to the progression and development of diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, kidney disease, and more.
As mentioned in the first article, there are two main avenues through which our bodies can get exposed to AGEs - AGEs can be generated in our bodies, especially under conditions of impaired energy metabolism, or they can enter our bodies via the foods we eat. This article will focus on the latter, especially since limiting dietary AGEs has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and attenuate diabetic complications.
There is a lot of conflicting information out there when it comes to food-derived AGEs. The keto crew argues that everyone should avoid carbohydrates because sugars glycate proteins and create AGEs, which then will make us look old, brown, and wrinkly, and give us Alzheimer’s and diabetes. The plant-based crew argues that we should avoid all meat, as meat contains AGEs that will…you guessed it…make us look old, brown, and wrinkly, and give us Alzheimer’s and diabetes. The raw foodists argue that we should eat all foods raw because cooking creates AGEs and…well, you know the rest.
Since the paths leading to AGE formation and accumulation in the body are numerous and diverse, the argument can be spun in any way, especially by those who want to uphold a specific extremist dietary ideology. My goal with this article is to plug in the nuance and context into all these claims to help you effectively reduce your exposure to and protect yourself against dietary AGEs in ways that don’t require living off of ice cubes.
In this article:
Are food-derived AGEs a concern?
Which foods are high in AGEs?
How cooking methods affect AGE formation
Are some food-derived AGEs beneficial?
How certain foods shield us against AGEs
Why we shouldn’t fear fruit (and more on fructose in the context of glycation)
10 practical tips for protecting yourself against dietary AGEs