February 09, 2001
Issue # 33

Chatting with the Doc!!
by Dr. Seth Elliot

Question:  You know, a few months ago I read some of your stuff on meal replacements and you slammed maltodextrin and fructose hard.  I thought you were crazy, like out of your mind, crazy.  Well, I now have to eat some humble pie and tell you that you were right, like totally right.  I am forty years old and have been weightlifting for almost fifteen years and have always seen maltodextrin and fructose used in the supplements that I take.  Heck, maltodextrin has always been listed as a complex carbohydrate.  You know as well as I that we have been brainwashed to believe that complex carbohydrates are good for you.  You hear it over and over again that complex carbs have a slow release into the blood, are beneficial on insulin sensitivity, yada, yada, yada.  The propaganda on fructose is almost as bad these days.  I never really gave fructose a second thought until some websites and supplement companies started promoting it as a beneficial low glycemic index carbohydrate that solves the problems of other sugars. 

I want to say how much I appreciate you showing me the truth on these things.  Because of you, I decided to do my own research (I was actually going to try to prove you wrong!).  What I found was shocking.  Maltodextrin had the highest glycemic index of any carbohydrate!  Now that is exactly opposite of what I’ve been hearing everywhere else.  The more research that I did the more I realized that maltodextrin is something to stay away from.  I realized that if I ate 50g of maltodextrin, it would be like eating 15 tablespoons of pure sugar…yuck!  When I checked on fructose I found some more terrible stuff.  This sugar not only causes your triglycerides and cholesterol to go sky-high but it makes you insulin resistant.  With all of the fructose I consume in other foods, I know I’ll be staying away from this in any of my sports supplements.

I just wanted to say thanks for the good work and that I am now a believer in your work.  I do want to leave you with a question:  what are the good carbohydrates and how can I get them?

Joe Mislen

Answer:  Thank you for your kind words, Joe.  My colleagues and I spend much time researching the science behind foods and dietary supplements and we know what we are talking about.

We make mistakes that’s true but we don’t make that many.  You can count on that.  I don’t say this arrogantly but confidently.

I agree with what you found out about maltodextrin and fructose.  People in the U.S. consume far too many of them.  Fructose in my sodas, fructose in my fruit, fructose in this food and fructose in that food.

I want to stress right now that small quantities of maltodextrin and fructose in your diet is not bad.  Our bodies were made to efficiently process these carbohydrates.  The problem is that our diet has been flooded by them.  In large quantities they are detrimental.  There’s just no argument here.

I you to understand one thing that everything in business revolves around economics.  If it is cheap and it works then it will be used.  It’s no different with foods and sugars.  Fructose is incredibly cheap and more sweet than sucrose and therefore it is used as a sweetening agent in everything from sodas to cookies. 

Maltodextrin is a little different.  It is also very cheap but the differences revolve around there not being another readily available carbohydrate that is soluble and that can be called “complex”.  This word “complex” when it refers to carbohydrates just means that there are several sugar molecules joined together in a chain.  It really has nothing to do how good the carbohydrate is for you.  As you mentioned, maltodextrin spikes insulin in your blood worse than any other carbohydrate. 

I am very glad to see that you have done your body good by staying away from these harmful carbs.  I am sure your body will thank you.  I have consulted several fitness types who just couldn’t get lean on consuming meal replacements.  I quickly identified that they were consuming too much maltodextrin and fructose and had them remove this from their diet.  Over a period of several months, they noticed a significant leaning effect.  What was going on was that they started to have more level insulin levels which prevented as much lipogenesis in the adipose tissue.  The result was that they became leaner over time.

I am not sure if I am ready to answer your question.  I truly wish I could but we are working out some very important contracts with some very large companies on these proprietary carbohydrates.  I will tell you that nothing has ever been seen like this.  Nothing!  We spent over two years researching these carbohydrates.  The good news is that they will soon be hitting the market. 

Right now we are working on three novel carbs.  One is not insulogenic, one that stimulates insulin in a moderate fashion and one that is very slow acting.  I would like to call these anabolic carbs.  They truly have some remarkable effects on the metabolism.  I will keep you informed as we make more progress.

Question:  I am so stressed all the time.  I don’t want to take prescription drugs for various personal reasons.  Can you recommend anything to me that will help with my anxiety and nerves?

Mike Kilney

Right now on the market there is not a whole lot that you can take for this.  I will say that the best thing right now that you can buy without a prescription is Kava Kava.  Make sure you get a standardized version of course.  Some studies show that a dosage of 75mg of kavalactones has quite a calming effect without sedation.   Personally, I do not get much out of this dosage and recommend two to three times higher.  This dosage does much better in my opinion and still does not cause much sedation (if any). 

For about six months we have been working on some very novel, naturally occurring anxiolytics that will cool you off like in a jiffy.  We are pushing the limit here with this stuff for sure.  It will be every bit as strong as strong as some prescription anti-anxiety drugs.  Again, I wish I could tell what it is but my contracts do not allow me but I promise to speak more on this subject in the future.

I want to just throw something out to see if there is any interest.  A few months ago, a company came to us and asked for a naturally occurring compound that would be similar to GHB but would not have any legal ramifications.  We found one but then the company went belly up.  We are now stuck with this compound and are deciding what we should do with it. 

Basically, it is like GHB except that it doesn’t make you feel sleepy.  The CNS effects are quite profound.  We called the effect liquification because it seems to make your surroundings turn into some type of liquid.  You feel like your world has just turned into water.  It’s a very novel, expensive and interesting compound.  Like GHB, it has beneficial effects on other parts of the body.  If you are interested in something like this then please write Jason and let him know.  He will brief me on the response.

Question: With all the hype in the body building supplement industry and all the claims made by these supplement companies it is hard to know what is worth trying.  Supplements are not cheap and I don’t want to piss my hard earned money down the toilet.  My question is, how good is HMB and does it work?  I have heard mixed reports from a lot of people.  Some see results and some report absolutely nothing.  Do you think I should give it a try?  I like every one else want to build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Answer:  You’re right!  Supplements are expensive and it is hard to know what to believe and what not to believe.  Supplement companies who want to make their pockets fatter own many of the magazines you read. 

So whom do you trust?  My recommendations to you are to stick with honest companies whose products you have gotten results from in the past. 

As far as HMB goes, does it work?  To answer your question, YES.   HMB does work.   Just like protein, BCAA’S and glutamine, HMB works.  HMB is a metabolite of the ketoisocaproate which is a metabolite of the BCAA l-leucine.  We know how important BCAAs are to building muscle and speeding recovery. These very important amino acids are rapidly oxidized during intense physical activity and are crucially linked to the levels of glutamine in your muscle. 

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in your muscle making up about 60% of the amino acid pool in the muscle.  If glutamine levels are low then your body manufactures glutamine from BCAA’s which need to be supplied by your diet. 

So, one can definitely see that HMB play’s a role in mass building and recovery. Scientists do not know exactly how HMB works but it is believed to be involved in blunting the effects of specific catabolic processes in muscle tissue. 

Has it lived up to all the hype, NO!  There are several studies on HMB that show this is an effective compound.  The only problem with this compound is the high cost.  Most HMB products recommend only 3 grams a day.  Most of the athletes I have worked with have reported significant gains using HMB with dosages as high as 8 to 12 grams a day.  This can put a serious dent in your pocket book.  Most people cannot afford dosages this high. 

The reason for all the mixed reviews on HMB has to do with a lot of variables. How much do you weigh?  What is the level of intensity in your training?  3 grams may be fine for the geriatric community or an individual who has never touched a weight before and weighs only a buck twenty.  For someone who weight trains regularly and seeks serious gains the dosages need to be higher. 

HMB also seems to stack well with high dosages of glutamine.  I have worked with athletes who have put on several pounds of lean body mass in as little as a month with a combination of 20 grams of glutamine and 10 grams of HMB. 

There is also some new research that shows an HMB derivative to be even more effective than HMB.  This new compound may solve the problem with HMB dosages allowing for safe and effective dosages at an affordable price.

 So is HMB worth a try?  For now that depends on how much money you have to spend on supplements.  To me anything is worth a try if you can get the results you are looking for.  The misleading information by a lot of the supplement companies and magazines promise a lot of false hopes and empty dreams.  The bottom line is you have to make it work.  Nothing works by itself.  Even anabolic steroids won’t turn you in to Ronnie Coleman overnight if you don’t put in the work.  

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