SubscribeSugarest: Does it Really Block Sugar?
Sugarest is a tablet based on the Indian herb Gymnema sylvestre. You place a tablet in your mouth for a few minutes, and apparently for the next 20-30 minutes sugary foods lose their sweetness.
According to the manufacturer Genotec Nutritional this is "long enough for a dieter to defeat their sugar cravings and lose their desire for sweet but fattening foods".
The taste-blocking effects of the active ingredient, gymnemic acid, have been known for some time, but the herbal tablet was introduced to stores in New York just last month. (washington post)
The company also claims that Sugarest helps smokers quite cigarettes - as cigarettes contain sweeteners. I always thought it was the nicotine that was addictive.
The tablet may well block the sweetness receptors - but how this affects consumption of sugary foods remains to be seen. You would have to be taking the tablets non-stop.
Toothpaste would probably have the same affect.
NOTE: Sugarest can be purchased online at $9.99
Another no-sweat, no-hard-work, just-pop-a-pill solution for both weight loss and smoking. Jeez.
I think all this will accomplish is make people delay their sugar fix for 20 - 30 minutes.
It sure doesn't address the root causes of easting too much sugar.
Brian
ReplyI think this may be a godsend for people with binge eating disorders. That 30 minutes may mean the difference between continuing on track with a healthy lifestyle and a 600-1000 calorie binge.
ReplyI think you just came up with Colgate's next marketing campaign. "Brush your teeth every 30 minutes and lose weight!"
ReplyThe WaPo article was interesting, thank you for posting the link. It might be useful for discouraging smoking more than controlling a sweet tooth...
ReplyI actually tried the Gymnema sylvestre supplement. A woman working at a major chain vitamin and supplement store told me about the "sugar blocking" capabilities, and since I am one of those with Binge Eating Disorder, I thought exactly the same thing that Erica said - the "makes sugar taste bad" effect might help boost my willpower until the urge to binge subsided.
Boy, was I wrong. I never got to find out if it blocked the sugar cravings, because it put me to sleep almost immediately! I thought perhaps it was a fluke or a coincidence, so I tried it again a day or two later. Almost immediately, I was drowsy, almost falling-down sleepy. Fortunately, my husband was home and could watch our son while I slept it off. It was a very good thing I wasn't driving when it happened.
I took the mostly-full bottle back to a different location of the same store, and returned it directly to the manager. He asked why I was returning it, and I told him the whole story. He seemed surprised that it was sold to me as a weight-loss aid, and told me that it was often used by people with sleep problems.
Maybe there is some way to extract the sugar-blocking properties of this substance without the sleep-inducing affects. But until that's assured, I'm going to be staying far away from it.
ReplyI heard a radio program where they tested sugarest out - what one DJ said made the most sense to me. He said that it made him want to eat more of the product because he couldn't taste the sugar he knew should be there so if he ate eating more, he thought he might eventually taste it.
ReplyHmmm... I don't think this will catch on. I think we over eat not necessarily because of taste but because of satiety. We tend to over eat because of that 'comfortable' drowsiness we get. THAT is the 'rush' over-eaters enjoy.
Replyi dont know how this work work for me considering the fact that I usualy dont eat sugary/fatty foods for the taste
ReplyBryan have you tried it? Because for me after a few bottles of using it I have stopped craving sweets. It is mental association with the negative taste. Eventually you will forget to take sugarest and you will remember how the sweets tasted like nothing so you will not want them anymore. Try it before you knock it.
ReplyThe sugarest worked for me and 3 of my coworkers. It causes sweets to have an almost bitter type taste to it and you WILL NOT want anything sweet in your mouth. And it lasted much longer than 30 minutes on each of us. The time range was 2-6 hours before anyone would even attempt anything sweet. This included diet sodas. They just had a bad taste kind of like dirty water.
ReplyBuy it and try it. Two thumbs up in Texas!