Carb Blockers-Vital or Valueless?

Can "Carb Blockers" be a useful aid to managed nutrition and effective in supporting weight loss or is this just another over-hyped supplement?

If you are on a carb restricted diet plan as part of your weight loss program it can be very difficult to eliminate enough carbohydrates to get your desired balance of macronutrient components right.

This is where sometimes you can use some extra help, and the idea of "Carb Blockers" is that by "blocking" some of the carbs from being absorbed by your digestive system you can achieve the desired effect whilst still being able to eat relatively "normally". So, how do these supplements work and are they effective? Well, my "technical" research has turned up the following information:

Carb Blockers are really starch-enzyme blockers; they inhibit the body's production of the starch-digesting enzyme, alpha-amylase. With lessened amounts of alpha-amylase, the body is less able to break down starches (carbohydrates) into sugar (glucose) for further digestion. That's how starch blockers apparently work - at least on a theoretical level. Phaseolamin Phase 2 Phaseolus vulgaris (white kidney bean) extract is an alpha-amylase inhibitor.

It would seem that scientists have been aware of various alpha-amylase inhibitors for a long time, but up until recently these type of products did not appear to work all that well because there was not enough alpha-amylase-blocking activity. They did not work well in the body, because they contained endogenous alpha-amylase in sufficient quantity to overcome their alpha-amylase-inhibiting effects, or because possibly another enzyme, glucoamylase, was able to take over when alpha-amylase was inhibited. Whatever the problem, fecal-calorie tests demonstrated that they did not work very well at blocking the digestion of starch (an increase in fecal starch content, and therefore, caloric value would have been be apparent since the starch should pass through undigested) in vivo (in the body). Nevertheless, most of these alpha-amylase inhibitors have been shown to work in vitro (in a test tube), which left scientists frustratingly just out of reach of producing an effective diet product from these starch inhibitors.

However, as a result of later research, it has come to light that the reason why alpha-amylase inhibitors work in vitro but not very well in vivo is that they have only weak inhibiting ability. But, partially purified extracts (around 30-40 times the concentration of previously available commercial preparations) of Phaseolus vulgaris (white kidney beans) are stable in the stomach and do, in fact, work effectively. One such product is Phaseolamin Phase 2.

An alpha-amylase inhibitor present in Phaseolus vulgaris (white kidney beans), appears to be the best alpha-amylase inhibitor currently available. In randomized clinical tests against a placebo, conducted at the University of Scranton, 'Phase 2 Phaseolamin brand Phaseolus vulgaris' extract (taken in 500mg doses) seems to have been demonstrated as effective in assisting  controlled weight loss in the subjects of the trials.

So, that is the "science" behind this supplement and I will leave you to draw your own conclusions from it. All I can say is that when I tried this out it seemed to make a difference and I still managed to loose weight without reducing my carbs to a "deprived" level. However, what is clear to me is that this will not work if you simply take it as "carte blanche" to gorge as many carbs as you like in the assumption these will all be "neutralized" by the pills. I think that the best approach is to reduce your carb intake to reasonably low levels (but short of the level where you develop carb cravings) and look upon the effect of the Carb Blockers as an "extra bonus"

One thing that is clear is that (like many products in the weight loss market) there are plenty of "dodgy" substances about in this category and therefore you need to be careful that the Carb Blockers that you buy appear to be from a reputable supplier and are of good quality.

If you think that this is an area where you could use some help and would like to "cheat" a little then it may be worth giving Carb Blockers a try. If so, the link below will take you to a reputable supplier where you can check them out.

SEE ALSO: "Carb Blockers, A Solution to Weight Loss?" -ARTICLE BY Kristy Haugen IN USEFUL WEIGHT LOSS ARTICLES SECTION

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