Diabetic Hypertension Browning of the Arteries
...View all 190 posts... I decorated a flan with a drizzle of honey, and my torch produced a toasted spiral. That was just fructose plus proteins, with a little heat, to produce advanced glycation end products (AGE) that are brown. If you prefer, you can do the same reaction with egg whites and sugar in meringues, or by grilling brined pork chops basted with honey and anchovy paste. Fructose is 10X better than other sugars at producing glycation, AGE and browning. AGE and Arteries Why do we care about the Maillard reaction and advanced glycation end products (AGEs)? Of course, understanding the biochemistry of cooking is inherently satisfying and it helps to explain why Dr. House used vinegar to stop meatballs from browning too fast in his cooking class, but it also explains what’s cooking in atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease. It turns out that AGEs are highly inflammatory and inflammation of arteries leads to plaque formation. [LDL is less i...