Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!mit-eddie!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Glucose Digestion
Message-ID: <393@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 9 Jul 88 23:07:49 GMT
References: <5193@super.upenn.edu> 
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: sci.bio
Distribution: na
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 27

In article  dd26+@andrew.cmu.edu (Douglas F. DeJulio) writes:
>*Excerpts from ext.nn.sci.bio: 27-Jun-88 Glucose Digestion Siufai*
>*Li@eniac.seas.upe (237)*
>
>> I have been told that humans can only digest R-glucose, but not L-glucose.
>> But that both taste as sweet.  Therefore to get really rich, find a cheap
>> way to make L-glucose.  Can anyone in netland confirm/deny this rumor?
>
>        The rumor is true: there are two varieties of glucose, both taste
>sweet, only one is metabolized properly.  If I remember correctly, the 'wrong'
>type of glucose does mean nasty ugly things to the liver or kidneys.
>
>Doug.deJ

You're not going to get rich off it, either, unless you coerce the
rights off the company in Rockville, Maryland (I think, and I can't
remember the name; "Biogenenterectitech" would be a fair guess) to the
stuff.  They produce it only in very small quantities, not enough to
even bake a cake with, or so the story in _The Washington Post_ went a
couple of years back.  Therefore, a *cheap* way to make it, as you say,
would be quite profitable.

                   --Blair

P.S. Hey! This is sci.bio! Can anyone explain the difference between 
tasting L-glucose and digesting it?  I'm a lowly VLSI engineer,
and it's a long time since...