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...