Glyconutrients are sugars that are good for you; they form part of the sugars that heal your body.  Most people associate sugars with table sugar, sugarcane, which consist of two saccharides, glucose and fructose.  However there are eight essential saccharides our body needs.  They are: mannose, glucose, galactose, xylose, fucose (not to be confused with fructose), N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylgalactosamine, and N-acetylneuraminic acid.  Two of the essential sugars are found commonly in our diet, glucose, found in plants and table sugar, and galactose, found in milk products and certain pectins. Fructose found in fruit and table sugar is not essential to your diet.  

Glycoforms are molecules that cover the surface of the cell and consist of either fat or protein binding with the eight saccharides.  Glycoproteins are made of sugar and protein and glycolipids are made of fat and sugar.  These molecules can be burned as energy but they won’t make you fat or raise your insulin levels.  Studies have shown they can even help you lose weight.  They are safe for diabetics and are fine in a low-carb diet. Glyconutrients help the immune system by reactivating it to shrink cancerous tumours and can slow the progression of cancer; they can also mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.  Glucosamine is a metabolic product of N-acetylglucosamine (an essential saccharide) that has proven to be beneficial with osteoarthritis by repairing cartilage damage and reliving pain and inflammation.  Glyconutrients help the nervous system with memory, sleep, anxiety and depression.  They help with cholesterol and fats lowering LDL (bad fats) and raising HDL (good fats), help with bone density and muscle mass.

The eight essential saccharides and where they are found:

• Aloe vera.
• Arabinogalactans (gum sugars) found in corn, wheat, leeks, carrots, radishes, pears, red wine, coconut meat, tomatoes, curcumin and echinacea.
• Brans from brown rice, oatmeal and whole barley.
• Breast milk (formula fed children miss out on this).
• Mushrooms, the reishi (ling zhi in china).
• Pectins from apples and citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruits (fruit must be eaten whole as the pectin is eliminated when juiced).

Supplementation:

• Acemannan
• Active hexose correlated compound
• Alpha- and beta-glucans
• Bovine tracheal cartilage
• Chitin and chitosan
• Inulin and oligofructose
• Lentinan
• Ling zhi-8 
• Maitake D-fraction
• Polysaccharide K and polysaccharide P

A warning: some of these products are made from shellfish.  Do not take if you are allergic to shellfish.

What you should do:

• Start increasing the food that is high in these essential saccharides
• Take a good supplement such as ambrotose or a mushroom complex