[2 emails combined. BIG] From Gary Holowicki: >In medicine the principle translates to advise to people to eat complex >carbohydrates rather than refined sugars if you have hypoglycemia. Gary, Thank you for the responding to me privately; however, I thought this was a good discussion for the FML. I understood what you were saying in your original posting [2 Sep 1998 to 3 Sep 1998 (#1998-2420)], so the interesting analogy was probably unnecessary. As I originally stated in my question to you on the FML, "I was wondering if you could be more specific about honey not causing the insulin spike that kayro or other refined sugars causes. I wasn't aware that there was much of a difference, could you point me in the direction of your data." I guess the operative word here is data, not analogy. In fact, since it had been a little while since my nutrition class and GI physiology, I thought that I should do a little of my own research on this topic. If anyone sees me making a mistake, please point it out as these are not my best subjects. First of all, as you were prescribing Timmy's Tonic "in water" for a ferret with insulinoma, the dose of honey is probably not that large. However, I would be concerned about the ingestion of any honey for this animal. In fact, in Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents (Hillyer and Quesenberry, 1997, p. 89), it is recommended that "unless ferrets show signs of hypoglycemia, instruct owners NOT to give simple sugars such as honey or corn syrup because these foods can stimulate insulin secretion, precipitating a hypoglycemic episode soon after." Furthermore, I question the accuracy of your statements about honey vs. "karo or other refined sugars." It turns out that honey is mostly made up of fructose (a monosaccharide, ie. simple sugar), whereas "refined sugars" (do you mean a table sugar like sucrose?) can mean anything that is purified (eg. sucrose, fructose, etc.). If by "refined sugars" you mean sucrose (a disaccharide), then your "refined sugar" is actually a more complex sugar than fructose. In addition, one of Karo syrup's major ingredients is high fructose corn syrup (ran out to the grocery store to check). So in fact, this "refined sugar" is fructose (a simple sugar) and there should be little or no difference in the absorption of the type of sugar with karo syrup vs. honey because they are both fructose. If there is a difference, it may come with the concentration of sugar or the medium (ie. what else is in the solution - fats, proteins, etc.) with which the sugar is ingested. Either way, I don't have any specific data (other than what I can infer from F, R, & R (H & Q) and what I have stated above. In addition, I am still not sure what you meant in your original posting or where you got your "data". Now, back to fructose vs. "refined sugar" sucrose (simplified). It turns out that fructose and sucrose are both absorbed in the small intestine when enzymes located in the membranes of the enterocytes (one of the cells that line the lumen of the intestine) that form the microvilli brush border (cool descriptive name, huh?) digest them. Sucrose is broken down by an enzyme called sucrase into a molecule of glucose and a molecule of fructose (there is that pesky fructose again). Now this is where it gets interesting. Glucose is actively absorbed into the cell and then diffuses into the portal blood. Fructose, in contrast, is absorbed by facilitated diffusion and then much (not all) of it is converted to glucose by the enzyme sucrase and then absorbed into the bloodstream. Because fructose is not actively absorbed like glucose, it is actually absorbed at about one half of the rate of glucose. To summarize, we have fructose which is absorbed directly, but then converted to glucose vs, sucrose which is digested into fructose (see above) and glucose which is absorbed very rapidly. So, from this information, it isn't really clear which glucose (from sucrose or fructose) gets into the bloodstream fastest. To complicate things even more, there is some research presented in The Biology and Diseases of the Ferret, 2nd Edition, (Fox, 1988, pp. 155-156), that "large amounts of sucrose may result in measureable urinary sucrose and fructose levels" (ie. sucrose isn't being completely absorbed - now I really wonder if there is much of an insulin spike) and that there is evidence that the ferret may have low intestinal levels of sucrase and a limited ability to convert fructose to glucose. This makes sense because the ferret, afterall, is an obligate carnivore whose diet should be made up of mostly proteins and fats which are digested, absorbed, and eventually converted into glucose (or glycogen) by the process of gluconeogenesis in the liver. So, the ferret doesn't really need, nor should it really get sugar in its diet. So, since these all of these sugars (as well as proteins and fats) are mostly converted into glucose and glucose is the "fuel" on which the body "runs", it is glucose to which the body reacts. The method by which the body reacts and secretes insulin doesn't appear necessary to this discussion based on the previous information, so I will leave it out. Do you have some information that I am leaving out or could you point me to a reference that would help me understand what you meant? Thanks. ****************************** Sean D. Sawyer V'00 SCAVMA Treasurer University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine [log in to unmask] ****************************** [Posted in FML issue 2422]