Carb Cutter Lab Report
Carb Cutter: Does it Really Cut the Carbs?
2:30 PM T
Freeman
Spring Semester 2012 The amount of obese and overweight individuals is increasing every year in the United States. With 33.9% of American adults obese, and 34.4% overweight, but not obese, more and more people are looking for any alternative to lose weight (Anonymous 2011). If someone told you that they knew of a weight loss pill that actually works, would you consider it? A new study has proven that Carb Cutter pills are effective at preventing amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch, from digesting starch. This then prevents starch from converting into glucose and then to body fat. The carbs that aren’t absorbed then pass through the digestive tract and are excreted. From what we hear, the pill sounds like it will do wonders, but similar studies believe otherwise; “Studies by Mayo Clinic revealed that to decelerate the digestion of carbohydrate, you need between 4,000 to 6,000 mg of bean extract or phaseolamin. Unfortunately, many carb blockers in the market have lower than 4,000 mg of phaseolamin. In reality, a majority contain well below the recommended dosage which is a measly 500mg of white kidney bean extract. They also found that there is no sign of weight loss during the slowing down of the digestion of carbs” (Milone 2008). Students from the Biology department here at UGA decided to take the bull by the horns and test this theory about Carb Cutters. The experiment was done by comparing a control group that would function like the body normally does and an experimental group that functions like the body would after consuming the Carb Cutter pill. Results were measured using levels of absorbance, the amount of light that shines through the solution, to determine how much starch is blocking the light shining through. The higher the absorbance levels, the higher the amount of starch in the solution. If there are still high amounts of starch in the solution, then this means that the
2:30 PM T
Freeman
Spring Semester 2012 The amount of obese and overweight individuals is increasing every year in the United States. With 33.9% of American adults obese, and 34.4% overweight, but not obese, more and more people are looking for any alternative to lose weight (Anonymous 2011). If someone told you that they knew of a weight loss pill that actually works, would you consider it? A new study has proven that Carb Cutter pills are effective at preventing amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch, from digesting starch. This then prevents starch from converting into glucose and then to body fat. The carbs that aren’t absorbed then pass through the digestive tract and are excreted. From what we hear, the pill sounds like it will do wonders, but similar studies believe otherwise; “Studies by Mayo Clinic revealed that to decelerate the digestion of carbohydrate, you need between 4,000 to 6,000 mg of bean extract or phaseolamin. Unfortunately, many carb blockers in the market have lower than 4,000 mg of phaseolamin. In reality, a majority contain well below the recommended dosage which is a measly 500mg of white kidney bean extract. They also found that there is no sign of weight loss during the slowing down of the digestion of carbs” (Milone 2008). Students from the Biology department here at UGA decided to take the bull by the horns and test this theory about Carb Cutters. The experiment was done by comparing a control group that would function like the body normally does and an experimental group that functions like the body would after consuming the Carb Cutter pill. Results were measured using levels of absorbance, the amount of light that shines through the solution, to determine how much starch is blocking the light shining through. The higher the absorbance levels, the higher the amount of starch in the solution. If there are still high amounts of starch in the solution, then this means that the
Cited: Milone, Milan. Discover the Truth of Carbohydrate Blockers. Ezine @rticles. [Internet.] 12 Aug 2008 [cited 12 Feb 2012]. Available from: http://ezinearticles.com/?Discover-the-Truth-of-Carbohydrate-Blockers&id=1405729 Obesity and Overweight [Internet.] Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [updated 2011 Nov 17; cited 27 Feb 2012.] Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm