by Lyle Hurd, editor 
| Offers Hope For Those Who Can’t Give Up Comfort Foods |
The biggest news in weight management this year is the use of starch-blocking supplements. The introduction of this approach was heralded in the important new book, The Starch Blocker Diet, released this spring by HarperCollins publishers.
The Starch Blocker Diet, by Steven
Rosenblatt, M.D., Ph.D., and veteran health
science author Cameron Stauth, describes an
entirely new approach to weight control. In
this approach, dieters take nonprescription
starch blockers in order to neutralize the
calories from the starchy foods they eat.
“This diet is truly revolutionary,” notes
Dr. Rosenblatt, one of America’s most
prominent physicians practicing integrative
medicine. “It’s the first approach that doesn’t
put the entire onus for success upon the
patient. For once, science is doing the heavy
lifting, so to speak, rather than the patients.”
The starch blocking ingredient mentioned
prominently in the book is Phase 2,
which can now be found in a variety of
weight loss products available in health food
stores. A partial protein extracted from white
kidney beans, Phase 2 selectively bonds with
the body’s starch-digesting enzyme, amylase.
For approximately one hour the powerful
ingredient puts the amylase in a biochemical
“headlock,” which prevents the amylase
from bonding with starch and digesting it.
Therefore, any starch that is eaten during
that hour passes through the digestive system
in whole-molecule form, undigested, in
much the same way that the indigestible
fiber from bran does. There are no significant
side-effects, but there is a huge benefit in
caloric reduction. Starch comprises approximately
one-fourth to one-third of the
average person’s diet, so elimination of starch calories automatically results in the elimination
of about one-fourth to one-third of all
normal caloric intake.
In this approach, dieters take nonprescription starch blockers in
order to neutralize the calories from the starchy foods they eat.
Because Phase 2 neutralizes only starch, it
doesn't stop the digestion and assimilation of
all the other nutrients in starchy foods. The
vitamins, minerals, enzymes and proteins in
starchy foods, such as grains or vegetables,
are all absorbed.
The biochemical action of the ingredient
is rarely noticed by the people who take it.
Less than one percent of those using Phase 2
experience minor gas or bloating and this
typically ceases within about 24 hours, as the
body adjusts to its new digestive pattern.
"The beauty of this approach," says
Cameron Stauth, who was also coauthor of
the international bestseller, Brain Longevity,
"is that it respects the power of the natural
human desire to eat, and does not try to subvert,
alter, or deny this urge. Therefore, this
is the first truly realistic weight management
program—the only one that deals with
people the way they are instead of the way
they should be."
The Starch Blocker Diet, available now at
most bookstores, states that there are five
major factors that set this diet apart.
- This is the first nondenial diet. People
can actually eat even more calories than previously
because many of these calories will
not be absorbed.
- This is the first no-hunger weight program.
Abdominal fullness, caused by calorieneutralized
starchy foods, causes the
neurological "stretch receptors" in the
stomach to turn off hunger. In addition,
insulin stability, achieved by blocking starch
calories, stops blood sugar swings, which also
helps prevent hunger.
- This is the first weight program that
safely directs the body to burn stored fat.
Unlike low-calorie diets, it doesn't rely upon
high-fat foods, which can hurt health.
Unlike low-fat diets, it doesn't require a high
intake of carbohydrates, which disrupts insulin stability.
Instead, The Starch Blocker Diet makes exercise
burn body fat more efficiently by reducing
stored carbohydrates in the muscles and liver,
which the body must deplete before it can
begin to burn fat.
- This is the first weight management
approach that appears capable of relieving
complications from diabetes. The diet has
been clinically shown to arrest some of the
symptoms of diabetes and it also controls the
precursor conditions of diabetes, including
hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia and Syndrome X.
- This is the first weight program that has
neither physical nor psychological side effects.
It doesn't employ general stimulants, metabolic
stimulants or appetite suppressants. It
doesn't raise cholesterol, as do some low-carb,
high-fat diets. It doesn't destabilize insulin
levels, as do some low-fat, high-carb diets. It
doesn't create a psychological sense of deprivation
caused by denial. In fact, it actually
improves mood chemistry by stopping the
blood sugar and hormonal fluctuations that
cause mood swings.
There are no
significant sideeffects,
but there is
a huge benefit in
caloric reduction.
Starch comprises
approximately onefourth
to one-third of
the average person’s
diet, so elimination
of
starch calories
automatically results in
the elimination of about
one-fourth to one-third
of all normal
caloric intake. |
"When I go on TV shows to talk about the
book," Stauth says, "the interviewers are usually
just blown away. They can't believe how
different this is from the other diets that
they've investigated. A lot of them say, ¡®It
sounds too good to be true.' But it is all true, of
course, as the research so abundantly indicates."
Research on starch blockers began in 1973,
when legendary billionaire Howard Hughes
spotted an article in an obscure scientific
journal about an experiment in which a group
of mice, for unknown reasons, began losing
weight and even starving to death while being
fed a seemingly nutritious diet—high in white
kidney beans. The article speculated that perhaps
some form of "antinutrient" had caused
the baffling starvation.
Hughes assigned a team of researchers at
Miami's Howard Hughes Medical Institute to
look into the mystery. By 1982 they had isolated
the specific partial-protein in white
kidney beans that blocks starch digestion.
Some of the people who were researching
starch blockers rushed them to market in 1982
and they quickly became a weight loss fad.
However, the Food and Drug Administration
ruled that there had not yet been enough
research to support a claim for human weight
loss so the FDA prohibited starch blockers
from being marketed for weight loss. When
retailers could no longer sell them for weight
management, interest in them waned.
However, researchers at Mayo Clinic remained fascinated by starch blockers, particularly
as an anti-diabetes substance. For the
next 15 years, Mayo Clinic continued to
research starch blockers, completing 13 studies
that were all published in peer-reviewed scientific
journals including The New England
Journal of Medicine.
Over approximately the same time period
other institutions also researched starch
blockers, including the University of
California at San Diego, the University of
Illinois and universities in Germany, France,
Scotland and Japan. The interest in Japan was
particularly keen, resulting in 11 separate
studies between 1992 and 2001.
Between 1980 and 2003 a total of 42 studies
were completed by researchers in America and
abroad. Virtually all of the studies had
extremely positive, promising outcomes.
Even as late as the mid-1990s, however, no institution had developed a refinement process
that could deliver a highly potent version of
starch blockers at a price most people could
afford. This problem was eventually solved
though, by researchers working on behalf of
Pharmachem Laboratories of New Jersey, one
of the country’s largest producers of bulk supplement
products.
By 2000, Pharmachem researchers were satisfied
with their formula. Pharmachem project
director Mitchell Skop later remarked, “What
we had produced was so different from the
original formulas that we call it ‘Phase 2’.” The
new ingredient was markedly stronger than
the Mayo Clinic’s substance. It was more concentrated,
more stable in the gastrointestinal
tract and was completely free of impurities.
Skop authorized an aggressive program of
testing Phase 2 for weight loss in humans. The
results were significant and conclusive.
Studies at the University of Scranton
proved that Phase 2 reduced activity of the
starch-digesting enzyme amylase by an average
of 66 percent.
The most impressive study to date though,
was performed by Jay Udani, M.D., director of
the Integrative Medicine Program at
Northridge Hospital, a U.C.L.A. affiliate. In Dr.
Udani’s study, patients on Phase 2 lost 230 percent
more weight than patients on placebo,
and lost 40 percent more in waist measurements
than the patients in the control group.
The Phase 2 group also had a 370 percent
better reduction in triglycerides.
“Apparently,” concluded Dr. Udani, “the
starch blocker substance contributed to persistent
and steady weight loss.”
Over many years of bariatric research it has
become apparent that will power alone is not a
practical solution to the epidemic of obesity
that has struck America. Weight management,
for large scale populations, requires an
approach that is scientifically sound, safe,
powerful and compatible with long-term use.
It has been exceptionally difficult to find a substance
that provides this rare combination of
factors.
Finally, though, there appears to be reason
for great optimism.
 |
The Starch Blocker Diet
by Steven Rosenblatt, MD, PhD. &
Cameron Stauth
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: HarperResource
ISBN: 0060548231
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