What is an AGE and what do they have to do with PCOS, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, aging, and chronic health conditions?
Overall, reducing AGEs can help with cardiovascular disease, aging, PCOS, and reduce overall inflammation in the body.
What Are AGEs?
“AGEs” is an abbreviation for advanced glycation end products. These are harmful compounds formed in your body by glycation (when protein or fat combines with sugar in the bloodstream). Moreover, they form in food as well and become higher in content when the food has been exposed to high temperatures, such as grilling, searing, frying, or toasting.
Why A High-AGEs Diet May Become Harmful
Normally, our body fights against these AGEs via enzymes and antioxidants. However, AGEs can accumulate and cause oxidative stress and inflammation. High levels are linked to metabolic disorders like diabetes, as well as premature aging, and even PCOS.
What Is PCOS?
PCOS stands for polycystic ovary syndrome. This is a syndrome that many women suffer from where hormones are unbalanced (androgen levels are higher than normal, while estrogen and progesterone are lower). Symptoms include irregular periods, infertility, ovarian cysts, and physical signs of excess androgen hormones like severe acne and facial hair.
What does PCOS have to do with AGEs?
Interestingly, women with PCOS have been found to have nearly TWICE the number of circulating AGEs in their bloodstream compared to women without PCOS. The receptors of advanced glycation end products (RAGE) are actually abundant inside ovarian tissues!
A study done on women with PCOS over a 2 month period showed that when they ate a low AGE diet their levels of serum AGEs, testosterone, oxidative stress, and insulin all decreased significantly. Their diet included no fast food, processed foods, or soda. The diet included veggies and reduced consumption of meat, with a focus on cooking the food by steaming, poaching, and boiling.
Examples
Just for an idea of how big different cooking methods have on AGEs: Roasted chicken has almost 3 times more AGEs than boiled chicken. Fried potatoes (French fries) have almost 41 times more AGEs than boiled potatoes.
Tips
Therefore, decrease AGEs in the diet by switching from fried and high-temperature cooking methods to boiling, steaming, and other low temperature / moist heat methods. Moreover, cooking with acidic ingredients like lemon juice and vinegar may reduce AGE production in some foods. Also, switch to some raw foods, like raw nuts instead of roasted nuts. Remember to eat lots of veggies and foods high in antioxidants like dark berries. Check out which oils you can cook with.
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