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Do you know that a deficiency in certain sugars could be causing illness? How can that be true? We all know that too much sugar is bad for us… It was only quite recently that scientists discovered a family of ‘nutritional’ sugars. Sugars that are found in plants, sugars that play an important part in the functioning of our immune systems, that boost kidney function and help prevent disease. Scientists know that there is a direct link between disease and diet. The human body, an amazing machine, can heal itself of disease if it is given the proper nutrition as fuel. If, however, there is a lack of appropriate nutrition in the diet, the body is left defenseless and susceptible to disease. Our modern day lifestyle means we spend more money than ever before, on fast foods that have little or no nutritional value. Dietary deficiencies contribute to obesity and a myriad of other problems that have never been more prevalent. Essential nutrients have been processed out of many of the foods that we eat. This means the body’s immune system becomes weaker and loses the ability to combat disease. The packaged foods that are so much a part of our regular diets are loaded with additives to increase their shelf life. These additives contribute nothing to the nutritional value of the food. Most fruit and vegetables are picked too early and then gassed to ripen which means they lose valuable nutrients. Let’s just take a step back in time. The aloe vera plant was known as one of the world’s most popular plants used for healing. It became apparent, though, that the commercially processed aloe did not produce the same health benefits as did the fresh aloe vera gel. A group of interested people, back in the early 1980s, were attempting to isolate the medically active ingredient from the aloe vera plant. They hired a research pharmacologist to find what caused the unique benefits of the fresh aloe vera gel and to determine why these benefits disappeared after processing. It was discovered, after lengthy research, that the active ingredient in the aloe vera gel was a long chain carbohydrate made up predominately of a sugar called Mannose. It was noticed that within a day or two of the aloe leaf being picked, this long-chain sugar molecule rapidly began to disintegrate, causing the gel to lose much of its effectiveness. A new process was then developed and patented that protected this long-chain sugar from being destroyed. This new stabilized aloe extract was then made available to the public in the form of a juice, and the testimonies began to flow in. Many people who tried this new product were reporting great benefits to their health and it was soon realized by the scientists that this was a significant discovery. Not a lot was known at that time about this science of carbohydrate structuring and it was being taught at only one or two universities in the world. Before long, however, researchers all over the world began studying these carbohydrates and by 1990 there had been about 4000 papers published about this new science that became known as Glycobiology. It was named as one of the ‘hottest’ new fields of medical research, with a complete chapter of Harpers Biochemistry in 1996 being devoted to a review of these sugars, which were identified as being essential for cell-to-cell communication and immune function. Of the 200 or so carbohydrate monosaccharides or sugars that are found in nature, only eight are biologically active and found to be critical to provide the structural support network and the cellular messaging system for our cells. These sugars or glyco-forms are necessary to keep our hormones in balance, to fight off disease invaders, to enable blood to clot and carry out other necessary functions of our cells. A good reason why they should be included in our diet, would you say?