Mysterious explosion of a deadly plague may come down to a sugar in ice cream - C. diff kills tens of thousands each year. Its puzzling rise links to trehalose.
Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 3 months ago to Science
"With tinkering, syrup scientists at Japan’s Hayashibara chemistry company finally figured out a novel enzymatic method to make it on the cheap from starch. The method brought costs down to just $3 per kilogram. By 2000—just before the rise of C. diff.—the company got approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to use it as an additive in food. Approval for use in Europe came the following year. Manufacturers started pouring trehalose into a variety of foods, from pasta to ground beef to ice creams.
To us, trehalose is an indistinguishable sweetener. It’s about 45 percent as sweet as table sugar (sucrose) and breaks down to simple glucose. But, according to the authors of the new Nature study, we’re not the only consumers. In a sugar-eating screen, the study authors noted that two C. diff. strains (out of 21) could happily survive on just a dash of trehalose. "
To us, trehalose is an indistinguishable sweetener. It’s about 45 percent as sweet as table sugar (sucrose) and breaks down to simple glucose. But, according to the authors of the new Nature study, we’re not the only consumers. In a sugar-eating screen, the study authors noted that two C. diff. strains (out of 21) could happily survive on just a dash of trehalose. "
The Righteous Raisin spelt, Ohio has spelt, water, yeast and sea salt...of course there is raisins, cinnamon and honey.
I do not get bloated when eating it.
The longevity measured against a twinke is a bit of a stretch, but you get the point. We all know that a twinke is immortal...laughing!
The experiments are essentially saying, "If you give C. difficile more nutrients that it likes, it grows better."
C. diff is a major problem and one that is often overlooked or downplayed; it has spores that are resistant to alcohol-based cleaners (typically used in hospitals). These spores are light and easily airborne, contaminating a ward or even a whole hospital if one person has this bacterium.
I don't think there is any mystery about the C diff plague; it's just a really hard job to fix the situation and a lot of people would prefer to downplay it.
Jan
As I have noted, many times throughout my life time...it's always about the "Thickeners!", the sugars or the preservatives.
Funny, I buy a non genetically modified bread made with an ancient grain called spelt. The mix has only 4 ingredients and no preservatives. Leaving it out on the counter, it outlasts Wonder Bread! and comes close to the longevity of a twinke!