Starch blockers may give Atkins dieters a pass to eat pasta

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

By Jane E. Allen, The Los Angeles Times

A wave of new supplements promise to allow people on low-carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins program to satisfy their cravings for potatoes and pasta without feeling guilty.

Dozens of so-called "starch neutralizers" and "starch blockers," with such names as Starch Away, Starch Buster, Carb Intercept and Carbo Grabbers, promise to ease the caloric burden -- and dietary regret -- of a favorite sandwich or meal. Although some nutrition experts say the nonprescription products could indeed help, they're no quick fix or cure-all for obesity.

The concept of a carbohydrate blocker isn't new. For decades, products have promised to let consumers eat starchy foods without gaining weight. Some crude extracts from beans proved so ineffective that the Food and Drug Administration suspended their sale for weight loss in the early 1980s.

Most of the new products, however, use a refined, more potent extract of the white kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). (You couldn't eat enough beans to get the effect the extract provides.) The extract, called Phase 2 Starch Neutralizer or Phaseolamin 2250, is made by Pharmachem Laboratories Inc. in Karney, N.J.

Small human studies have indicated that the extract can neutralize as much as 66 percent of the starch consumed in a meal. Consisting of a protein component, the extract binds to an enzyme called alpha amylase, preventing it from breaking down starch into sugar. As a result, most of the starch passes undigested through the intestines as indigestible fiber does, and dieters don't pay the full caloric price.

"This has glimmerings of great potential as far as an aid in helping people lose weight," said Dr. Jana Klauer, a research fellow at the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. But she cautioned against assuming that a starch-blocking pill allows dieters to have all the carbohydrates or all the starch they ever wanted. "That's just not a healthy way to eat," she said.

Furthermore, the products could interact with medications or lower blood sugar in diabetics who take insulin or other glucose-lowering drugs, she said.

Although scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and elsewhere have spent years investigating the potential of starch blockers to help control blood sugar, the most recent scientific report to address their use in weight loss came from an unpublished preliminary study conducted at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

According to results released in January, 50 obese patients under age 50 were randomly given either the supplement or dummy pills. Only 29 of them completed the eight-week study, said lead investigator Dr. Jay Udani, Northridge Hospital's director of integrative medicine.

Those taking the starch blocker with meals dropped an average of a half-pound a week, compared with 0.21 pounds in the placebo group, Udani said.

Although those results, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, "did not reach statistical significance," he said, they laid the groundwork for two larger studies under way elsewhere.

The FDA has been silent about the newest starch blockers. No new research on effectiveness or side effects has been brought to the agency's attention, said a spokeswoman who declined to be identified, citing agency policy.

Widely available through the Internet and health food stores, the products are getting a boost from the recent publication of "The Starch Blocker Diet," by Steven L. Rosenblatt, a Los Angeles doctor who combines alternative and traditional medicine. He doesn't pretend that the supplements are the answer to obesity.

"It's not a magic pill. The weight doesn't fall to the ground," Rosenblatt said. He recommends incorporating the pills into a sensible diet and exercise plan that includes the important nutrients in fruits and vegetables, whose carbohydrate content has made them largely an Atkins no-no.

Taking a starch-blocking supplement, Rosenblatt said, "is a way to make Atkins doable."