Expert: George Maxwell - 8/1/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi:

Do we need glycerol? For what? Can our bodies produce it or do we need to take it from foods? What are the symptoms -- if any -- of glycerol deficiency?

I am aware that glycerol can be obtained from digestion of fats. During digestion, fats are broken down to fatty acids and glycerol.

If this is out of your expertise, would you mind steering me to person or group who could answer this question?


Thanks,

Green

ANSWER: Hi, and thank you for your question.

Glycerol does play a key role in human biochemistry, but because (as you said) it is a byproduct of fat-digestion, you don't need to ingest glycerol seperately: all that the body needs is easily obtained from fat. As far as I know, there's no such thing as glycerol deficiency, probably because if your body did not have enough fat in it to produce glycerol, you'd have died of malnutrition long ago.

Ingesting glycerol isn't usually harmful, and any excess will just be excreted, or (if the body is low on sugar), turned in to glucose by the liver in a process called glucogenisis.

Glycerol is an important part of Glycolysis (the reaction in the body that produces ATP - which controls important processes like respiration).

I hope this is of use to you, but if you require any more information, please don't hesitate to ask.

Many thanks.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your response.

Does additional glyercol -- from food -- provide any benefit? There are certain substances that we don't need to take but do provide benefit. For example, there are non-essential amino acids that our bodies can produce. However, taking extra of these amino acids  by mouth would provide benefit if there are ingested in the proper amounts -- not too much but not too little.

Answer
Thank you for the follow-up.

Taking extra glycerol  / amino acids won't normally have any effect at all, because the digestive system either destroys them or converts them in to other substances: in the case of glycerol, it would probably be broken down in to glucose. Both glycerol and amino acids are produced only when and where needed in the body, and trying to boost levels by ingesting them simply wouldn't work.

Glycerol is sometimes taken as a medicine, but only because it is smooth and sweet, and so can soothe the pain of a sore throat or similar. Most cough medicines contain glycerol for this reason. However, this is just a physical effect, and doesn't involve the body absorbing glycerol in to the system.

Hope this helps.