Is Your Lack of Salivary Amylase Making you Fat?

Great lead in.   I recently read an article about salivary amylase and how we as individuals posses varying amounts of it.  The amount you posses may be influenced by your cultural heritage.  For example, people of Japanese descent tend to have more salivary amylase than the Yukut of Siberia.  The amount of salivary amylase your body produces may influence BMI.

In a study of 149 Swedish families, Swedes with higher amounts of salivary amylase had lower BMIs.  Swedes with lower amounts of salivary amylase had higher BMIs.  Wow!  Why?

One thought is that people with more salivary amylase may eat less.  They may perceive foods to be sweeter and more rich.  They feel satisfied sooner…and thus stop eating before I would.

Another contributing theory is that people with higher levels of salivary amylase process carbohydrates more efficiently.  The glycemic load of any carbohydrate rich food they eat would be less.  Lower glycemic loads could equal less storage of body fat…and maybe decreased hunger over a period of time.

This is an example of everybody being an individual when it comes to our health.  What works for one person won’t necessarily work for another.  Below is a link to the original article.

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/carbohydrate-tolerance-genes