C3G: Beyond Fat Loss & Muscle Gain
People take it to lose fat and build muscle, but researchers have discovered some surprising new health benefits.
As an informed ingredient enthusiast (read: supplement geek), you know cyanidin-3-glucoside or C3G as a nutrient partitioning agent.
C3G reduces the size and number of fat cells through multiple mechanisms, including promoting the browning of white adipose tissue, activating AMPK, inhibiting adipogenesis, enhancing fatty acid oxidation, and reducing inflammation in adipose tissue.
In short, you can eat more carbs and use them to fuel muscle gains instead of storing them as fat. But now, researchers have discovered new uses for this healthy anthocyanin that go beyond looking better naked. Let's dig it.
1. Long-Lasting Heart Health and Robust Microbiota
In this study from The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, researchers explored how C3G protects the heart from damage caused by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. This type of injury happens when blood flow returns to the heart after being blocked, like during a heart attack. They used mice for this study because inducing heart damage in humans is frowned upon.
Here's what they found:
- C3G Helps the Heart: Mice fed a diet rich in C3G for a month showed less heart damage when researchers simulated an I/R injury, even after they stopped consuming C3G for a month. This suggests C3G's protective effects last a long time.
- Gut Bacteria Play a Role: C3G changed the types of bacteria in the mice's gut, increasing beneficial ones. These changes helped reduce heart damage by lowering inflammation and oxidative stress. These microbiota changes persisted after the washout period, suggesting a stable remodeling of the gut microbiome.
- Works Beyond Inflammation: The heart protection wasn't just due to less inflammation. Even in mice with weaker immune systems, C3G still helped, suggesting it improves how the heart and its cells (like mitochondria) function overall.
In short, C3G helps protect the heart from serious damage by improving gut health and supporting heart function, with benefits that stick around even after you stop taking it. This study is the first to show that C3G's cardioprotective effects are mediated by gut microbiota changes, which persist long after C3G intake stops. This highlights the gut-heart axis in cardiovascular health.
2. IBD and Microplastics
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, involve chronic inflammation of the gut, often worsened by environmental factors like microplastics.
This study from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry used mice fed a high-fat, high-sucrose diet to induce insulin resistance, which is linked to worse gut inflammation. These mice were also exposed to polystyrene microplastics, which disrupt gut health and worsen inflammation. Some were given C3G, and some acted as the control group.
Here's what happened:
- Gut Bacteria Changes: C3G supplementation increased the ratio of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes in the gut. This is a positive shift – a higher Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio is linked to better gut health and less inflammation.
- Beneficial Bacteria Boost: C3G promoted the growth of helpful gut bacteria, which produce substances that reduce inflammation and support gut barrier health.
- Reduced Inflammation: Mice given C3G had lower levels of inflammation markers in their colons than those not given C3G. This suggests C3G helped counteract the harmful effects of polystyrene microplastics.
- Improved Gut Health: C3G reduced damage to the gut lining and improved metabolic profiles (e.g., better handling of sugars and fats).
So, C3G acts as a prebiotic, encouraging the growth of good gut bacteria that produce anti-inflammatory compounds, like short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These changes help strengthen the gut barrier, preventing harmful microplastics from triggering inflammation.
Even for those without IBD, the fact that C3G helps protect us against microplastics is pretty cool.
Where to Get C3G
C3G is derived from foods like dark berries, purple corn, and black rice, but you'd have to eat buckets of each to get a pharmaceutical amount. They're worth adding to your diet, though.
For supplements, look for a C3G product containing glycerol monostearate (GMS) to enhance absorption and bioavailability. GMS promotes micelle formation in the gut to transport C3G across the intestinal lining effectively. GMS increases C3G's solubility at the absorption site and supports its uptake through lipid absorption pathways. The improved dispersion and enhanced lipid delivery allow the body to absorb more C3G where it matters most.
Indigo-3G Nutrient Partitioning Agent (Buy at Amazon) contains 300 mg of C3G enhanced with GMS. Take four capsules daily.
References
- Trinei, Mirella, et al. "Dietary Intake of Cyanidin-3-Glucoside Induces a Long-Lasting Cardioprotection from Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury by Altering the Microbiota." Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, vol. 101, Mar. 2022, p. 108921, doi:10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108921.
- Chen, W., et al. "Modulation of Gut Microbial Metabolism by Cyanidin-3-O-Glucoside in Mitigating Polystyrene-Induced Colonic Inflammation: Insights from 16S rRNA Sequencing and Metabolomics." Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, vol. 72, no. 13, 3 Apr. 2024, pp. 7177-7188, doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.3c08454.
