The History of UCAN
For most of us living with type 1, episodes of hypoglycemia can feel like the worst things we’ll ever experience. Imagine having chronic low blood sugar and dealing with those awful feelings much more often! That’s what people, especially children, experience with Glycogen Storage Disease experience with glycogen storage disease—which inspired an innovative product to help combat the dangers of low blood sugar.
When David and Wendy Feldman’s son, Jonah, was diagnosed with Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD) Type 1a in 2001, fear of hypoglycemia became their reality. This genetic disorder prevents Jonah’s liver from maintaining normal blood sugar levels throughout the body, and it can have serious consequences if meals are missed. As a result, Jonah was placed on a feeding tube in order to stabilize his blood glucose levels.
The body processes simple carbs quite quickly, resulting in a climb-and-crash of blood sugar due to a spike in insulin levels. Complex carbs take longer to break down and usually result in a less dramatic shift. Scottish researchers developed SuperStarch from the idea of complex carbs: SuperStarch takes the slow breakdown to another level: the molecule is a large polymer that slowly delivers energy into the body over a long period of time, sustaining blood sugar levels.
“We stumbled on this food technology in Europe from a carbohydrate researcher,” said Peter Kaufman, a co-founder of The UCAN Company. “Before the 1970s, no kids [with GSD] survived. If the children ate plain cornstarch, it could be converted outside of the liver and they could survive, but they had to eat it every couple of hours. They could go into life-threatening hypoglycemia if they missed a dose.”
The UCAN product uses starch from a very specific type of non-GMO corn, which gets cooked for over 30 hours with a patented benign process that only utilizes water and heat. “It had to be a completely natural, chemical-free process to be safe for children, and also for athletes who are conscious of what they put into their bodies,” Kaufman said. “It’s also gluten-free. It took almost eight years for us develop and scale the process, which is now patented across the world.”
Dr. Jeff Volek outlined the science behind SuperStarch in a 2009 paper that drew attention to the benefits athletes obtain from energy released this way, but David and Wendy Feldman utilized this technology to treat Jonah’s Glycogen Storage Disease. The Feldmans noted that it was possible to maintain Jonah’s blood glucose (BG) levels overnight if he has something with a low glycemic index in his system that slowly and continually delivers carbohydrates for energy.
The UCAN product debuted at the 2010 Boston Marathon when runner Meb Keflezighi incorporated it into his training regimen. As for the name choice? Kaufman said, “It had the sentiment: You can overcome, you can aspire. There was already UKAN (in sports nutrition) trademarked by a company in Denmark. So we added ‘Generation’ to capture the new way people were thinking about healthier nutrition with less sugar in their diets. Since then, the Danish company has dropped the trademark, so we’ll be marketing as just UCAN going forward.”
Today, UCAN’s SuperStarch comes in flavored powders with and without added protein that can be mixed with water or blended into shakes (they also sell the SuperStarch Plain as a mix-in to go in or on anything—shakes, yogurt, etc.). They also sell snack bars and an electrolyte powder in multiple flavors with no sugar or calories to compliment the SuperStarch steady energy products for exercise. Depending on the exact need for slow-released carbohydrates, UCAN is consumed anywhere from half an hour before the desired activity (or non-activity, in the case of sleep!) and hypoglycemia can be kept at bay. Nutritionists and exercise scientists have written about the benefits of the product, which has led to high-profile teams using the product to get results in the gym and on the field.
“Right now, we are in the process of expanding the company in next few years,” says Kaufman. “We are repackaging and rebranding as a product that the average person can use to get energy into their day without sugar’s detriments.”
Among the benefits the “average person” can reap from using UCAN are more efficient and longer workouts, staying satiated post-workout and burning more fat due to lower insulin production as a result of consuming fewer simple carbs.
What about the benefits for people with diabetes? Weight loss is one plus for those living with type 2 diabetes, as sugar and other unhealthy carbohydrates are replaced by UCAN’s slow-release carb SuperStarch. The positive effects of UCAN for people with type 1 (and Type 1 parents!) are perhaps best described in this Facebook post by Randi McMyn, a parent of a 2-year-old with type 1 who wrote:
“We have fighting extremely low sugars every time he naps or sleeps. He is a skinny little dude and metabolizes through the insulin and food so quickly that dosing has become a stress and fear filled headache for me. His nap time is the most stressful part of my day. I have not been able to rest anytime that he has napped.”
Randi mixed “the plain GenUCan (sic) in his milk, I bolus only for the milk and nothing more… He sleeps for three times as long as usual and got to wake up by himself rather than by his crazed mother force feeding him glucose! He is so happy and smiley, but the best part was he started, tested the entire time and woke up at the same blood glucose!! This was so amazing to me that I actually happy cried.
“My child who asked for nothing and who did not know any differently gets to nap normally and for the first time in over a year gets to wake up smiling (and healthy). And on the minor scale this one real tired momma can sit or rest without fear.”
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