Carlos Pavesa

Betaine Is Not Merely a Substitute for Methionine1. Unique Function: An Irreplaceable "Osmotic Regulator"The most distinctive feature setting betaine apart from other methyl donors (such as methionine and choline) is its unique role as an osmotic buffer.Core Anti-Stress Mechanism: When intestinal cells (especially during summer heat stress or diarrhea), liver cells, and kidney cells face high-osmo ...

I see a lively discussion developed on this topic but would not agree. I can of course understand position of @Ana as a representative of a betaine producer. Still, the argumentation chain is as follows:1) there is no methyl group needed for uric acid formation and no direct involvement of methionine nor betaine in this process. 2) betaine cannot transfer the methyl group to the creatine formation ...

Interesting discussion and great batting by both sides for their respective 'teams'. As a casual observer, some of the statements seem a little too absolute and imply that these compounds behave in linear, siloed, non-interacting ways in the body. Betaine clearly cannot replace methionine as an amino acid, but that does not mean it cannot spare dietary methionine. Methionine and potentially betain ...

Have a look at Doucet et al., British Journal of Nutrition (2010), 103, 1309–1318,

@Ana Gavrau Thanks for the invite, but I have seen several "biological" farms in France and they are very nice. I could not tell how happy their chickens were, but I'm not a specialist in that area. I do know that there are some breeds that appear much more content and docile in cages than others. Those are the ones I would choose to work.

@Gene Pesti Dear Gene, thank you for this contribution. I guess it underpins that it is worthwhile to go back to metabolic pathways and to learn (and maybe undertand) about the manyfold interactions.

Very impressive interview. Hello Protein - A Great Initiative by Mr. OP Singh. Kudos to him and his team.

@Kalyani SarodeDear Kalyani Sarode, your remark adds an aspect which we usually do not emphasize a lot in context of whether or not betaine can replace supplemental methionine. Indeed, also cobalamine (B12) has an - at least - as important role for remethylating homocysteine to methionine - which actually reduces the importance of betaine in this context.You remind me to be scientifically correct. ...

@Antônio Mário Penz Junior For sure! Starch from normal corn is the same as starch from waxy corn, etc. we could go on all day. The gross energy and digestibility and absorption as birds age for each ingredient can be measured. Then computer modeling can help get the right combination of ingredients for each situation. I'm just guessing that the companies selling amylase should be happy to determi ...

Great discussion. However, I always wonder how long will take to move from total starch to an analysis of amylose and amylopectin of a specific starch? So, starch is an important indication of the caloric potential of an ingredient. However, we still have many question to be addressed (amylose:amylopectin; how retrograde types of starch can affect the final energy?; how much we can affect the ener ...