A miracle molecule hiding in milk

A research team has identified a molecule naturally present in milk and other foods, nicotinamide riboside, that has extraordinary health benefits. Their findings indicate it could play an important role in preventing weight gain and diabetes and improving muscular performance. Many natural foods, including milk and perhaps even beer, contain a molecule whose effects on metabolism are nothing short of astonishing. Johan Auwerx, head of EPFL's Laboratory of Integrative Systems Physiology (LISP) and holder of EPFL's Nestlé Chair in Energy Metabolism, describes a series of experiments done using nicotinamide riboside (NR), a molecule that, although known to indirectly influence the activity of mitochondria, the "powerhouses" of the cell, has been little studied up to this point. Auwerx's team worked with the laboratory of Anthony Sauve at Cornell University's Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City to study the role of NR in closer detail. The first challenge was to obtain the molecule, which is complicated and expensive to synthesize. The researchers then measured its effects in vivo using mice. The results were impressive. NR appears to play a role in: Preventing obesity. Mice on a high-fat diet fed NR gained significantly less weight (60%) than mice eating the same diet, but without NR supplementation. In addition, none of the NR-treated mice had indications that they were developing diabetes, unlike the untreated mice. "Even with a normal diet, NR improves insulin sensitivity," explains Carles Cantó, first author on the article. Increasing muscular performance.