San Francisco June 28 (IANS) Liberal consumption of so-called good fats like those found in olive oil and avocados may lead to fatty liver disease a risk factor for metabolic disorders like Type 2 diabetes and hypertension a new research has said.
The belief in the field for quite some time has been that saturated fat is bad for the liver said Caroline C. Duwaerts a specialist at the University of California San Francisco Liver Centre and first author of the study.
Duwaerts and her colleagues set out to study the role of different nutrients in the development of fatty liver disease Xinhua news agency reported. They paired a fat saturated or monounsaturated with a carbohydrate sucrose or starch to create four different high-calorie diets.
The diets were roughly 40 per cent carbohydrate 40 per cent fat and 20 per cent protein by calorie a ratio on par with the average American diet according to the study published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Four groups of 10 mice were fed the experimental diets for six months and compared to mice fed regular mouse chow which is much lower in fat.
As a result all the mice on the experimental diets free to eat as much as they wanted grew obese by the end of six months and all developed some degree of fatty liver.
To the researchers surprise the mice on the starch-monounsaturated fat diet had the most severe disease accumulating 40 per cent more liver fat than mice on the other three diets.
Their livers swelled with extra weight and when seen under a microscope appeared crowded with globules of fat.
In addition the researchers noticed that these mice lost fat around their testes an area of their bodies normally used for fat storage. When they examined this visceral fat tissue they saw an unusual degree of fat cell death and signs of inflammation.
A drizzle of olive oil on your salad is fine but a daily habit of pasta drenched in olive oil could be cause for concern said Duwaerts who believes it s all a matter of proportion.
--IANS
amit/soni/vt
Research warns against liberal consumption of good fat
