Posted on 05/02/2008 2:40:30 PM PDT by blam
Fast-Food Liver Damage Can Be Reversed, Experts Say
Diets high in fast food can be highly toxic to the liver and other internal organs, but that damage can be reversed, says one of the country's leading experts on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, who offers four steps to undo the effects of a 'super-size me' diet. (Credit: iStockphoto/Marketa Ebert)
ScienceDaily (May 2, 2008) — Diets high in fast food can be highly toxic to the liver and other internal organs, but that damage can be reversed, says one of the country’s leading experts on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, who offers four steps to undo the effects of a 'super-size me' diet.
It was probably enough to make many Americans lose their appetite: A recent study from Europe showed that eating too much fast food – a diet high in fat and sugar – could cause serious damage to your liver.
Yet for those who overdo it with too many trips to their favorite burger joint, there’s good news. You can likely reverse the damage to your liver and other vital organs if you simply give up the unhealthy lifestyle, according to a leading liver specialist at Saint Louis University who conducted a similar study with mice.
“There’s strong evidence now that a fast-food type of diet – high in fat and sugar, the kind of diet many Americans subsist on – can cause significant damage to your liver and have extremely serious consequences for your health,” says Brent Tetri, M.D., professor of internal medicine at the Saint Louis University Liver Center and one of the country’s leading experts on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
“The good news is that most people can undo this damage if they change their diet and they keep physically active,” Tetri says. “If they don’t, however, they are asking for trouble.”
Particularly alarming, says Tetri, is that physicians are starting to see children and teenagers with cirrhosis, a serious liver disease once seen mostly in adults with a history of alcohol abuse or hepatitis C. Tetri suspects this is because many kids today eat far too much fast food or junk food and get far too little exercise – the kind of behaviors that can lead to liver damage.
“The fact we’re starting to see kids with liver disease should really be a wake-up call for anyone eating a diet high in fat and sugar and who’s not physically active,” Tetri says.
Tetri last year studied the effects on mice of a diet that mimicked a typical fast-food meal. The diet was 40 percent fat and replete with high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener common in soda and some fruit juices. The mice were also kept sedentary, mimicking the lifestyle of millions of Americans.
The result: Within four weeks, the mice displayed an increase in liver enzymes – a key indicator of liver damage – and the beginnings of glucose intolerance, a marker for type II diabetes.
Similarly, in February researchers in Sweden published the results of a study in which 18 healthy and slim adults ate fast food and restricted their physical activity for a month. The result: an average weight gain of 12 pounds and, within as little as a week, a sharp rise in liver enzymes.
Tetri is quick to emphasize that fast food per se doesn’t causes liver damage. Rather, he says, the harm comes from eating too many calories and too much fat and sugar – which happens with a steady diet of burgers, fries, sodas and most other items on the typical fast-food menu.
“The big issue here is caloric content,” says Tetri. “You can put away 2,000 calories in a single fast-food meal pretty easily. For most people, that’s more calories than they need in an entire day.”
For adults and children who’ve repeatedly indulged in fast food, Tetri urges four key steps to help reverse the damage they’ve done to their liver.
Limit yourself to no more than one fast-food meal a week. For some people, that’s going to be a major downshift. But for the sake of your health, a visit to a fast-food restaurant should be considered a treat – not a regular event. When you do eat fast food, eat as healthfully as possible. Try the burger without mayo and cheese, and avoid fries and sugary soft drinks. Better yet, go for a grilled chicken sandwich, a salad with a lower-fat dressing and bottled water or a diet soft drink. Get active. If you don’t already exercise at least three times a week, start now. Regular exercise helps keep your weight down and helps your body better metabolize and process the food you eat. Ask your doctor to do a blood test to check your level of liver enzymes, a key measure of the health of your liver. Many doctors now order test this routinely when doing blood work on adults, but kids who eat a lot of fast food especially need to have their liver enzymes checked. “Even for those people with the worst kind of diets, it’s not too late to start exercising and eating right,” Tetri says.
Adapted from materials provided by Saint Louis University Medical Center.
I don’t eat that stuff. Sugar, I need to avoid but still can’t. I used to say that about sub sandwiches when my mother would tell me they weren’t healthy. I would say they have all the food groups.
Thanks for the ping.
Thomas Kemper Soda ditches high fructose corn syrup
QSR Magazine Investigates the Future of High Fructose Corn Syrup
The high fructose corn syrup is probably the worst part of the whole "value meal". I would like to see another "Supersize Me" experiment where he switched to diet soda. I bet the damage would be minimal.
At least double-check. It’s your liver.
I agree. I used to be a Pepsi junkie. I quit cold turkey about two years ago. My health and vitality has improved in numerous ways.
Sorry. I was being sarcastic referring only to your advice not to take advice off of internet forums. My liver is in great shape. Did a liver cleanse recently with a taro and ginger plaster. Didn’t pull the slightest bit of toxins out. I use milk thistle now and then. Amazing stuff, it not only releases toxins it stimulates regrowth.
“It was probably enough to make many Americans lose their appetite: A recent study from Europe showed that eating too much fast food – a diet high in fat and sugar – could cause serious damage to your liver.”
My doctor, when he told me my liver count was slightly elevated, said it was caused by too many fatty/sugary foods. He told me my liver, if I didn’t change my eating habits, would turn into foie gras. That stuck with me. I don’t want a foie gras liver. I’m now avoiding fatty/junk foods big time.
A guy in my condo building turned me onto Liverite, which comes in both pill or capsule form, which can be bought at most drugstores, or Walmart (where I get mine). I was having some liver pain and my liver count turned out to be slightly elevated (too much bad food). When I went to buy the Liverite, the lady who showed me where it was said that after New Year’s Eve, lots of men would come in and buy a bottle of Liverite, LOL!. That sold me on the product. Went home, started taking it (initially 2 pills 3 times a day; now I just do 2 pills a day), and I almost instantaneously felt better. Check it out. I had amazing results from it. No prescription needed. All natural ingredients.
Details, please?
Cheers!
Details, please? It sounds interesting.
Cheers!
There are a whole bunch of different, but vaguely related substances that perform similar functions in different animals. Here is one of the more interesting prospects:
S’alright. I’m more libertarian in my health views than my politics. Buyer beware, thin the herd ... kind of like that.
One note about milk thistle; MT releases toxins from the liver by making the hepatocyte cell membranes of the liver more soluble allowing the release of stored toxins. They are then carried by the bile into the gastric tract. Without something to bind them the bloodstream will just pick them back up and take them back to the liver. Psyllium husk (Metamucil and it's variants) will absorb those toxins in the gut and carry them out.
A good regimen is 30 days of two 00 caps of milk thistle powdered and standardized extract and a normal one day dose of psyllium husk. Taking it every day, year in and year out, is probably not necessary. If you have specific chronic problems (such as you refuse to stop smoking and/or eating saturated fats, that's ME! ... or other factors) 2-3 30 day regimens per year would make sense. For the young (curse them all the brats!) healthy non-self-abusive person who doesn't work around heavy metals or the like it's almost ridiculous to worry about cleansing the liver.
The taro root and ginger plaster is a heavy duty liver detox method. It is a pulling plaster in herbal terms. You will need about 4-6 ounces of taro root. I'm guessing the amount because I didn't measure it or get instructions with specific measurements. Enough to make about a cup of paste. Enough ginger root to give you about 1/8th to 1/4 cup paste. Enough muslin gauze to wrap up the plaster making a pack out of it big enough to cover the area over the liver. Most of you liver hangs just below your rib cage on the right side. An old towel or other cloth to wrap around and hold it in place.
Grate the taro and ginger root and mix. Spread about 1/4 inch thick on the gauze and wrap two or three times. Just enough so it doesn't ooze out easily and get messy. Don't put too many layers of gauze over it, like I did at first, or it won't contact the skin enough to work.
Put it on just before bed and go to sleep because it will start itching like nobody's business and it's easier to sleep through than stay up and go nuts. It's also easier to keep it in place lying down.
I was told that I might find the plaster black, blue and purple from released toxins. And awful smelling. The pattern should reflect the shape of the liver. I found all of that true except the discoloration. But that doesn't surprise me since smoking and animal fats are the worst toxins I am exposed to and I have taken milk thistle for a while. On my own I decided to take milk thistle for a few days before doing the plaster since it makes hepatocyte cells more soluble.
Obligatory disclaimer: This information for educational purposes only.
Consult a qualified health care professional before self-treating.
Thank you for posting. I have fatty liver and the advice in this article might save my life.
Are they fighting obesity or GoreBull Warming?
Not if you are a goose (pate de foie gras).
That reminds me. How does “Where In The World Is Osama...?” end? If the answer is anything other than “Morgan ran into some guys in black skimasks and they chanted ‘Allah akbar!’ as they gave him the Daniel Pearl haircut”, I’m not going.
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