So which diet is the worst: A high fat diet or a high fat and sugar diet?
As it turns out, a high fat and sugar diet could be your worst enemy.
According to a new study published in the journal Experimental Physiology, rats fed a high sugar and fat diet experienced more liver damage than those who only ate a high fat diet, leading lead researcher Dr. Susanna Iossa to believe these diets are more harmful.
Now, Iossa says consumers should pay more attention to the added sugars in their diet, especially from packaged foods.
“This result points to the harmful effect of adding fructose to the usual western, high-fat diet and, together with other related findings, should stimulate the discussion on the use of fructose and fructose-containing sweeteners in beverages and packaged foods,” says Iossa, who works as a researcher for the University of Naples in Italy. “Much more research should be undertaken in the future, especially regarding the impact of the high-fat high-fructose diet on other metabolically important organs, in order to establish the real impact of this unhealthy dietary habit on health and well-being.”
In the study, Iossa used male adult rats in place of humans–animals who share physiological similarities to human adults. The rats were split into two groups and fed one of two diets: A diet high in fat or a diet high in fat and fructose, a type of fruit sugar.
For the next two weeks, researchers examined the changes in their body as they followed each prospective diet, including oxidative stress, insulin sensitivity, and liver composition. Soon, they found serious changes occurring in the bodies of those consuming fructose and fat–and the changes were bad.
“Hepatic triglycerides and ceramide, as well as degree of steatosis and necrosis, were significantly higher, while liver p-Akt was significantly lower, in rats fed high fat-high fructose diet than in rats fed high fat diet,” says Iossa in the study, published earlier last month. “In conclusion, short term consumption of a western diet, rich in saturated fats and fructose, is more deleterious for liver steatosis development and glucose homeostasis system than a high fat diet.”
In other words, eating a high sugar and fat diet damaged their livers–putting them at a higher risk of liver diseases such as fatty liver disease.
That’s bad news, considering 10 percent of those who develop fatty liver problems also develop liver cancer.
“This latter diet is very similar in composition to the diet consumed by the large majority of the Western population,” says Iossa. “After the diet period, we evaluated liver function and we found that the presence of fructose in the high-fat diet exacerbated the impairment of this important metabolic organ, by increasing the build-up of fat in the liver, and decreasing liver insulin sensitivity.”
In conclusion, Iossa believes that this diet–something which she acknowledges most of the Western world follows–could cause serious health problems if not changed.
What You Should Do
To keep you risk of fatty liver–and liver cancer–to a minimum, it’s time to clean up your diet. Research shows eating a diet rich in sugar and fat exacerbates liver problems, so keep your risk to a minimum by eating fewer packaged or processed foods, upping your intake of vegetables and whole grains, and avoiding sweets when possible.
Readers: How often do you eat processed or packaged foods?
Sources:
Study: Adding Sugar To Your High Fat Diet Can Cause Liver Problems – PHYSOC.org
Adding Sugar to a High Fat Diet Could Be Deadly – ScienceDaily.com
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