|
 Most people have a little bit of fat in their liver. Fatty liver
disease can occur when more than 5 percent of the liver by weight is
made up of fat. Excessive drinking can damage the liver and cause
fat to accumulate, a condition known as alcoholic fatty liver. When
people don't drink much, they can still develop non-alcoholic fatty
liver disease (NAFLD), which is associated with obesity and certain
eating habits.
NAFLD is the most common liver disease in western children, the
authors write in Journal of Hepatology. And it is now recognized as
the liver’s "manifestation" of metabolic syndrome – a constellation
of traits and symptoms that raise a person’s risk for diabetes and
heart disease - they add.
For the current study, researchers examined data on 271 obese
children and teens in Italy and the UK who underwent liver biopsies
to assess fat accumulation. They used food questionnaires to assess
fructose consumption and also examined blood levels of uric acid,
which can be elevated in people with chronic liver disease.
Foods high in fructose include anything with high fructose corn
syrup, like sweetened drinks, candy and many processed foods, but
this type of sugar also occurs naturally in fruits, fruit juices and
honey.
"Cells don't use fructose for energy, so 100 percent of the fructose
you eat is metabolized in your liver," said study co-author Dr.
Valerio Nobili of Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital in Rome.
Instead, the body turns fructose into fatty acids, the "bad" kind of
cholesterol and triglycerides, which are stored as body fat, Nobili
said by email. "That's why excess fructose going into the liver is
followed by the formation of fatty liver," Nobili added.
All of the study participants had at least some degree of
nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, researchers report.
About 38 percent of them, or 102 participants, had more extensive
liver damage known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) that
happens when fat buildup leads to swelling in the liver and impairs
liver function.
Roughly 47 patients with NASH had high uric acid, compared with 30
percent of participants without NASH, the study also found.
Overall, 53 percent of the children reported always skipping
breakfast and another 26 percent said they had a morning meal
infrequently.
However, 95 percent of the youth said they regularly had a morning
snack and 89 percent routinely had an afternoon snack. Morning
snacks most often included crackers, pizza and salty food, while
afternoon snacks often consisted of biscuits or yogurt.
[to top of second column] |
About 47 percent of the children ate cereal daily, while 43 percent
had vegetables every day and 40 percent consumed fruit each day.
Roughly nine in 10 participants had soda at least once a week.
The youth with NASH had higher average consumption of fructose.
Their median intake – meaning half of them consumed more – was about
70 grams of fructose daily. Median fructose consumption of children
and teens without NASH was about 53 grams a day.
One limitation of the study is that it relied on children and teens
to accurately recall and report what they ate, the authors note. The
study also didn't examine whether there was a difference in liver
outcomes based on how much fructose participants got from whole
fruits, fruit juices or sodas.
"Our understanding of the role of fructose in fatty liver is still
evolving," said Dr. Jeffrey Schwimmer, a researcher at the
University of California, San Diego and director of the Fatty Liver
Clinic at Rady Children's Hospital.
"We don't think that the impact of fructose from fruit is the same
as fructose from drinks," Schwimmer, who wasn't involved in the
study, said by email.
The difference in fructose consumption between youth with and
without NASH in the study would be in one glass of sweetened tea or
soda, but also the amount a child might get from pears or grapes,
Schwimmer added.
His advice to parents: "Limit added sugars while further research is
done to better understand" how fructose impacts the liver.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2lj2zPt Journal of Hepatology, online February
14, 2017.
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
