March 29, 2024

Consumption of Fast Food Linked to Potentially Deadly Liver Disease

A new research study from Keck Medicine of USC discovered that fast food consumption is associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a serious condition in which fat constructs up in the liver. The study revealed that individuals with weight problems or diabetes who take in 20% or more of their everyday calories from quick food have badly raised levels of fat in their liver compared to those who consume less or no quick food. The basic population also has moderate boosts of liver fat when one-fifth or more of their diet plan is fast food.
The findings also reveal that a reasonably modest amount of fast food, which is high in carbohydrates and fat, can injure the liver. Only this 29% of survey topics experienced a rise in liver fat levels.

Researchers found that individuals with weight problems or diabetes who consume 20% or more of their day-to-day calories from quick food have severely elevated levels of fat in their liver compared to those who take in less or no junk food. When one-fifth or more of their diet plan is fast food, and the basic population has moderate increases of liver fat.
” Healthy livers consist of a percentage of fat, typically less than 5%, and even a moderate increase in fat can cause nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” stated Ani Kardashian, MD, a hepatologist with Keck Medicine and lead author of the study. “The serious rise in liver fat in those with obesity or diabetes is especially striking, and probably due to the truth that these conditions cause a higher susceptibility for fat to develop in the liver.”
Ani Kardashian, MD, a hepatologist with Keck Medicine of USC, is the lead author of a brand-new research study revealing that fast-food intake is linked to liver illness. Credit: Ricardo Carrasco III
While previous research has shown a link between junk food and obesity and diabetes, this is among the very first studies to show the negative effect of junk food on liver health, according to Kardashian.
The findings likewise reveal that a relatively modest quantity of junk food, which is high in carbs and fat, can harm the liver. “If individuals eat one meal a day at a lunch counter, they may believe they arent doing damage,” said Kardashian. “However, if that one meal equals at least one-fifth of their daily calories, they are putting their livers at threat.”
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, also understood as liver steatosis, can cause cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver, which can trigger liver cancer or failure. Liver steatosis impacts over 30% of the U.S. population.
Kardashian and coworkers analyzed the most current information from the countrys largest yearly dietary survey, the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, to figure out the effect of fast-food usage on liver steatosis.
The research study identified junk food as meals, consisting of pizza, from either a drive-through dining establishment or one without wait staff.
The scientists examined the fatty liver measurement of roughly 4,000 adults whose fatty liver measurements were included in the study and compared these measurements to their fast-food intake.
Of those surveyed, 52% taken in some quick food. Of these, 29% consumed one-fifth or more everyday calories from fast food. Only this 29% of survey subjects experienced a rise in liver fat levels.
The association in between liver steatosis and a 20% diet plan of quick food held steady for both the basic population and those with weight problems or diabetes even after data was adjusted for multiple other elements such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, alcohol usage, and physical activity.
” Our findings are particularly alarming as fast-food usage has gone up in the last 50 years, no matter socioeconomic status,” said Kardashian. “Weve likewise seen a considerable rise in fast-food dining throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which is most likely associated with the decrease in full-service dining establishment dining and rising rates of food insecurity. We fret that the variety of those with fatty livers has gone up a lot more since the time of the study.”
She hopes the research study will encourage healthcare companies to provide clients more nutrition education, specifically to those with weight problems or diabetes who are at greater danger of establishing a fatty liver from junk food. Presently, the only way to treat liver steatosis is through an enhanced diet plan.
Recommendation: “Quantifying the Negative Impact of Fast-food Consumption on Liver Steatosis Among United States Adults with Diabetes and Obesity” by Ani Kardashian, MD, Jennifer L. Dodge and Norah A. Terrault, 10 January 2023, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.DOI: 10.1016/ j.cgh.2022.11.040.
Jennifer Dodge, MPH, assistant teacher of research medication and population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Norah Terrault, MD, MPH, a Keck Medicine gastroenterologist and division chief of gastroenterology and liver illness at the Keck School, were also authors on the study.

A brand-new research study from Keck Medicine of USC found that fast food consumption is related to nonalcoholic fatty liver illness, a severe condition in which fat develops in the liver. The research study revealed that people with obesity or diabetes who consume 20% or more of their day-to-day calories from quick food have badly raised levels of fat in their liver compared to those who consume less or no junk food. When one-fifth or more of their diet plan is fast food, the general population also has moderate increases of liver fat.
Threat of liver damage is highest for those with obesity or diabetes.
The brand-new year has begun, and with it, resolutions for modification.
A research study from Keck Medicine of USC released on January 10, 2013, in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology gives people extra inspiration to minimize fast-food intake.
The research study discovered that consuming fast food is related to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a potentially deadly condition in which fat develops up in the liver.