Rasta Livewire
11th August 2009
Doctors in various hospitals around the world have noticed a spike in a condition known as fatty liver disease which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. Fatty liver disease is normally associated with extreme alcoholism but many persons outside that risk group are showing up with the same disease.
Israeli doctors at the Ziv Liver unit in Haifa, Israel conducting field research have identified fizzy drinks as one of the leading causes of this spike in fatty liver disease and the prediction is of a looming epidemic of this condition considering the prevalence of fizzy drinks and the proclivity of people of consume them.
Fatty liver disease will increase in the global population because the effects of fizzy drinks are so toxic and yet so powerful. According to the results of the field research, “drinking just two glasses of fruit juice or fizzy drink each day may cause long-term liver damage resulting in the need for a transplant.”
Fizzy drinks have a high content of fructose and sucrose. These chemicals get absored directly into the liver bypassing the normal digestive track through the stomach. Once in the liver they create all kinds of infractions, imbalance and intoxification which permanently damage the liver over the medium to long term.
The study had compared two groups of volunteers, neither of which had a risk of developing fatty liver disease.
The results showed that 80 per cent of those who had consumed high-sugar fizzy drinks and fruit juices had fatty liver changes, while only 17 per cent of the control group – who had not been drinking sugary beverages – developed fatty livers.
The study cautions that due to their powerful and longlasting effects, fizzy drinks are even more dangerous than alcoholic beverage in the risk mthey carry for liver damage.
The Israeli study further found that:
People who drank a litre of high-sugar fizzy drinks or fresh fruit juice each day were five times more likely to develop fatty liver disease.
Just two glasses of fruit juice each day can increase the chance of developing fatty liver disease by up to 80 per cent
Even two cans of beverages such as Coca Cola raised the risk of liver damage, as well as diabetes and heart damage.
While diet drinks do not contain fructose, they do have aspartame and caramel colourants – both these can increase insulin resistance and may induce fatty liver.
Freshly-squeezed fruit juices could possibly be as dangerous as highly sweetened carbonated soda. The ingredient in fizzy drinks and juices that causes the damage is a fruit sugar called fructose, which is highly absorbable in the liver.
To reap the maximum benefit from fruit, and to avoid the risk of liver damage, the scientists suggested eating the fruits. Whole fruits have fibre that prevents fructose from being absorbed into the liver.
A healthy diet, including fresh fruit and regular exercise, will help reduce the risk of developing fatty liver disease.
Sugar intake as well as alcohol intake should be controlled or avoided to prevent liver damage and reduce the risk of liver cancer.
Rasta livewire Reports
11 August 2009
Source
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1205763/Just-cans-fizzy-drink-day-increase-risk-liver-damage-80-cent.html#