Dangers Of Carbohydrate Rich Diets
September 23, 2007
A diet rich in potatoes, white bread and white rice may be contributing to a silent epidemic of a dangerous liver condition.
“High-glycaemic” foods are rapidly digested by the body could be the cause of fatty liver. This increases the risk of serious illness. Boston based researchers have written in the journal Obesity that they found mice fed starchy foods developed the disease. Those fed a similar quantity of other foods did not. One obesity expert said, “fatty liver in today’s children was a tragedy of the future.” Fatty liver is exactly as it sounds-a build up over time of fat deposits around the organ. At the time, no ill-effects are felt, but it has been linked with a higher risk of potentially fatal liver failure in life.
The study carried out in Boston Children’s Hospital looked at the effect of diets with precisely the same calorific content, but very different ingredients when measured using the glycaemic index (GI). This is a measure of how quickly the energy in the food is absorbed by the body, producing a rise in blood sugar levels. Higher GI foods lead to sharper rises in insulin levels, as the body releases the chemical in response.
High GI foods include many breakfast cereals and processed foods such as white bread and whit rice. Low GI foods include unprocessed fruit, nuts, pulses and grains including rye or granary bread, spaghetti, apples and oranges.After six months on the diet the mice weighed the same, but those on the high GI diet had twice the normal amount of fat in their bodies, blood and liver. The researchers say that because the processed carbohydrates are absorbed so quickly, they trigger the release of more of the chemical insulin which tells the body to lay down more fat.
Dr. David Ludwig who led the research said that the results would also apply to humans and even children in whom fatty liver is becoming far more common. He further said, “This is a silent but dangerous epidemic just as type 2 diabetes exploded into our consciousness in the 1990’s, so we think fatty liver will in the coming decade.”Tam Fry, National Obesity Forum board member and chairman of Child Growth Foundation said, “It is clear eating a diet rich in high glycaemic food led to increased fat. Fatty liver is going to be one of the tragedies of the future unless we do something about it.”
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