The gut shields the liver from fructose-induced damage
A new study shows how excessive consumption of fructose, whether via food or beverage, overwhelms gut defenses and results in the development of fatty liver.
After one consumes food or a beverage containing fructose, the gastrointestinal system, or gut, helps to shield the liver from damage by breaking down the sugar before it reaches the liver, according to a new multi-center study led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine. However, the consumption of too much fructose—particularly in a short period of time—can overwhelm the gut, causing fructose to “spill over” into the liver, where it wreaks havoc and causes fatty liver, researchers discovered.
The findings, in mice, help to unravel longstanding questions about how the body metabolizes fructose—a form of sugar often found in fruits, vegetables, and honey, as well as most processed foods in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Consumption of fructose has increased 100-fold over the last century, even as studies have shown that excessive consumption, particularly sweet drinks, are linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity and diabetes. The findings were published in Nature Metabolism.
“What we discovered and show here is that, after you eat or drink fructose, the gut actually consumes the fructose first—helping to protect the liver from fructose-induced damage,” says the study’s corresponding author Zoltan Arany, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Penn. “Importantly, we also show that consuming the food or beverage slowly over a long meal, rather than in one gulp, can mitigate the adverse consequences.”
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