Insuline and fatty livers

Why do we go to the trouble of avoiding foods with high glycemic indices and loads? Well, this exerpt from a recent study explains it nicely:

On the high-glycemic index diet, mice ate a type of cornstarch that is digested quickly whereas on the low-glycemic index diet, mice ate a type of cornstarch that is digested slowly. The diets had equal amounts of total calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrate, and the mice were otherwise treated identically.

After six months, the mice weighed the same. However, mice on the low-glycemic index diet were lean, with normal amounts of fat in throughout their bodies. Mice on the high-glycemic index diet had twice the normal amount of fat in their bodies, blood and livers.

When sugar melts out of high-glycemic index food, Ludwig explains, it drives up production of insulin, which tells the body to make and store fat. Nowhere is this message felt more strongly than in the liver, because the pancreas, which makes insulin, dumps the hormone directly into the liver, where concentrations can be many times higher than in the rest of the body. Fat buildup in the liver, or fatty liver, is usually symptomless, but it increases the risk for liver inflammation, which can progress to hepatitis and, in some cases, liver failure.

Read the full article here.


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