Fatty Liver Vs Fat Belly What Is the Difference Regarding Health?

October 26, 2009 By Mark

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2632109950_9b3e5abd3f_m Having excess abdominal fat isn’t very healthy, it’s well known that it can be a precursor for diabetes, another reason is when you have excess belly fat it can make you eat more food which is something I have previously discussed.

But now it seems there is another factor which scientists have been investigating which is more to do with having a fatty liver. They have been putting more emphasis on having a fatty liver which may be a greater health risk compared to having excess belly fat.

This research which came about from the annual meeting of the obesity society, which was conducted by Samuel Klein, he says that “Fat in the liver is a more important factor of health problems”.

During the research Klein and his associates had 31 obese men and women, and compared their visceral fat which is the fat which is in the organs in your belly, they also measured their liver fat. If you compare two livers side-by-side non-fatty liver will have five percent fat and a fatty liver will have 50 percent of fat in it.

When they compared the participants some had higher levels of fat others had lower percentage of fat in their livers, during their tests they found that the people that have fatty livers tend to;

Have increased levels of triglycerides which means higherLDL levels of cholesterol which is the bad one
They will probably more likely to be reactive to their own insulin, which means that their bodies don’t keep blood sugar levels under control very well compared to if they had less fat in their livers

Dr Klein said “We do not yet know whether the liver fat is causing these health problems or is simply a very good indicator of health risk,” he says. “Even though it looks like visceral fat itself might not cause harm, it is often high in people with increased liver fat.”

In another study people who had gastric bypass surgery and lost weight and whom were severely obese, had their liver fat measured and it was significantly lower.

One of the reasons to take notice of what is being said in this particular study is even though you may not notice that you have fatty liver to start off with, it could creep up on you eventually. There may or may not be symptoms with fatty liver some people get them some people don’t if you do get them

You may notice the following; Feeling lethargic or tired all the time, feeling generally unwell a good percentage of the time, you may experience some discomfort in the upper part of your abdomen which is at the base of your rib cage.

If you would like to know some of the foods to eat which will help your liver then please see my previous posts The Secret Life of Your Liver Recipes.

Source http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-10-25-liver-fat_N.htm