Liver

Fructose and its effect on the liver

Your liver, which is made up of two main lobes, is located beneath your diaphragm and on top of your stomach, right kidney, and intestines.

Besides its primary role of protecting your body from harmful substances, your liver plays other key roles, too.

Your healthy liver:

Produces bile, which helps carry away waste and break down fats
Helps regulate the levels of sugar, protein, and fat entering your bloodstream
Clears your blood of drugs, alcohol, and other potentially harmful substances
Processes nutrients absorbed by your intestines during digestion
Produces cholesterol, proteins, and clotting factors to help your blood clot
Regulates many of your hormones
Neutralizes highly reactive oxygen molecules, or free radicals
After your liver breaks down harmful substances, they enter your blood or bile and leave your body either through your kidneys and urine or your feces after traveling through your intestines.

Normally, all these functions go on like clockwork, without much support on your part. But today many potential threats to your liver’s well-being prevail…

Is Your Expanding Waistline Putting Your Liver at Risk?
Ideal Body Weight (BMI) A renewed reminder of why it’s important to maintain your ideal body weight
Stunning new research suggests that your liver may be aging faster than the rest of your body if you hold excess weight in your waist.

Researchers found that for each 10-unit increase in body mass index, or BMI, the physiological age of the liver grew by 3.3 years.

To put that into real numbers…

Suppose a 5-foot, 8-inch man weighs 130 pounds and has a BMI of 20. A second man of the same height and age weighs 230 pounds, and has a BMI of 35.

The liver of the second man is likely five years older than the liver of the normal weight man.

And here’s another interesting finding… If the second man decided to have surgery to rapidly lose the excess weight, the age of his liver wouldn’t change!

What’s behind this vicious threat to your liver? It may be linked to one of its worst enemies.

One of Your Liver’s Worst Enemies Isn’t What You Might Expect
Drinking Alcohol harmful to your liver
I’m guessing many people would say their liver’s worst enemy is alcohol. Yes, alcohol is harmful to your liver, but there’s another substance that’s equally so – and far more pervasive.

Unlike alcohol, this other substance can be found in some form in nearly every processed food in your grocery store.

Fructose, the most damaging type of sugar to your body, is particularly hard on your liver, much like alcohol:

Fructose must be 100 percent broken down by your liver. Glucose on the other hand only needs to be partially broken down before it can be utilized.
Corn Sugars can damage your liver Corn sugars can damage your liver much like drinking alcohol
Fructose is metabolized directly into fat that gets stored in your liver and other internal organs and tissues as body fat, which leads to mitochondrial malfunction
Fructose produces toxic metabolites and superoxide free radicals when it is metabolized, that can lead to inflammation in your liver
Fructose is a cheap form of sugar that’s found in thousands of food products and drinks. It’s often deliberately disguised by the use of many different names, so the only way to steer clear of it completely is to avoid eating processed foods.

I believe fructose and other non-fiber carbs are important factors behind the rising rates of liver issues and at least 30 other health concerns. Tragically, even children are now showing signs normally associated with alcohol abuse from their consumption of fructose!