Summary 9: Fatty Liver? New Study

Fat liver, not belly, may be best indicator of health problems
By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-10-25-liver-fat_N.htm)

Summary: New research was presented at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society on Sunday which shows that fat in the liver is a better reason behind some medical issues than belly fat. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues looked at the visceral fat and liver fat of 31 obese men and women. Some of them had high amounts of liver fat and some of them had normal amounts of liver fat which is 5 percent fat or less. During the study researchers discovered that the people with fatty livers had an increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Obese people are at a higher risk of having non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a severe fatty liver which may contain up to 50 percent fat. To make a change obese people can make a marked reduction in liver fat with a 2 percent to 5 percent weight loss.

Session 20: Blog