According to a study out of the Washington University School of Medicine and published in the journal Science Signaling, a natural sugar called trehalose prevents sugar fructose from entering the liver and could help prevent nonalcoholic fatty acid liver disease, which is a condition closely linked to obesity. It affects roughly 25 percent of the people in the U.S. The study is conducted with mice.

“In general, if you feed a mouse a high-sugar diet, it gets a fatty liver,” said one researcher. “We found that if you feed a mouse a diet high in fructose plus provide drinking water that contains three percent trehalose, you completely block the development of a fatty liver. Those mice also had lower body weights at the end of the study and lower levels of circulating cholesterol, fatty acids and triglycerides.”

Researchers note that the evidence suggests that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease develops as the liver works hard to process dietary sugar, especially fructose, found naturally in fruit but also added as high-fructose corn syrup to soft drinks and many processed foods. Ultimately, the body stores fructose in the liver as fats called triglycerides. In severe cases of the disease, the fat can build up to toxic levels that may eventually require a liver transplant.

For more information, read the full study.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160223143140.htm

Razi Berry, Founder and Publisher of Naturopathic Doctor News & Review (ndnr.com) and NaturalPath (thenatpath.com), has spent the last decade as a natural medicine advocate and marketing whiz. She has galvanized and supported the naturopathic community, bringing a higher quality of healthcare to millions of North Americans through her publications. A self-proclaimed health-food junkie and mother of two; she loves all things nature, is obsessed with organic gardening, growing fruit trees (not easy in Phoenix), laughing until she snorts, and homeschooling. She is a little bit crunchy and yes, that is her real name.