Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NASH) is a form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) characterized by an accumulation of fat in the liver accompanied by inflammation of liver cells. This disease can lead to serious complications, including cirrhosis or one liver cancer.
10% of children suffer from liver disease
However, according to Dr. Valeri Nobili of the Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome (Italy), in our Western countries, nearly 10% of all children and 38% of obese children suffer from some form of liver disease. And one of the main causes would be the excessive consumption of dietary fructose, used to sweeten drinks and cakes.
According to the doctor and his team of researchers, the consumption of dietary fructose leads to excessive production of uric acid. In addition, a high concentration of uric acid is often found in people who suffer from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. They therefore wanted to check if there could be a link between fructose and NASH.
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For their study published in the Journal of hepatology they performed liver biopsies on 271 obese children and adolescents, all of whom had non-alcoholic liver disease. All of them also completed a questionnaire on their eating habits, which made it possible to calculate their weekly fructose intake.
The results of the biopsies showed that 37.6% of the children and adolescents had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and of these, one in two had an elevated concentration of uric acid.
The researchers therefore plead for efforts to be made to limit the consumption of sodas and sugary drinks among young people.
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