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24.09.2024

How many fresh oranges do you need to degrease your fatty liver?

If you have fatty liver, incorporating fresh oranges into your diet can help restore your liver to health. This is evident from a small Italian trial.

Study
Italian biochemists, affiliated with the National Institute of Gastroenterology - IRCCS Saverio de Bellis, recruited 62 people with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease [MASLD].

MASLD is the new term for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [NAFLD]. In everyday speech, MASLD and NAFLD are also called fatty liver disease.

The Italians divided the test subjects into 2 groups. The subjects in the experimental group ate 400 grams of peeled orange every day for 4 weeks. That's about 3 large oranges per day.

Oranges contain phenols. The subjects in the experimental group consumed approximately 400 milligrams of phenols every day. An important one is hesperidin [structural formula below]. The researchers hoped that these phenols, or perhaps other components of oranges, would help liver cells function better.

Sponsor
The funding for the trial was provided by the Italian government - and not by an organization of orange growers.

Results
The concentration of the liver enzyme GGT decreased in the blood of the subjects in the orange group. This is an indication of a reduced burden on the liver.

Click on the table below for a larger version.

Before and after the supplementation period, the Italians made scans of the test subjects' liver. They saw that the controlled attenuation parameter [CAP], a measure of fatty liver, did not change in the control group. This seemed to be the case in the experimental group.

According to the scans, all subjects had a CAP of at least 275 dB/m before the trial started - and therefore had fatty liver disease.

This did not change in the control group, but after the trial this was no longer the case in thirty percent of the experimental subjects.

Conclusion
"Our findings underscore the potential effectiveness of whole fruit consumption, particularly citrus fruits, as a dietary strategy for reducing liver steatosis in overweight individuals with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, independent of weight loss", write the Italians.

"This research adds to the growing evidence that fruits rich in vitamins, phytochemicals, and fiber can serve as adjunct therapy for preventing liver steatosis and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease."

Source:
Nutrients 2024, 16, 3191.

More:
The effect of synbiotics on a fatty liver 12.09.2024
Supplementing with butyrate reverses fatty liver disease 31.07.2024
Supplement with vitamin E supports the non-alcoholic fatty liver 28.11.2023
Obese with a fatty liver? This dose of myo-inositol makes you healthier 27.02.2023
Grape Seed Extract protects against fatty liver disease 19.10.2022

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