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| |  Low-Carbohydrate Diet Burns More Excess Liver Fat Than Low-Calorie Diet DALLAS -- January 20, 2009 -- People on low-carbohydrate diets are more dependent on the oxidation of fat in the liver for energy than those on a low-calorie diet, according to a small study published in the January issue of the journal Hepatology. The results could have implications for treating obesity and related diseases such as diabetes, insulin resistance, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to lead author Jeffrey Browning, MD, University of Texas Southwestern Advanced Imaging Research Center, Dallas, Texas. "Instead of looking at drugs to combat obesity and the diseases that stem from it, maybe optimising diet can not only manage and treat these diseases, but also prevent them," said Dr. Brown. In order to determine how diet affects glucose production and utilisation in the liver, the researchers randomly assigned 14 obese or overweight adults to either a low-carbohydrate or low-calorie diet and monitored 7 lean subjects on a regular diet. After 2 weeks, researchers used advanced imaging techniques to analyse the different biochemical pathways the subjects used to make glucose. They found that participants on a low-carbohydrate diet produced more glucose from lactate or amino acids than those on a low-calorie diet. "We saw a dramatic change in where and how the liver was producing glucose, depending on diet," said Dr. Browning. "Understanding how the liver makes glucose under different dietary conditions may help us better regulate metabolic disorders with diet." The different diets produced other differences in glucose metabolism. For example, people on a low-calorie diet got about 40% of their glucose from glycogen. The low-carbohydrate dieters, however, received only 20% of their glucose from glycogen. Instead of dipping into their reserve of glycogen, these subjects burned liver fat for energy. The findings are significant because the accumulation of excess fat in the liver can result in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, (NAFLD). "Energy production is expensive for the liver," said Dr. Browning. "It appears that for the people on a low-carbohydrate diet, in order to meet that expense, their livers have to burn excess fat." Although the study was not designed to determine which diet was more effective for losing weight, the average weight loss for the low-calorie dieters was about 2.5 kg (5 lbs) after 2 weeks, while the low-carbohydrate dieters lost about 4.75 kg (9.5 lbs) on average. SOURCE: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
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