This seemingly surprising beverage appears to be linked to a condition that affects 25% of Americans.
Perhaps you intuitively realize how vital it is to keep your liver healthy because it filters pollutants from your body. And when we talk about liver disease, alcohol is generally the first thing that comes to mind. However, new research suggests that a completely different category of alcohol is the most likely cause of liver damage... There is no minimum age requirement for this type of beverage, unlike alcohol.
According to Medical and Public Health Researchers in Boston, continue reading to determine which beverage is the worst for your liver.
The Framingham Heart Study
To provide some context for this research, consider the following: The Framingham Heart Study, which began in the Boston area in 1948 and continues to this day, has had a huge impact in informing the public about how lifestyle choices (such as smoking and food) can have a big impact on health and lifespan.
Based on the current phase of the Framingham Heart Study, medical and public health experts from Boston University School of Medicine (with funding from Harvard Medical School) have published an interesting update in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
A New Section of the Research.
The researchers claim to have done "a prospective observational analysis of participants from the FHS Third Generation and Offspring cohorts" for their recently published work. Since roughly 2002, this sample has been under scrutiny.
This phase looked at the descendants of the initial study cohort, which included 1,636 people. The "offspring" participants had 63, whereas the third generation cohort had 48. Women made up 52 percent of the group.
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
The participants' self-reports of how often they drink sugar-sweetened beverages or soda were compared to the incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, defined as "a disorder in which excess fat is accumulated in your liver" by the National Institute of Health (NIH). According to the Mayo Clinic, one out of every four Americans suffers from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
According to the National Institutes of Health, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease does not cause major health problems, but it can induce liver enlargement... As a result, pain.
The Liver's Response to Sugar-Sweetened Beverages.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can be avoided by avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages, according to this section of the Framingham Heart Study. That's because, according to the researchers, regular sugar-sweetened beverage drinkers (those who said they drank it more than once a day to more than once a week) had a two-and-a-half times higher risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease than non-drinkers.
The researchers found that "occasional" sugar-sweetened drink drinkers (those who drink once a month to less than once a week) had "a more unfavourable increase in liver fat compared to non-consumers."