Avoid fatty liver disease by ditching HFCS

Deadly liver epidemic can be traced to this common additive

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center are hard at work developing a drug that they say will treat one of the plagues of our time — the epidemic called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD.

This devastating disease can strike men, women, and even children. And it can lead right to the deadly liver condition called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (shortened to NASH), which will land you on the liver transplant list even if you’ve been a teetotaler your entire life.

Drugs to treat these two conditions have been in Big Pharma’s pipeline for some time now. Millions of Americans currently have NAFLD, and many more will progress on to NASH.

So, getting a med on the market would be worth billions.

But the best way to beat this deadly condition is simply to eliminate one of the most toxic food ingredients out there — one that’s slowly but surely destroying your liver.

Dropping the “F” bomb
Rochester scientists now believe they have an answer to NAFLD, one with a name that sounds like it could have come straight out of Star Wars: URMC-099.

It was first developed in the lab of pediatric neurologist Dr. Harris Gelbard as a drug for patients infected with HIV. But apparently that’s not all Dr. Gelbard believes URMC-099 is good for.

Because he’s currently planning to rush it into human trials to treat fatty liver disease.

I’m sure Dr. Gelbard is a fine doctor, but practically everything that was released from the Rochester Medical Center about his research is a case of shoddy sound bites, starting with the headline on the university’s press release: “Of mice and cheeseburgers.”

It goes on to say how NAFLD is caused by being obese and eating lots of fast food (and, horrors, cholesterol!), along with loads of “sugar.”

That’s right, Dr. Gelbard, it’s all our fault!

Well, I’m here to tell you that many brilliant researchers have been investigating this nationwide avalanche of NAFLD for some time now, and they haven’t mentioned cheeseburgers or cholesterol once.

Instead, the main culprit on which to pin the blame for America’s NAFLD crisis (estimated to include up to 100 million people) is fructose.

That’s right — fructose, as in high fructose corn syrup.

If you look at the timeline for NAFLD, it was unheard of prior to the introduction of HFCS, which first appeared in soda and by now is in practically everything — even foods that should be healthy!

And anyone who bothered to read the details in Dr. Gelbard’s study would have noticed that his lab mice developed their fatty livers by being given fructose, not sugar.

While calling fructose “sugar” is common shorthand in the press these days, the body metabolizes those two substances very differently.

Fructose goes right to your liver — and the more fructose you consume, the bigger danger your liver is in. Load this hard-working organ up with enough of it, and you’re headed right for NAFLD.

Sugar, on the other hand, while far from a health food, is 50/50 fructose and glucose chemically bound together. That, plus the fact that when you’re consuming HFCS and other high-fructose sweeteners you’re getting much more of the damaging “unbound” fructose, makes a world of difference in how your body handles it.

The bottom line here is that when little kids are being diagnosed with fatty livers, you know that the time has come for us to start taking matters into our own hands.

So here’s what you need to watch out for:

#1: HFCS, which is also made into a version called HFCS-90, for 90 percent fructose!

#2: Fructose, crystalline fructose, and fruit sugar. Those corn-based ingredients will deliver a dangerous jolt of fructose right to your liver.

#3: Agave syrup, which is around 99 percent fructose and therefore not safe, even if it’s organic.

But don’t ditch the fruit! Mother Nature “packaged” it in a manner that slows the absorption of fructose and allows us to digest it in a natural and much healthier way.

So you can have all the pears, peaches, and apples you want, without worrying about your liver.

“Of mice and cheeseburgers: Experimental drug reverses obesity-related liver disease” University of Rochester Medical Center, August 3, 2017, urmc.rochester.edu