Liver protection: Green leafy vegetables such as spinach or arugula protect us from a fatty liver
Salad can prevent a fatty liver
Obesity, alcohol, medications, and Diabetes can lead to fatty degeneration of the liver. Almost every third adult in Germany, the liver has a so-called fat. This is the main risk factor for the development of a dangerous cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer. A recognized treatment, there is not currently. A Swedish research team found, however, recently, that salad and the green leaf can protect vegetables against a fatty liver.
Researchers from the Karolinska fixed Institutet in Sweden found in a recent study that inorganic nitrate from green leafy vegetables is the accumulation of fat in the liver is reduced. This represents an important discovery, because there is no treatment for the fatty liver. The results of the research were recently presented in the journal “PNAS”.
Fatty liver – the silent Suffering
Our liver suffers in silence but with dramatic consequences. Fatty liver is a extremely widespread complaint. As good as every third adult in the industrialized countries is affected according to the German center for diabetes research (DZD). Often the disease remains undetected. A feeling of pressure in upper right abdomen, chronic fatigue and impaired concentration may indicate a fatty liver. Is threatening fatty liver degeneration and severe secondary diseases such as high blood pressure, type 2 Diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, heart attack or stroke.
Nitrate lowers the proportion of fat in the liver
A greater proportion of green leafy vegetables in the diet can reduce the risk of liver steatosis or fatty liver. This was the result of the Swedish research team in its studies of mice. “As we were mice, the fat – before- and sugar-fed, dietary nitrate gave, we noticed a significantly lower proportion of fat in the Leber“, reported by Professor Mattias Carlström from the Karolinska Institutet in a press release of the study results. These findings confirmed the researchers in two different cell culture studies with human liver cells.
Can salad to the prevention of type-2-Diabetes?
In addition to lower fatty liver risk the Team also observed a reduction in blood pressure and improved blood sugar regulation in mice with type-2 Diabetes. The healing effects of green, leafy vegetables are the researchers result with the reduction of oxidative Stress. This occurs when increasingly, so-called free radicals form in the body. These are highly reactive molecules that bind to all possible cells in the body and damage them. “We believe that these diseases are linked by similar mechanisms in which oxidative Stress is impaired signaling of nitric oxide,” Dr. Carlström.
Green leafy vegetables reduces oxidative Stress
“We now show an alternative way for the production of nitric oxide, the more nitrate can be converted in our diet to nitric oxide in our body,” explains the Professor. So far, no one focused in the research on nitrate. This is, however, in the opinion of the Swedish research team is the key to liver health. The Team now wants to carry out a clinical study to prove unequivocally that nitrate may protect against a fatty liver.
A day 200 grams of green leafy vegetables
The Swedish researchers explain that more studies are needed to confirm the role of nitrate clearly. However, you are advise now to take more of green leafy vegetables. In particular lettuce, spinach and rocket salad nitrate are particularly rich. “With about 200 grams of nitrate-rich leafy vegetables per day, the observed protective effects can be achieved,” emphasizes Carlström. He regrets that too many people nowadays do not have enough vegetables to eat. (vb)
