Researchers from University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in the US found that a diet high in monounsaturated fat, combined with high starch content, caused the most severe fatty liver disease, a risk factor for metabolic disorders. Researchers emphasized that simply counting calories does not guarantee a healthy diet.
For the study, experts carried out experiments on mice module. They paired fat, saturated or monounsaturated, with carbohydrate, sucrose or starch, to create four different high-calorie diets which were then given to mice. The diets were roughly 40 per cent carbohydrate, 40 per cent fat, and 20 per cent protein by calorie, a ratio on par with the average American diet.
Experts divided mice into four groups of 10. They were fed the experimental diets for six months and were then compared to mice that were fed regular low-fat mouse chow. It was noted that all mice on experimental diets grew obese by the end of six months and developed some degree of fatty liver. Experts also saw an unusual degree of fat cell death and signs of inflammation.
Perhaps the starch-monounsaturated fat diet somehow induces the fat from these areas to be shuttled into the liver at an abnormally high rate, fattening the liver, researcher said.
Inputs from PTI