Here’s How Your ‘Cheat’ Meal Could Be Affecting Your Liver

After strictly adhering to a low fat, high protein diet (or whatever your diet of choice is), many people reward themselves once a week with a ‘cheat’ meal. Or, even a cheat day where they have carte blanche to devour fries cheeseburgers and decadent desserts. After all, one meal won’t make that much of a difference to your overall health, will it?

A recent study questions that logic. According to researchers at Michael Roden’s laboratory at the German Diabetes Center in Germany, even one high fat meal can affect your health.

Decreased Liver Function?

The researchers conducted the study on a small sample of people; 14 healthy participants were given a serving of palm oil with fat that would be equivalent to a high fat meal. Following the meal, they studied the participants’ livers and metabolism.

They found that there was an alot immediate increase in fat accumulation and that the meal also caused higher levels of Trig, glucagon and insulin resistance. Triglycerides are types of fat which can increase the risk of heart disease while glucagon is a hormone which increases blood glucose levels.

“The effects mimic the abnormalities seen in people with severe metabolic disease,” said study co-author Dr.Micahel Roden. “Our findings paint the picture of the earliest changes in liver metabolism leading to fatty liver diseases and liver cirrhosis in the context of obesity and type 2 diabetes,” he added.

High levels of fat are often found in fast food as well as the fatty cuts of red meat and tropical oils like coconut oil and palm oil.

However, it should be noted that the study was conducted on an extremely small sample of participants; further research needs to be done to apply its results to a larger population.