Did you know that there’s a particularly harmful food for your liver, even worse than sugar or starches? This sneaky ingredient is hidden in many everyday products and could be responsible for the current epidemic of liver diseases, especially non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Yet, few people are aware of its harmful effects and continue to consume it without suspicion. It’s time to unveil this unsuspected enemy of our health.
The liver is a discreet organ that often suffers in silence. Symptoms of a liver problem can be very subtle and go unnoticed for years. I learned this the hard way: for nearly 22 years, I suffered from pain in my right shoulder, tension in the scapular region, and bloating under my ribs, without ever suspecting that my liver was the cause. However, it was indeed a biliary problem affecting my gallbladder and liver ducts.
But rest assured, it’s entirely possible to reverse the trend! Contrary to popular belief, the liver is an incredibly resilient organ, capable of completely regenerating once the cause of the problem is eliminated.
Another misconception is the belief that the liver stores toxins. In reality, its role is to neutralize them while our fat cells accumulate them. But when assaults are repeated, the liver eventually develops scar tissue and cirrhosis, making it vulnerable to cancer.
Medical treatments at this stage are intensive, often with liver transplantation as the only hope. Needless to say, it’s crucial to act preventively!
Vegetable Oil: Your Liver’s Worst Enemy
A fascinating study conducted on rats compared the effects of different fats associated with alcohol on liver health. One group received lard (pork fat), a second received tallow (beef fat), and a third received corn oil. The results are unequivocal: while lard caused only minimal lesions and tallow caused virtually no damage, corn oil literally devastated the rodents’ livers!
It seems that animal fats paradoxically have a protective effect, while vegetable oils rich in omega-6 are a real disaster for this organ.
The culprit is linoleic acid, a pro-inflammatory fatty acid that represents 25-30% of calories in the modern diet. While lard contains only 2.5% and tallow 5%, corn oil contains over 50%! Moreover, the extraction method of these vegetable oils involves aggressive processes and high temperatures that oxidize linoleic acid and make it even more harmful.
These damaged molecules then cause a true tidal wave of free radicals in the body, particularly in the liver.
Not only do these denatured omega-6s accumulate in our fat cells and the membranes of our nervous system, but they also serve to manufacture our hormones. Their excessive concentration eventually disrupts metabolism and promotes diabetes by inducing insulin resistance.
How to Wean off Vegetable Oils?
The first thing to do is to hunt for the presence of these inflammatory oils in the ingredients of your foods: not only in industrial preparations and fast food, but also in seemingly healthy products like salad dressings or cereal bars.
Don’t hesitate to ask restaurant staff about the nature of the oils used in cooking and frying. Then favor foods naturally rich in omega-3, such as fatty fish, camelina, or flaxseed oil.