Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Literatus: Food overload By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T. Breakthroughs
OWEN Meredith, in his poem Lucile, caught the human compulsion for eating:
He may live without books,--what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope,--what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love,--what is passion but pining?
But where is the man that can live without dining?
Last week, you were introduced to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition that is largely and suspiciously food-intake related.
NAFLD is a group of diseases marked by excess fat in the liver. It occurs even when a person has no alcoholic consumption.
Loosely, it includes all fatty liver diseases not caused by alcoholism. The most common variety is associated with a condition where lipids (fat containing substances) resist the transformation normally brought about by insulin in order to maintain the equilibrium of available energy in the bloodstream.
The fat tissue in the body functions as an energy reserve while active or as an energy storage in times of plenty. Soon after eating, the blood gets overloaded with energy-rich compounds (glucose, lipids, and proteins), which the adipose tissue clears up, especially lipids, which are potentially harmful (lipid toxicity).
In long-standing, over-nutrition (overeating), the fat cells get overloaded and cannot take up more circulating lipids and glucose. Insulin helps extract fatty acids from circulating triglycerides (TG). Free fatty acids (FFA) get stored in peripheral tissues (such as muscles) and internal organs (such as liver).
The liver is a high-capacity buffer against overeating. It can accumulate fat and redirect it later, depending on the energy requirements. Within the liver cells, these FFA are either broken down or rebound into TG, and secreted into the blood bound to very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL). When muscles got overloaded, the liver bears the brunt.
E.L. Thomas and colleagues reported, in a 2005 study published in Gut, that for every one percent increase in the total adipose tissue, liver fats increases by 22 percent. A one percent increase in below-skin fat tissue increases liver fats by 21 percent. For every one percent increase in intra-abdominal tissue fat, liver fat increases by 194 percent. Nearly 60 percent of triglycerides deposited in liver come from the circulating FFA.
Overloading of fat cells cause cell damage, at times irreversibly, and even death.
That explains why overloaded fat cells adopt resistance to insulin as a strategy to save themselves from further overloading. Once the liver cells got overwhelmed, fat gets accumulated in the cardiovascular system and in other organs.
A wise inscription can be found on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: “Nothing in excess.”
