Eating a meal high in fat even once is enough to mess up your insulin sensitivity as well as your liver's ability to break down nutrients properly, a new study says.
Scientists have long suspected that people who maintain a diet rich in saturated fat are more likely to develop insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, they were not sure how exactly food with high fat content triggers changes that lead to such an illness.
In a study featured in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researcher Michael Roden and his colleagues at the German Diabetes Center examined how consuming high amounts of fat can impact a person's health, particularly their liver metabolism.
The research team discovered that individuals who ate a meal rich in saturated fat even once experienced an immediate increase in their body's fat accumulation as well as alterations in their liver's metabolic function.
The findings also showed that eating such a meal is enough to trigger insulin resistance and increased levels of triglycerides, a component that makes up the body fat in humans and animals. It also led to higher levels of glucagon in the blood.
Roden and his team believe the rapid impact of high saturated fat intake on fat storage and liver metabolism makes people more susceptible to various metabolic disorders.
NAFLD And Type 2 Diabetes
Other studies have also tried to explore the potential link between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance.
In October, researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute identified an amino acid in the insulin receptor that can trigger insulin resistance when exposed to phosphate through a process known as phosphorylation.
The amino acid's role in the development of the condition was discovered when the research team transformed it from a threonine into an alanine through mutation. This effectively kept the compound from undergoing phosphorylation.
Through this process, the researchers found that they could prevent hepatic insulin resistance from developing even if a person has NAFLD.
They hope that their findings can lead to newer type 2 diabetes therapies, which can root out the molecular cause of insulin resistance. Current treatments for the disease only serve to lower glucose levels in the bloodstream without reversing the effects of insulin resistance.
Saturated Fats vs Unsaturated Fats
In another study, scientists found that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated variants may help improve the insulin and blood sugar levels of people suffering from type 2 diabetes.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Tufts University outlined how people experienced improvements in their long-term glucose control marker (HbA1c) after swapping their usual diet of food rich in saturated fats with those high in monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats.
The switch in diet translated to a 0.1 percent reduction in the participants' HbA1c. The researchers estimated that such a drop in glucose control marker is enough to lower type 2 diabetes incidences by as much as 22 percent and cardiovascular disease incidences by 6.8 percent.
The team said their findings support the drive to prevent and treat diabetes and insulin resistance through the consumption of food rich in healthy fats such as soybeans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and vegetable oil.
