To put it clearly into perspective, even though it may be a bit gross, the liver basically works on processing all the junk you eat while dining at your favorite fast food restaurant. Yes, those juicy cheeseburgers and those warm, enticing fries, may look good from the outside, but once in your body, the liver is the organ that will have to directly deal with that significant surplus of fat.
Perhaps the best person to ask about the effects of fast food on your liver is Morgan Spurlock, the director of the movie ''Super size me'' which had it all figured out after a month of super-sizing his burgers and fries. It didn't take long for his complexion to lose its glow and his liver to show early signs of liver disease, some of the many negative after maths of his research.
The liver is the biggest organ of our body. One of its main functions is to process fat. Of course, there is plenty of fat in those enticing double or triple deckers of burgers, more than actually needed. Because, as humans we were not meant to dine on fast foods regularly, our liver can just do as much. Therefore, quite overwhelmed, by the surplus of fat and sugars needed to be processed, the liver works hard, sometimes too hard to effectively perform its duties, causing excess fat to build up and accumulate in the liver's cells.
Sooner than later, this over load leads to liver problems. Back to Morgan Spurlock's case, his liver enzymes had sky rocketed, almost to the extent of causing fatty liver disease, an occurrence that leads the path towards hepatic cirrhosis, a condition mostly seen in heavy alcohol drinkers.
A more recent and interesting study showing the correlation between fast food restaurants and liver disease took place in Sweden back in February of 2008. In this case, 18 slim, healthy individuals were placed on a fast food regimen encompassing at least two fast food meals per day, for the length of four weeks.
At the end of the four weeks the subjects were evaluated. They all exhibited increased weight, blood work with elevated ALT values -depicting the insurgence of liver disease and increased fat deposits in the liver, a symptom of fatty liver disease. This confirms that diseases such as fatty liver disease and cirrhosis once associated mostly with heavy alcohol drinking, now can be associated with high fat and high sugar diets such as those found in fast foods as well.
If you are a regular fast food eater it would be recommended to cut off on the trips through the drive tru and seek your doctor for a check up. Your physician may be able to detect an enlarged liver simply by performing a physical exam or further proof of liver problems can be detected in routine blood work by looking at the specific diagnostic values.
As alarming as the effects of fast food on the liver may sound, the good news is that studies suggest that the damage derived from eating unhealthy foods may be reversed. It appears that reverting back to a a healthy diet by halting trips through the drive-thru may help restore a healthy lifestyle. This is mainly thanks to the liver's ability to regenerate itself. However, if the fast food trips have been going on for quite some time, cardio vascular disease may have already set in along with a predisposition to develop diabetes, further complicating things.
As seen, biting into that char broiled burger and munching on those greasy fries may be a great experience for your taste buds, but a less pleasant experience for your liver. Next time, therefore, think twice before visiting your local fast food restaurant, try to turn your fast food trips to occasional events, make healthy choices and last but not least try to lose weight and incorporate a good exercise regimen. Your liver will certainly thank you!