CNN – Drinking as little as one can of diet soda a day may increase the risk of nonalcohol fatty liver disease by 60%, while drinking a sugary beverage could raise the risk by 50%, a new unpublished study found.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, is a condition in which fat builds up in the liver of people who drink little to no alcohol.
The damage can be similar to what’s seen in a heavy drinker and lead to cirrhosis — advanced scarring of the liver — as well as liver cancer.
The condition, which is also called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, is one of the leading causes of liver cancer. It’s estimated that NAFLD has increased by 50% in the United States within the past three decades — today, some 38% of the population has the condition.
“Sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) have long been under scrutiny, while their ‘diet’ alternatives are often seen as the healthier choice,” said lead study author Lihe Liu, a graduate student in the department of gastroenterology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, in Suzhou, China.
“Our study shows that LNSSBs (low- or non-sugar-sweetened beverages) were actually linked to a higher risk of MASLD, even at modest intake levels such as a single can per day,” Liu said in a statement.
Consuming diet beverages was also linked to a higher risk of dying from liver disease, according to the abstract, a one-page summary of the paper before it is peer-reviewed and published in a journal.
The research was presented Monday in Berlin at the United European Gastroenterology Week, an annual conference of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
“These findings challenge the common perception that these drinks are harmless and highlight the need to reconsider their role in diet and liver health” …
