The effect of sucrose on liver fat
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Effect of eucaloric high and low sucrose diets on liver fat in healthy adult men with liver fat levels below 5%
IRAS ID
139327
Contact name
Gary Frost
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Research summary
Summary of Results
It has been demonstrated that excessive consumption of sugars, fructose in particular can increase hepatic triglyceride synthesis. This in turn results in accumulation of fat within the liver, regardless of alcohol intake, affecting glucose homeostasis that can lead to life changing health outcomes like type 2 diabetes. Currently most of the studies supporting this statement use excessive amounts of fructose or come from hypercaloric diets where sugar is added on top of daily calories. We aimed to investigate the effect of low and high sucrose diets, representing current recommendation at 10 percent of the daily calories compared to higher end of the population intake at 25 percent of total calories on intrahepatocellular lipid content (IHCL) in healthy adults with no history of liver disease. Nine male volunteers completed the cross over intervention consisting of two seven day diets with sucrose as 10 or 25 percent of total energy intake separated by a four week wash out period. The change in IHCL was not different between the arms (P=0.151). Low sucrose intervention produced a significant decrease in fasting and postprandial triglycerides (P=0.001 each). There was also no effect on glucose and insulin. This data suggests that moderate intake of sugar does not promote accumulation of liver fat in healthy men.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0245
Date of REC Opinion
3 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion