Feeding rats a diet super high in fat leads to fat building up in their livers after 16 weeks — kind of like what happens in fatty liver disease. Scientists saw this through lab tests, scans, and looking at liver tissue under a microscope.

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Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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Community contributions welcome

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Dietary fat stimulates development of NAFLD more potently than dietary fructose in Sprague–Dawley rats

Randomized Controlled Trial

Animal

2018

The study fed rats a high-fat diet for 16 weeks and found their livers got fatty, just like the claim says. The results strongly back up the idea that too much fat in the diet causes fatty liver in these rats.

Contradicting (0)

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No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Dietary fat stimulates development of NAFLD more potently than dietary fructose in Sprague–Dawley rats

Score: 14

DOI: 10.1186/s13098-018-0307-8

Similar Assertions

Eating too many carbs and calories — especially from sugary or processed foods — is what mainly causes fatty liver, not eating fat. Cutting out carbs or going on a carnivore diet might help reverse it.

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Feeding rats a diet super high in fructose for 4 months doesn’t really hurt their liver overall, even though a few tiny signs of fat buildup show up under a microscope.

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In mice, eating a super high-fat, very low-carb diet causes fat to build up quickly in the liver — way more than with other diets — which could be harmful.

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Feeding lab rats a super high-fat diet seems to cause liver inflammation and fat buildup, based on changes in key markers in their blood and liver.

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73%

Chronic exposure of the liver to visceral adipose-derived free fatty acids and cytokines induces hepatic steatosis, elevates serum triglycerides, increases blood pressure, and promotes systemic insulin resistance.

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72%