What does eating very low carbs do to a rat's liver?
Effects of a high-fat low-carbohydrate diet under different energy conditions on glucose homeostasis and fatty liver development in rats and on gluconeogenesis in the isolated perfused liver.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Glucose tolerance worsened even without insulin resistance
Most assume blood sugar problems on diets are due to insulin resistance, but this study shows impaired glucose handling can happen independently — a counterintuitive result.
Practical Takeaways
If following a low-carb, high-fat diet, consider monitoring liver health markers (e.g., ALT, AST) and fasting glucose, even if losing weight.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Glucose tolerance worsened even without insulin resistance
Most assume blood sugar problems on diets are due to insulin resistance, but this study shows impaired glucose handling can happen independently — a counterintuitive result.
Practical Takeaways
If following a low-carb, high-fat diet, consider monitoring liver health markers (e.g., ALT, AST) and fasting glucose, even if losing weight.
Publication
Journal
Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology
Year
2023
Authors
Mateus José de Oliveira, Evelyn Silva Moreira, N. Lucredi, C. I. Bonetti, A. B. de Sá-Nakanishi, J. Comar, A. Bracht, L. Bracht
Related Content
Claims (5)
Your liver makes its own sugar when you don’t eat carbs for a long time, and this process doesn’t hurt your liver or cause damage.
In rats, eating a diet super high in fat and very low in carbs for a month leads to higher blood sugar and more fat in the liver—even if they're not eating too many calories.
Rats on a low-carb, high-fat diet have trouble handling sugar—even if they're not eating extra calories—and their insulin seems to be working fine, which is weird because those two things usually go together.
In rats, eating a diet high in fat and low in carbs changes how the liver handles certain fuels — it makes more sugar from lactate but gets worse at using alanine, especially when fewer calories are eaten.
Even when rats eat fewer calories, a keto-like diet can still cause liver problems — like making too much sugar and messing up how the body uses protein — so the weight loss might not be worth the harm.