Frequent eating and snacking bad for liver

Eating more often, instead of having fewer larger meals, can increase abdominal fat and raise the risk of getting a fatty liver, new research from The Netherlands shows.

According to a study, published in the journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, frequent consumption of high-calorie foods increased the risk of having intrahepatic triglyceride content (IHTG) and fat around the waist.

Risk

Dr Mireille Serlie, a researcher from the Academic Medical Centre Amsterdam in The Netherlands, who carried out the research, said the study provided the first evidence that eating more often, rather than having fewer larger meals, was a greater risk to liver health.

“These findings suggest that by cutting down on snacking and encouraging three balanced meals each day over the long term may reduce the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,” she said, while body mass index reduced.