People in the study had verified fatty liver disease, along with being diabetic or having the metabolic syndrome.
Everyone entered the study being weight stable, so the changes were unlikely to be due to anything but the oranges.
(3/7)
People were instructed to eat 400g (roughly 2-3 oranges) per day.
People in the control group also ate 400g of fruit - just anything that wasn't oranges.
This way we can be sure that this is an orange specific property.
(4/7)
Eating oranges reduces liver fat.
People eating oranges lost 20 dB of liver fat.
This is equivalent to around a 20% reduction in liver fat - a huge difference.
People eating all other fruits lost around 3.
(5/7)
Oranges also reduced total fatty liver disease prevalence by ~30%.
People eating other types of fruit had no decrease in fatty liver disease prevalence.
(6/7)
How is this possible?
Oranges + orange juice have been studied specifically over other fruits for their high phenolic content, including compounds like naringenin and hesperidin.
These phytochemcials have direct antioxidant + anti-inflammatory properties, which are protective when it comes to liver fat accumulation.
They also seem to act on key proteins that control our metabolisms:
☆ PPAR-α ➜ turns on fat burning genes (increasing expression of enzymes involved in fat metabolism, limiting those that synthesize fat)
☆ Liver X receptor (LXR-α) ➜ increases fat synthesis (thought to be inhibited by orange chemicals)
☆ Dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH)/asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) pathway ➜ lowers nitric oxide availability
☆ SIRT1 ➜ controls genes involved in carb + fat metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress, fibrosis
☆ PGC1α ➜ master promoter of mitochondrial biogenesis (making more mitochondria)
People eating the oranges also had increased:
◇ Vitamin C
◇ Vitamin B1
◇ Vitamin B2
All having key antioxidant roles, and the latter two being directly involved in energy metabolism.
All of this together makes oranges / OJ excellent tools for preventing liver fat accumulation.
(7/7)
This study adds to the multiple other studies (in humans and in animals) showing that oranges + orange juice are incredible foods for reducing inflammation / gut dysbiosis and oxidative stress. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39339791/
For more on how fatty liver disease develops and how these mechanisms relate to it, check out this thread.
If you're tired of guessing about your health - you'll want to do some advanced testing.
Here's 5 of the best ones to get:
#1 Mitochondrial performance analysis
Health issues often stem from poor mitochondrial function - and we can measure exactly where they are struggling⬇️
Over 90% of the energy in your body is produced through the electron transport chain in your mitochondria.
If it's not working properly, it can result in any number of health issues, since all health issues are downstream of impaired mitochondrial function.
Thankfully, we can test for the functioning of each enzyme.
Each of these enzymes is disproportionately involved in the metabolism of certain nutrients (i.e. carbs or fat),
and also require nutrients to function properly.
Things like red light, methylene blue, PQQ, and various other tools can also plug in and support the functioning of these enzymes or increase their expression.
Thus, you have a powerful and applicable tool.
This is available direct to consumer at mito.me by @chrismasterjohn
It can also be ordered by a practitioner through other means like mitoswab.
#2 Urinary organic acids + plasma amino acids
Your body is constantly performing chemical reactions to suit its needs for:
If your body cannot make these conversions properly, your health will thus suffer.
These conversions can be inhibited by:
➠ Nutrient deficiencies
➠ Inflammation
➠ Toxins
among other things, all unique to the reaction, so its helpful to know exactly where things break down.
Urinary organic acids + plasma amino acids measures the amounts of over 100 of these chemicals, providing deep insight into where your body may not be making a conversion properly.
You can use this information to better design your diet, lifestyle and supplements to balance everything out or address certain inhibitions.
The key to understand is the serotonin vs dopamine balance.
Too much serotonin and our brains shut down creative processes, go into conservation mode and stop risk taking.
Dopamine is a cue to approach, explore and create.
Dopamine and serotonin not only functionally oppose each other, but they directly lower the synthesis of the other.
High brain serotonin prevents exploration and promotes playing it safe.
“activation of serotonergic neurons during foraging in mice promote exploitation of a rewarding patch rather than exploration of an alternative action,”