The liver is one of the hardest working and most important organs in the body! It is probably best known for its detoxification abilities, constantly working to cleanse the blood, remove toxins, and break down medications and alcohol. The liver also plays an important role with nutrient absorption, producing the bile needed to digest fat and to store essential nutrients. In fact, it is the liver’s responsibility to process nutrients taken in by the intestines so they are more efficiently absorbed for use in the body.
What is Fatty Liver?

Fatty liver essentially means that the liver has lost its metabolic fitness. When the liver is not functioning optimally, we cannot digest our food properly, especially fats. This can result in problems with fatty liver. For individuals with fatty liver, liver cells do not handle fat properly. Increased amounts of fat are removed from the blood and produced by liver cells, and not enough is disposed of by the cells, resulting in fat accumulations in the liver.
What Causes Fatty Liver?

Causes of fatty liver disease NAFLD include obesity, high fat and high sugar diets, high cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood, high stress, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, hypothyroidism, underactive pituitary function, and gastric bypass surgery. With the obesity epidemic and sedentary lifestyle, NAFLD is becoming an increasing topic for concern.
Pine Nut Oil, Fatty Liver, and Food Cravings

For those who struggle with fatty liver, pine nut oil offers hope. A recent study examined whether a pine nut oil replacement in a high fat diet could ameliorate high fat diet induced fatty liver. Two test groups of mice on high fat diets, with 45% of energy from fat were observed for 12 weeks. One group was fed 35% lard and 10% pine nut oil, while the others survived on 35% lard and 10% soybean oil. Body weight gain and amount of white adipose tissue was found to be lower in the pine nut oil test group, 10% and 18% lower, respectively. Liver triglyceride levels were also 26% lower in the pine nut oil group.

Another recent study analyzed how a specific component of pine nut oil, pinolenic acid, helps reduce fat accumulation in the liver by downregulating the lipid building pathways in liver HepG2 cells. HepG2 liver cells were incubated and supplemented with either palmitic acid, oleic acid,

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