In the morning for breakfast, or during the day, it is always a pleasure to drink a delicious and refreshing juice. And if it turns out that every sip of juice is also a sip of liver health, then it's even more enjoyable! Today we are talking about the drinks that have been shown to be more hepatoprotective, capable of preventing and fighting fatty liver and hepatic fibrosis, based on interesting scientific research.
Blood orange juice against hepatic steatosis
The first research was published in the World Journal of gastroenterology by an Italian team from the University of Catania (Salamone et al, World J Gastroenterol, 2012) and focuses on the properties of the most famous juice that exists, orange juice. For this research, blood oranges, the Moro variety, were selected, particularly rich in anthocyanins, which are powerful antioxidants. The study took place in the laboratory on a population of mice fed a high-fat diet. Part of the mice were given orange juice. Well, after 3 months it turned out that the orange juice had reduced weight gain, increased insulin sensitivity, decreased triglycerides and cholesterol compared to mice that had not taken the juice. Not only that, while the mice that had not taken the juice had hepatic steatosis, or fatty liver, orange juice was shown to counteract this condition, reducing the synthesis of fatty acids and the oxidation of fats.
Blueberry juice against liver fibrosis
The second research appeared in the journal PLos One (Wang et al, PLoS One, 2013) and investigated the effects of blueberry juice on liver health. After 2 months of intake, the blueberry juice was able to counteract liver fibrosis. Fatty liver can cause liver inflammation, cell death and scar formation. If left untreated, this condition leads to fibrosis and a loss of liver function. In turn, fibrosis can lead to cirrhosis and cellular degeneration. In addition, blueberry juice also increased the liver's antioxidant defenses.
Grape juice is hepatoprotective
According to a Korean research published in the journal Preventive Nutrition and Food Science (Kim et al, Prev Nutr Food Sci, 2019), grape juice is hepatoprotective, capable of counteracting fatty liver and the damage of free radicals and inflammations. In this case, the merit is all of the proanthocyanidins, powerful antioxidants found mainly in the skin and seeds of black grapes.
Conclusions
Therefore, within a healthy and balanced diet, there are also some fruit juices that have been shown to be antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective, useful against fatty liver and liver fibrosis. However, be careful that the juices do not contain added sugar.
