Fatty liver (Read 1284 times)

Here's a passage I found in a Russian book on running: "After long runs (more than 20km) runners should avoid gelatin-containing food (rice, jelly) , since gelatin may increase fatty infiltration of the liver."

And then another: "Lipotropic compounds may prevent fatty infiltration of the liver and help restore the glycogen reserves if eaten on the day before the marathon."

Does it mean that long running may harm liver, especially if it is already damaged? Should I avoid running more than 20 km?

Thank you.

Here's a passage I found in a Russian book on running: "After long runs (more than 20km) runners should avoid gelatin-containing food (rice, jelly) , since gelatin may increase fatty infiltration of the liver."

 

And then another: "Lipotropic compounds may prevent fatty infiltration of the liver and help restore the glycogen reserves if eaten on the day before the marathon."

 

Does it mean that long running may harm liver, especially if it is already damaged? Should I avoid running more than 20 km?

 

Thank you.

I don't know if I didn't get the point but does it actually say anything about long run=hurting liver?  I miss that.

Either way, I think you are thinking waaaaaaay too much.  Have you heard of anybody hurting liver by doing more than 20k run?  I think you should worry about drinking too much vatka before worrying about running too much to hurt your liver. 

I think running is the opposite of what causes fatty liver.  If you did NOT run and ate too much fatty food and drank too much, you'd need to be more worried about fatty liver.

Gelatin is made from collagen from animals (so, vegetarians won't eat things containing gelatin). Rice is sticky from the starch in it.

That sounds right.  My bad. 

But, wait!!  I thought jelly is made from sea weed???

WrigleyGirl, it sounds strange, I know. It may be an OCR error. I was too worried to care about the details

 

Nobby415, indeed, the author does not say that long runs may damage liver, but I had problems with NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) and thought I should take care in advance. BTW, I have found a couple of links where long run is explicitly linked to liver damage:

 

http://www.arthurdevany.com/articles/20091028

http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum11/HTML/009906.shtml

Dmitri:

Interesting...  Thanks for the info.  However, if you DO have the pre-existing condition of ANY sort, you should consult with a professional people, not on-line strangers.  Especially if you were worried that much, on-line message board is not the place to start with.

Show the research, not the random internet assertions.

WrigleyGirl, it sounds strange, I know. It may be an OCR error. I was too worried to care about the details

 

Nobby415, indeed, the author does not say that long runs may damage liver, but I had problems with NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) and thought I should take care in advance. BTW, I have found a couple of links where long run is explicitly linked to liver damage:

 

http://www.arthurdevany.com/articles/20091028

http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum11/HTML/009906.shtml

I'd say "explicitly linked" is an overstatement at best, given the coolrunning thread.  It was talking about people was a specific pre-existing degenerative liver disease for one.  The article linked within that thread, at least the summary of it they provided as I can't get to the article anymore, makes some pretty sensationalized claims about all the bad things running does to you -- none of them, taken in the proper context, are supported by any real data of which I am aware.  Particularly liver injury.

The internet is full of crappy information....media sensationalizes things because that's what gets people to read it.....and reporters are not typically all that educated on what they are writing about (especially science and medicine) so making any conclusions from a media-written article is not advised.

That sounds right.  My bad. 

 

But, wait!!  I thought jelly is made from sea weed???

"jelly" in america is fruit or other preserves usually thickened with pectin and is not gelatin related

"jelly" in many other countries is like jell-o or aspic here and is usually thickened with gelatin (from animals) or agar or carageenan (both from seaweed). the seaweed stuff is not technically gelatin but is often called vegan, vegetarian or kosher gelatin

So for starters be leery of a source that thinks rice contains gelatin.  Unless it is some perversion of the gelatin salads served at midwestern picnics.