Your Liver’s Role In Fat Metabolism

From the video series “All About The Liver”

PART 3 (Duration 5:59 mins)

 

Hello, this is Dr Sandra Cabot. It’s a great pleasure to be with you today, talking about how your liver functions. And we’re going to discuss now your liver’s role in fat metabolism. It’s a very important role.

First of all, do you suffer with high levels of cholesterol and/or triglycerides? Now, we know this can be genetic. It may not be your liver. And some people have inherited a gene and this results in an illness called familial hypercholesterolemia, where the cholesterol levels are very, very high. And these people do need medication. And no matter what they eat, it doesn’t really make any difference. It’s a genetic problem.

But the vast majority of people with elevated cholesterol and/or triglyceride levels can be helped just by improving their liver function. We actually have written a book on cholesterol called “Cholesterol – The Real Truth. Are the drugs you take making you sick?” and that gives you in-depth information on cholesterol.

But going back to the liver, if it’s healthy, it does a very good job of regulating the amount of cholesterol and triglyceride in your blood. Your liver actually manufactures cholesterol and triglyceride, which are a type of fats. If you eat more cholesterol in your diet, your liver will manufacture less cholesterol. So, it’s a self-regulating process.

Interestingly, a lot of people with elevated cholesterol and/or triglyceride are consuming excessive amounts of carbohydrates and not fat in their diet. There are consuming sugary foods and a lot of processed food, a lot of flour, excessive amount of grains. And the liver turns the sugar from these foods into cholesterol and often into the unhealthy type of cholesterol, which is called LDL cholesterol, and also into triglycerides, which are very sticky type of fat and can cause thickening of the blood and an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease.

So, if you have a healthy liver, it should control your cholesterol levels. If your diet is out of whack and you’re eating too much carbohydrate, just reduce the carbohydrate and eat good quality protein, plenty of vegetables. But you don’t need a low-fat diet. You can eat natural, unprocessed fat.

Of course, exercise does help cholesterol levels, as well.

So, the liver is able to regulate cholesterol and triglyceride levels. And most people with slightly elevated cholesterol will not have a problem if they improve their liver function.

Now, the liver is also a fat-burning organ, and if it’s healthy, it will efficiently burn fat. And that will help you to control your weight. Over the years, and remember I’ve been a medical doctor for nearly 50 years, I’ve seen so many people struggle with their weight. And we have a weight loss program called the Weight Loss Detective, and we specialize in helping people who have hidden causes of weight excess. And a lot of these people will have an underlying fatty liver or just a sluggish liver that is not burning fat. And once we improve their liver function, they start losing weight. It may be as simple as taking a good liver formula, such as Livatone Plus, eating more vegetables, eating more protein, and you’ll find that your liver starts burning fat. It’s like a switch. You’ve got to get your liver healthy to be able to burn fat and control your weight.

The other interesting thing about your liver and fat metabolism is that bile is a good way to eliminate excessive fat from your body. So, your liver cells manufacture bile, which is excreted into the bile ducts and into the gut when you eat a meal. And bile is a water-soluble substance. So, your liver can excrete a lot of toxins through the bile into your gut, and they get passed out of your body through the bowel actions. So, the very production of bile is able to help you to eliminate toxins and excessive fat from your body, thereby making it easier to control your weight. And this is very, very important, because if you’re overloaded with fat-soluble toxins, these get stored in the fatty parts of the body and they act as what we call obesogens. They disturb your fat cell metabolism and they make it very hard to lose weight.

So, yes! The liver is a major fat-burning organ in your body and if you want to control that weight more easily, you need a healthy liver.

So, if you’d like more information, check out our Weight Loss Detective program and also send us an email. We love to hear from you. Go to liverdoctor.com or sandracabot.com and send us an email. And thanks for listening.