EASTERN MEDICINE
Fast food batters your organs, but armed with the correct condiments you can keep weekend takeouts on the menu
Put Western-diet liver damage on the woks with our takeaway-proofing power sauce
Men with even a passing knowledge of health are aware that cutting back on booze provides much-needed respite for your body’s recycling centre, the liver. What you may not know, however, is that the dastardly high-sugar, high-fat Western diet is putting you at equal risk. Incidences of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease have risen to affect one in every 20 men across Britain.
Now, we’re hardly supporters of monastic abstinence. And, let’s be honest, sprouted quinoa simply doesn’t cut it after some focused (yet responsible) drinking. But ordering a Chinese on the way home could takeaway some of your worries, after researchers found a compound in soy sauce can specifically target the dangerous fat frying your liver.
University of Colorado scientists fed mice either healthy foods or those reflecting a typical Western diet for 20 weeks. Both sets were also fed an antioxidant known as PQQ – found in abundance in soy sauce. Those eating the Western diet, unsurprisingly, gained the most weight, but PQQ helped to reduce levels of fat and inflammation in their livers – which is appetising news for those disinclined to cut out the occasional bowl of chow mein. Our view? Keep on wokking.