We had a health panic in the media at the weekend. ‘Killer disease on rise due to overeating,’ said the Sunday Times. ‘Most liver transplants by 2020 could be linked to over-eating, not alcohol’, chimed in The Observer. ‘Overeating sparks liver disease epidemic among Britons’, announced the Telegraph.
Should we worry? Maybe. Dr Quentin Anstee, consultant hepatologist at Newcastle University – which is working on an EU-funded survey of liver disease – has found that 25 per cent of people ‘who are just a bit overweight’ suffer from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Previously it was believed that fat in the liver wasn’t harmful. Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong are coming to much the same conclusion as Dr Anstee.
If they’re right, this isn’t good news for the Atkins Diet, many of whose disciples scoff large amount of butter and cream. Now, admittedly, Atkins wants you to lose weight and the findings relate to fat people – such as, for example, Dr Robert Atkins, who was over 18 stone when he died.
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