A new study has discovered that a special kind of dietary starch — called resistant starch — could play a powerful role in improving liver health for people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
This condition is now one of the most common liver problems in the world, affecting about 30% of the global population. If left untreated, it can lead to serious health issues like liver failure, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
The good news? This research suggests that a simple change in diet could help reduce the effects of NAFLD — and it doesn’t involve strict diets or heavy exercise.
What Is Resistant Starch?
Resistant starch is a type of carbohydrate that the body doesn’t fully digest. Instead of being broken down in the small intestine like regular starches, it travels to the large intestine, where it feeds the good bacteria in the gut. It’s found in foods like unripe bananas, cooked and cooled potatoes, beans, and some types of whole grains.
Because it acts more like fiber than sugar, resistant starch can help improve digestion, lower blood sugar levels, and now, according to this study, improve liver health.
The Study in Detail
The study was led by Dr. Huating Li at Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital and was published in the journal Cell Metabolism. It involved 200 people diagnosed with NAFLD. The participants were divided into two groups:
- One group received resistant starch made from maize.
- The other group (the control group) received a similar starch that didn’t have the same health benefits.
Both groups took 20 grams of their starch, mixed with water, twice a day before meals, for four months.
Remarkable Results
By the end of the study, the group taking resistant starch saw impressive improvements:
- Their liver triglyceride levels — a type of fat stored in the liver — dropped by nearly 40%.
- They had lower levels of liver enzymes and inflammation, both signs of a healthier liver.
- These benefits were still seen even after adjusting for weight loss, showing that the improvements weren’t just because participants lost weight.
Gut Health Connection
The study also looked at changes in gut bacteria. People taking resistant starch had healthier gut microbiomes. One key change was a drop in a type of bacteria called Bacteroides stercoris, which is linked to fat buildup in the liver. This suggests that improving gut health might be one way resistant starch protects the liver.
Why This Matters
Current treatments for NAFLD often focus on diet, weight loss, and exercise. While these can be effective, they’re hard to stick to. In contrast, adding resistant starch to meals is simple and affordable.
As Dr. Li explains, “Compared with strenuous exercise or weight loss treatment, adding resistant starch to a normal and balanced diet is much easier for people to follow through.”
This study also supports a growing idea in medicine — that the gut and the liver are closely connected. By changing the bacteria in the gut, it might be possible to treat liver disease more effectively.
Looking Ahead
The research team plans to keep studying how resistant starch affects the liver and explore how it could be used in long-term treatment plans for NAFLD. If future studies confirm these results, resistant starch could become a natural and sustainable way to improve liver health for millions of people around the world.
The findings were published in Cell Metabolism, a respected scientific journal.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about simple habit that could give you a healthy liver, and common diabetes drug that may reverse liver inflammation.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about simple blood test that could detect your risk of fatty liver disease, and results showing this green diet may strongly lower non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
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