A study has found that a special type of starch—called resistant starch—can help reduce fat in the liver and improve liver health in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This condition affects nearly 30% of people around the world and can lead to serious problems, including liver failure, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
The research was led by Dr. Huating Li at Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital and published in the journal Cell Metabolism. Over a period of four months, 200 people with NAFLD took part in the study. They were split into two groups.
One group was given 20 grams of resistant starch made from maize (corn), mixed with water before meals, twice a day. The other group got a similar amount of regular corn starch that didn’t have the same health effects, but had the same number of calories.
At the end of the study, the group that took resistant starch showed much better results. Their liver fat levels dropped by nearly 40% compared to the control group.
Their liver enzymes—markers of liver health—were also lower. Importantly, these benefits were seen even when the researchers adjusted for weight loss, meaning the improvements weren’t just from losing weight.
The researchers also looked at the gut bacteria of the participants and found that resistant starch changed the types of bacteria in the gut.
One type of bacteria, Bacteroides stercoris, which is linked to fat buildup in the liver, was found in lower amounts in the resistant starch group. This shows that improving gut health may be one of the reasons why resistant starch works so well.
What makes this study exciting is how easy and affordable the treatment is. Many people find it hard to stick with strict diets or tough workout plans. But adding a simple starch powder to meals is much easier for most people.
Dr. Li points out that resistant starch could become a practical and sustainable way to help manage fatty liver disease, especially in places where healthcare is expensive or hard to access.
The research team believes this is just the beginning. They plan to do more studies to see how resistant starch can be used to treat or even prevent NAFLD in the long term. They’re also interested in learning more about how gut bacteria affect liver health and how we might use this connection to develop new treatments.
In short, this study offers hope for people living with NAFLD. With something as simple as a daily dose of resistant starch, it may be possible to improve liver health without major lifestyle changes. The full findings were published in Cell Metabolism.
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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