True or False?

[FMCoug]

My wife saw a video or read an article or something (sorry no link) that talked about the liver's function in weight loss. Supposedly they said the liver has two main functions. Removing toxins from the body and burning fat. So the point was that "eating clean" has a lot of fat burning benefits in addition to the make-up of that food (i.e. protein / carbs / fat).

I think it's pretty clear that eating fresh, unprocessed food is best. But hadn't heard this particular thing before.

Docs?

[jay santos]

My wife saw a video or read an article or something (sorry no link) that talked about the liver's function in weight loss. Supposedly they said the liver has two main functions. Removing toxins from the body and burning fat. So the point was that "eating clean" has a lot of fat burning benefits in addition to the make-up of that food (i.e. protein / carbs / fat).

I think it's pretty clear that eating fresh, unprocessed food is best. But hadn't heard this particular thing before.

Docs?

I vote FALSE.

Not a doc, but I've studied this a lot and have been actively dieting and working out for the last few years.

I think the "eating clean" thing is tremendously overstated when it comes to dieting. My understanding is that a calorie is a calorie. A huge piece of cake = cup of brown rice, broccoli, and a handful of almonds. As long as the calories match up and the protein/fat/ratio is the same.

Two caveats to this.

1. Nutrient value. Obviously you need appropriate amounts of vitamins and nutrients to be healthy, so you can't be extreme and probably should take a multi-vitamin when dieting.

2. Satiation. The cake and the clean food from above example might both have same calories and same affect on your weight loss/gain, but eat the cake and you'll be hungry an hour later while the clean food will keep you full for longer period of time.