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Some patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) also have other conditions (e.g., diabetes, hyperlipidemia) for which moderate drinking has been reported to impart benefits. The effects of moderate drinking on NASH in humans, which has a widely variable prognosis, are unknown. To begin to understand these effects, investigators fed a high-fat diet (71% of energy from fat) to 20 rats until NASH was induced. The rats were then switched to a modified high-fat diet (55% of energy from fat); in 10 rats, that diet was altered to provide 16% of calories from alcohol, largely by replacing dextrin maltose in the modified diet with alcohol.
After 4 weeks, the ratio of liver weight to body weight was significantly higher in the alcohol-fed rats.…