The benefits sometimes seen in those on a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet may depend on increased levels of a newly identified “starvation hormone” produced by the liver, according to a report in the June issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. Two studies in the issue show that the hormone plays a critical role in the metabolic shift seen in animals after a period of fasting and in those fed an Atkins-like diet. That shift is characterized by an increased reliance on fat stores as an alternative source of fuel when glucose, the body’s primary energy source, plummets.
