Researchers at the Ziv Medical Center in Israel set out to determine the role of soft drink consumption in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, which occurs when fat builds up in the liver. The team found that 80 percent of people with NAFLD who were free of other risk factors consumed excess soft drinks. The team asserted that soft drink consumption was the only independent variable able to predict fatty liver presence in 82.5 percent of cases. The study was published in the October 2008 issue of the "Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology.