Eating and Drinking With Fatty Liver Disease - Diag (2024)

If you have fatty liver disease and are worried about the problem, besides following your doctor’s treatment, is there any way to proactively improve your condition? You may need clarification as to what is appropriate for your diet, and whether you should abstain from certain foods.

Worry no more. This article will address your concerns relating to eating and drinking with fatty liver.

Diet For People With Fatty Liver

Fatty liver is a common disease today and one that can cause serious damage to your health.

According to experts, complying with the treatment plan created by your doctors, adopting an active lifestyle, and following a reasonable diet will significantly improve this condition.

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What should you eat if you have fatty liver disease, and what should you abstain from is a common question many people ask. First, let’s find out which foods are good for patients with fatty liver!

Eat plenty of greens – both fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals that enhance liver function. Vitamins such as vitamins A and E can reduce fat stored in the liver.

Fruits and vegetables containing a lot of fiber are very beneficial for patients with fatty liver because of the body’s ability to very effectively control sugar and cholesterol from these foods in the blood.

Therefore, you should add fiber-rich foods to your diet to improve your disease, specifically about 300 grams of green vegetables and 240 grams of fruit per day.

Outstanding Foods For Promoting Liver Function:

Dark green vegetables: Water spinach, broccoli, and bitter melon are easy to cook into delicious dishes or eat alongside any meal. These vegetables are rich in fiber, vitamins, carotene, and niacin, which are all highly beneficial for patients with fatty liver.

Shiitake: Known to be a very healthy food, it effectively lowers cholesterol in the blood and in liver cells.

Nutrient-dense vegetables: These vegetables have significant effects on the body, helping to lower blood pressure, detoxify the liver, and improve fatty liver status. You should add vegetables to meals or squeeze them into juice for a daily drink.

Fruits rich in vitamin C: The citrus family, such as tangerines, limes, and grapefruits, are also very good, and you can eat them with a snack or as a juice to support the liver’s recovery.

Lotus leaf: Few people know that lotus leaf effectively prevents the development of fatty liver processes. This is in addition to helping reduce blood fat and providing nourishment, thanks to alkaloids, flavonoids and other beneficial substances in lotus leaf. You can use lotus leaves to make tea. However, take note of what is a reasonable dosage.

Silkworms and fresh fish

If you have fatty liver, you have to limit the amount of fat in your diet, but it is not necessary to completely eliminate it. You may still choose foods rich in healthy fats.

What is good for a fatty liver? You should prioritize dishes from sea fish or river fish, especially Omega 3-rich fish such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel.

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You may not know it yet, but silkworms are also beneficial for patients with fatty livers.

Silkworm pupae contain many amino acids, vitamins, and minerals and are extremely rich in proteins that effectively control cholesterol levels in the body.

Lean Meat

You should choose lean meat instead of fatty cuts to add nutrients and minimize the intake of harmful fats into the body. If you are in the habit of eating a lot of carbs and fats, replace them with protein-rich diets from meats that effectively treat fatty liver conditions.

Vegetable Oil

For patients with fatty liver, it is advisable to use vegetable oils rather than those from animals to reduce the amount of cholesterol produced in the body and to help prevent the liver’s condition from worsening.

Some vegetable oils are good for health, such as olive oil, rice bran oil, palm oil, and coconut oil.

Good spices for fatty liver disease

Do not only focus on the main dishes but also pay attention to the spices that can help support your liver:

Garlic: This is a spice that provides numerous health benefits. For people with fatty liver disease, this is an indispensable spice. In garlic, allicin has the ability to control cholesterol and prevent its harmful effects on the body.

Onions: A popular ingredient in many meals and can help to reduce the amount of fat stored in the body, which also lowers liver fat. Therefore, you should consume onions regularly.

Turmeric: Turmeric has long been considered not only a spice but also for its many health benefits, especially for people with fatty liver.

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Eating turmeric is good for the gut, increases the secretion of bile, heals wounds, and helps liver function to recover from damage thanks to the active ingredient Curcumin in turmeric. Treating fatty liver disease with turmeric is a very effective natural method many people choose.

What should people with fatty liver disease drink?

A good rule of thumb is that every day we need to drink enough water to purify the body, support our metabolism, and eliminate harmful substances. For people with fatty liver, it is very important to get enough water.

You should also drink more fruit juices, green tea, artichoke tea, or lotus tea, which are effective in preventing fat accumulation in the liver.

What Should People With Fatty Liver Avoid?

In addition to having a balanced diet, a reasonable lifestyle, and adding beneficial foods to your diet, if you have fatty liver, you also need to pay attention to which foods to restrict.

Greasy foods and fast food contain harmful cholesterol

Topping the list of foods to avoid for people with fatty liver is fast food and fatty foods.

It is undeniable that fast food is a favorite option for many people in terms of gratification and convenience. But for people with fatty liver, these are the foods to stay away from, although everyone needs to limit eating fast foods regularly to protect their health.

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Fast foods that contain a lot of bad fats, including preservatives and foods rich in cholesterol, will add to the burden on the liver, causing fatty liver disease to worsen.

Animal organs and fats

These foods contain a lot of cholesterol and, when eaten too often, will increase the amount of fat in the blood, causing pressure on the liver to work at its full capacity in flushing out harmful substances from the body.

They will make fatty liver disease worse and are leading causes of obesity, high blood pressure, and atherosclerosis.

Red meat

Although proteins found in meats are indispensable for our diets, people with fatty liver should monitor their meat consumption correctly and limit the use of red meats.

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Red meat contains a lot of protein that is good for the body but inadvertently overworks the liver when metabolizing nutrients, leading to the accumulation of excess fat in the liver.

Indigestible fruits

Fruits that are difficult to digest, such as jackfruit, custard apple, and durian, cause indigestion in people with poor health but also affect liver function.

You should also avoid fruits containing high fructose content, such as lychee and longan, because these fruits are another cause of fatty liver and obesity.

Hot spicy spices

Although hot spices stimulate the taste buds and make dishes more attractive, eating a lot of them will impair liver function, causing excess fat to be stored in the liver, which is difficult to eliminate and can lead to serious disease.

Stay away from irritants

We all know stimulants are harmful to health. For people with fatty liver, these are taboo things to stay away from.

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Drinking a lot of alcohol is a way to increase liver disease’s severity, creating a burden on the liver, which must work continuously to eliminate toxins from the body.

Not only that, stimulants, when loaded into the body, increase the risk of moving from fatty liver to cirrhosis or the most dangerous condition, liver cancer.

Hopefully, through this article, you will know which foods are beneficial and which are harmful to fatty liver patients. Build a reasonable, nutrition-based menu and help your treatment have the best positive results so you can quickly return to your healthiest state.

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The site cannot and does not contain medical advice. The medical information is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Accordingly, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals before taking any actions based on such information.

Eating and Drinking With Fatty Liver Disease - Diag (2024)

FAQs

How can a doctor tell if fatty liver is caused by alcohol? ›

To determine if you have alcoholic liver disease your doctor will probably test your blood, take a biopsy of the liver, and do a liver function test. You should also have other tests to rule out other diseases that could be causing your symptoms. Your symptoms may vary depending upon the severity of your disease.

Can I ever drink alcohol again with fatty liver? ›

If you have fatty liver disease, the damage may be reversed if you abstain from alcohol for a period of time (this could be months or years). After this point, it's usually safe to start drinking again if you stick to the NHS guidelines on alcohol units. However, it's important to check with your doctor first.

What are the diagnostic criteria for alcoholic fatty liver disease? ›

Alcoholic fatty liver disease is diagnosed in a patient with AUD with hepatic steatosis on ultrasound and/or elevation in liver enzymes (aspartate aminotransferase (AST)>alanine aminotransferase (ALT)), serum bilirubin<3. mg/dL, and the absence of other causes of liver disease.

How do doctors diagnose fatty liver? ›

Some imaging tests, including special ultrasound and MRI scans can help diagnose the disease and spot scar tissue in the liver. But the only way to be certain that fatty liver disease is the only cause of liver damage is with a liver biopsy. A liver biopsy involves getting a tissue sample of your liver with a needle.

Does alcoholic fatty liver show up in blood tests? ›

Alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) is often first suspected when tests for other medical conditions show a damaged liver. This is because the condition causes few obvious symptoms in the early stages. If a doctor suspects ARLD, they'll usually arrange a blood test to check how well your liver is working.

Can doctors tell the difference between alcoholic fatty liver and non alcoholic fatty liver? ›

Clinically, the differentiation between ALD and NAFLD is usually performed by taking a history of a patient's alcohol intake combined with laboratory and imaging examinations; however, the reliability of these methods may not be high[23].

What is the most specific marker for alcoholic liver disease? ›

The biochemical markers for chronic alcohol consumption that have been most commonly studied are serum GGT, AST, ALT, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT)[82-84]. An AST to ALT ratio over 2 is highly suggestive of ALD[85,86].

How long should I abstain from alcohol before a liver function test? ›

Some blood tests, such as those that assess liver health or triglyceride levels, may require you not to drink alcohol for 24 hours .

What is the best diagnostic test for fatty liver disease? ›

Imaging tests used to diagnose NAFLD include: Abdominal ultrasound, which is often the first test used when liver disease is suspected. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized tomography (CT) scanning.

What is the life expectancy of a person with a fatty liver disease? ›

If NASH cirrhosis is diagnosed early, the life expectancy is about 10 to 15 years. However, if you develop complications such as swelling or fluid in the abdomen, confusion, or bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract, life expectancy decreases dramatically to three to five years without a liver transplant.

What is the best drink for fatty liver? ›

Below, we explore 11 drinks that are often reported to support liver health — and tell you what the research says about each one.
  1. Detox tea. Liver detox tea usually contains many different herbs and ingredients. ...
  2. Green tea. ...
  3. Turmeric tea. ...
  4. Ginger tea. ...
  5. Grapefruit juice. ...
  6. Apple cider vinegar. ...
  7. Lemon water. ...
  8. Cranberry juice.
Mar 1, 2024

Is alcoholic fatty liver reversible? ›

This is called alcoholic fatty liver disease, and is the first stage of ARLD. Fatty liver disease rarely causes any symptoms, but it's an important warning sign that you're drinking at a harmful level. Fatty liver disease is reversible. If you stop drinking alcohol for 2 weeks, your liver should return to normal.

Does alcoholic fatty liver show up on ultrasound? ›

Ultrasound is typically the first-line imaging modality in the assessment of ALD. In early ALD, the most common finding is fatty liver, which is observed as diffuse hyperechogenicity exceeding that of renal cortex (Fig.

Can they tell if liver damage is from alcohol? ›

Your healthcare provider will do a complete health history and physical exam. Other tests used to diagnose alcohol-induced liver disease may include: Blood tests. Including liver function tests, which show whether the liver is working the way it should and how advanced your liver disease may be.

Will alcoholic fatty liver go away? ›

If the patient has simple fatty liver, then cessation will allow the liver to heal and return to normal. If a patient has alcohol-induced fibrosis or cirrhosis and abstains from alcohol, damage to the liver will stop and the liver will get better, although liver scar tissue will remain.

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