The Best Fatty Liver Diet Plan for Natural Treatment

What is Fatty Liver Disease?

Fatty liver disease, medically termed as hepatic steatosis is one of the leading causes of chronic and acute health conditions related to health conditions as insulin resistance, diabetes, excess body weight and heart disease.

Fatty liver disease develops when your liver has accumulated a very high concentration (more than 5%) of fatty acids. It refers to a broad spectrum name of multiple liver inflammation disorders such as steatohepatitis, liver fibrosis and liver cirrhosis.

Over 90 percent of obese, 60 percent of diabetic, and up to 20 percent of normal-weight people develop non alcoholic fatty liver.

Thus, fatty liver is basically a common terminology of excess fat and poor liver health. You can find more information on fatty liver disease symptoms and causes here.

Chronic liver disease may lead to excessive bleeding, kidney failure, liver cancer, diabetes and eventually liver damage and need for liver transplant.

What are the Primary Causes of Liver Problems?

A fatty liver can arise due to multiple factors related to poor diet, lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption, exposure to chemicals or genetic factors.

Non alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD) is the accumulation of excess fat (particularly triglycerides) inside the liver tissues, due to factors other than alcohol consumption.

The incidence is higher in people who are in their 40s and 50s. It usually remains unnoticed till it advances and becomes Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH).

The Role of Diet for Treatment of Fatty Liver Disease

Almost everything you eat gets to your liver first. The liver is termed the ‘chemical factory of the body’ for a reason. It is responsible for processing everything you take into your body.

That’s why a healthy diet plays an important role in controlling the health of your liver. Ayurveda recommends that fatty liver diet should consist of bitter and astringent tasting foods that are also cooling in nature.

When you include liver healthy foods, remove bad calories and get rid of poor fats from your meals, your liver will not store fat. Therefore, it is advisable to keep a meal diet chart to get a sense of what you are currently consuming.

Eventually, it becomes a higher level of awareness about your diet and nutrition. Do keep in mind, eating consciously does not mean that you should go on dieting. It simply means that you should eat mindfully with smaller proportions and avoid poor food choices.

The Best Foods for Fatty Liver Diet Plan

Follow these fatty liver diet tips to support your liver health:

1. Onions, Garlic and Leeks

Sulphur vegetables include garlic, leeks, onions, scallions, and shallots are some of the best liver healthy foods for regular intake.

They activate liver enzymes that help to flush the toxins out and also boost the natural cleansing action of the liver.

2. Omega 3 Fatty Acid (Limited)

Remove bad fats from your diet and replace them with healthy fats given below. Poor fats as refined oils, burnt and old fats are dangerous to your liver. You should avoid them completely.

In general you should reduce the quantity of fats in your diet. However, you need healthy fats in limited quantity. Healthy fat can bind up with the fat soluble toxins and help to safely flush them out of our body. Thus it supports natural functioning of the liver.

• Nuts and Seeds as given below
• Avocado
• Ghee
• Sardines
• Fish oil

3. Vitamin E

Vitamin E is a vital antioxidant that supports the natural detoxification pathways of the liver. It improves fat metabolism and clears up clogged liver channels. Get vitamin E from:

• Carrots
• Chard
• Mustard
• Broccoli
• Red peppers
• Pumpkin
• Papaya
• Soybean
• Flax seed oil
• Taro root, etc.

4. Herbs and Spices

Herbs and spices carry vital micro nutrients and antioxidants that support liver’s natural detoxification pathways. When you make them regular part of your diet, you will be sure to support the health of liver, help to cleanse it and remove deposited fats and reduce inflammation throughout the body.

Ayurveda suggests bitter tasting herbs and green leafy vegetables to reverse fatty liver and treat liver related health disorders.

Regular consumption of herbs and spices also helps to prevent further damage to liver cells. Hence, these herbs prevent both cirrhosis, which primarily results from presence of dead liver cells all around.

• Coriander
• Lemongrass
• Rosemary
• Mint
• Basil
• Tulsi
• Dill
• Cumin
• Fennel
• Mustard
• Watercress
• Dandelion

5. Complex Carbs, Whole Grains and Tubers

These foods are cooling in nature and consist of vital antioxidants, minerals and vitamins that help to cleanse your body, reduce the load on your liver and help you to get rid of poor fat deposits.

In addition fibre and proteins in these foods support your liver’s natural functions. They also help to build healthy liver tissues. In Ayurveda, they form a major portion of pitta pacifying foods. So, you should make them a bigger portion of your diet.

• Whole grains such as Bulgur, Rye, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Whole Oats, and Millets
• Legumes such as Beans and Lentils for proteins
• Vegetables with variety of colors to give you fibre, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants
• Fruits
• Nuts
• Seeds

6. Hydration

Proper hydration is vital to support your body’s natural functions including liver. As with other body parts, liver is majorly made up of water.

It needs ample of water to flush out the water soluble toxins through the urinary system and through the digestive tract too. Sufficient water is required to naturally expel the stool and reduce the levels of toxins in your body.

Additionally water forms the basis of liver enzymes, bile and all other products from liver that help it to function normally.

Make sure you are staying hydrated with normal water, herbal teas or with natural drinks as coconut water.

Foods to Avoid in Fatty Liver Diet Plan

The foods to avoid are typically those that can spike blood sugar levels, or lead to weight gain, such as:

1. Juice, soda, and beverages with added sugar in the form of fructose that loads up liver and further complicates fatty liver condition.
2. Low Sugar or No Sugar Substitutes: Artificial sugar can damage your liver even more than normal sugar does. It also blocks your body’s natural response pathways to sugar consumption.
3. Vanaspati and Margarine: These foods contain high amounts of dangerous saturated fat. It worsens your fat profile, loads up liver and makes your health worse.
4. Sweet baked goods and desserts (cakes, pastries, pies, ice cream, cake, etc.): These types of sugary carbs contain high amount of simple carbs that are also loaded up with sugar. This acts as a double edged sword on your liver health.
5. Cured, Burnt, fatty and red meat as bacon and sausage: These are high in saturated fats, which have been further damaged due to multiple levels of processing. They act as toxins for your liver.
6. Foods that contain excess salt aggravate the health of the liver. They lead to excess water retention, thus increasing the volume of blood, increasing blood pressure and further taxing liver function.
7. Processed food and Fried foods, snacks and tit bits come with loads of simple carbs and poor quality fats which aggravate liver health.
8. Excess Chili and Spicy Foods: These aggravate liver health by pushing pitta dosha further. Excess chili also disturbs the digestive fire and metabolism.
9. Reduce and remove caffeine. It leads to quick spike in your activity level, but eventually causes energy crashes. This makes you eat more sugary foods.
10. Remove alcohol and smoking altogether. Both of these have similar stimulating effect as caffeine on the body, a quick energy boost and then crash. Also, alcohol and smoking cause and make liver health worse.

Fatty Liver Diet Chart: Macronutrient Ratios

40% of Meal Portion should be Fruits, vegetables, and fiber-rich foods.

25% of Meal Portion should be Complex Carbs as Whole grains, cereals, and starch-based food products

30% of Meal Portion should be Lean proteins such as lentils, beans, eggs and lean meats

5% of Meal Portion should be Healthy Fats

7 Days Fatty Liver Diet Plan

Having learned the best and worst foods for fatty liver diet, you might wonder how to do it. How do you combine these food items? How do you ensure you’re getting enough nutrients without getting on the wrong tracks?

Here is a 7 days Fatty Liver Meal plan for you:

Day 1

Breakfast: Beets Stir-fry + millets porridge
Lunch: 1 Bowl brown rice + Cowpeas soup + Cucumber Salad
Dinner: Thai Green Curry + 1 Bowl brown rice

Day 2

Breakfast: Apple Cinnamon Oats Porridge
Lunch: 1 Bowl brown rice + sprouted Mung Dal + green salad  
Dinner: 1 Bowl millets + Mixed vegetables stir-fry

Day 3

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Herb muffins
Lunch: 1 Bowl brown rice + Lentils soup + ½ bowl curd
Dinner: Vegetable Khichadi or Porridge

Day 4

Breakfast: Vegetables stir-fry + 1 Bowl millets porridge
Lunch: 1 Bowl brown rice + Basil Tofu Scramble + green salad
Dinner: 1 Bowl barley + Mixed Vegetables

Day 5

Breakfast: Apple Cinnamon Oats Porridge
Lunch: 1 Bowl brown rice + Sprouted Beans curry + cucumber salad
Dinner: 1 Bowl millets + Green beans stir-fry

Day 6

Breakfast: Mung Dal Dosa (Pancake) with Mint Chutney
Lunch: Bowl brown rice + Spinach Daal + ½ bowl curd
Dinner: 1 Bowl whole wheat porridge with fresh vegetables stir-fry

Day 7

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Herb muffins
Lunch: Vegetable Quinoa + green salad (stir-fry)
Dinner: Vegetable Khichadi or Porridge

Morning/Evening Snack Options

Add on these liver healthy snacks in between your meals should you need to. It will help you to keep you your hunger levels in check while supporting liver detoxification:

• Roasted Black Gram
• Nuts and dried fruits (limited amount)
• Sprouts
• Berries
• Handful of sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
• Hummus and fresh vegetables as celery or carrots
• Cucumber slices
• Lemon water or coconut water
• Apple Beets and Celery Juice

Helpful Health Tips for Fatty Liver Disease

In addition to eating a balanced diet, you should adopt healthy lifestyle habits. Thus, you will cover the rest 20% to make your efforts a 100% push to reverse a fatty liver disease from the root.

1. Lose Weight

Obesity gives rise to NAFLD. If your weight is more than normal, talk with your doctor to guide you to lose some weight based on healthy eating and to stay more active.

Lose a pound or two in a week is good, as quick weight loss may make the disease worse.

2. Stop Drinking Alcohol

If you have the alcoholic fatty liver disease, you have to stop drinking. Though it is difficult to leave, avoiding alcohol will help you a lot. You can successfully reverse or reduce the problem.

In case you fail to avoid alcohol, talk to your doctor. Avoiding alcohol can also treat nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

3. Physical Activity

Exercise has a good impact in the case of a fatty liver disease. If you face difficulties in doing enough exercise to lose weight, you can fulfill this requirement with brisk walking and this will help you in losing some fat from the liver.

4. Take Care of Your Health

Never leave different health problems untreated. Diseases such as diabetes and high cholesterol may give rise to other problems.

You have to talk with your doctor regarding the medications that you take, because these may be the reason for fatty liver disease. Go for a regular checkup to control any rising changes in your body.

5. Take care of Your Liver

If you need to take some medications for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, the flu, and pneumococcal disease to protect your liver and stay healthy, ask your doctor before taking any new medicine, vitamin, or supplement because sometimes these drugs can be harmful to your liver.

Takeaway

Now that you have learnt the principles of fatty liver diet, it is time for action. This is because all the knowledge that you gained here will be futile if you do not apply it.

Start slow, do not try to make all the changes in 1 day. But, do keep up with a positive change in your diet and lifestyle such that you move towards your health goal of reversing fatty liver. It is possible and you can do it! Start now.

Below you can download 7 Days Fatty Liver Meal Plan pdf version for reference. If you need further support to follow the diet plan, lose weight or considering Ayurvedic treatment to manage or treat Fatty Liver Disease Naturally, do contact us here, we will help you out.

FAQ

What vitamins help repair the liver?

The liver is an incredibly important organ that helps to detoxify the body, regulate metabolism, and store nutrients. Unfortunately, the liver can also be easily damaged by exposure to toxins, including alcohol and certain medications. When the liver is damaged, it becomes less efficient at performing its vital functions. Thankfully, there are a number of vitamins and minerals that can help to repair the liver. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that helps to protect cells from damage. Vitamin E and selenium help to reduce inflammation and promote healing. And finally, choline and methionine are essential for proper liver function. By including these vitamins in your diet, you can help to keep your liver healthy and functioning properly.

Which fruit is best for liver?

The liver is one of the most important organs in the body. It detoxifies the blood, aids in digestion, and helps to regulate metabolism. Consequently, it is essential to maintain a healthy liver. One of the best ways to do this is to consume foods that are beneficial for the liver. Among the various fruits that are helpful for the liver, amla is considered to be one of the most potent. Amla is rich in antioxidants and helps to protect the liver from damage. It also aids in digestion and helps to improve metabolism. Other fruits that are helpful for the liver include grapes, oranges, and lemons. These fruits are all high in vitamin C, which helps to boost liver function. As a result, consuming these fruits regularly can help to keep the liver healthy and functioning properly.

Which vegetable is good for liver?

The liver is an essential organ that plays a vital role in detoxifying the blood, synthesizing proteins, and storing glycogen. As such, it is important to maintain the health of the liver by consuming foods that support its function. In Ayurvedic medicine, the bitter taste is thought to be particularly supportive of the liver. As a result, vegetables such as kale, dandelion greens, and arugula are often recommended for people seeking to improve liver health. These vegetables can help to cleanse the liver and promote proper function. In addition to their bitter taste, these vegetables are also rich in nutrients that support liver health, such as sulfur and chlorophyll. As a result, they can be an excellent addition to the diet for people seeking to improve their liver function.