Do You Have Fatty Liver Disease?
Fatty liver disease also known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a condition that most people have never heard of and yet up to 25 percent of us are living with it and may not even know it.
NAFLD is a medical condition whereby excess fat accumulates in the liver and is a major risk factor for diabetes, heart attacks and even cancer.
NAFLD is commonly diagnosed by specific liver function blood tests or an ultrasound. It can cause a whole cascade of issues. It causes inflammation in the body, which can create insulin resistance and pre-diabetes, which in turn causes the body to deposit fat not just in your liver but also all around the organs and in the belly.
Most people with NAFLD have few or no symptoms but some people may complain of fatigue, malaise and dull right-upper-quadrant abdominal discomfort.
Given the name, you probably think it is caused by excess fat in the diet. This is not always the case! Fatty liver disease is mostly caused by all the sugar and starch/flour in our diet.
Take foie gras for example. Foie gras is a delicacy made from duck or goose liver. In order to make foie gras, ducks or geese are force-fed sugar in the form of corn and starch. This creates a fat-production factory in the liver, a process known as lipogenesis, which is the body’s normal response to sugar. Sugar, especially high fructose corn syrupfound in our processed foods is one of the biggest causes of fatty liver disease.
12 Strategies to Fix Fatty Liver Disease
The primary goal in most cases of fatty liver disease is improving insulin sensitivity through diet and supplementation.
- The elimination of high-glycemic-index foods is a critical step in both the prevention and the treatment of NAFLD. One study found that 80% of NAFLD patients drank enough soft drinks and juices to add the equivalent of 12 tsp of sugar or more to their diet.
- Watch for high fructose corn syrup. Read labels – especially in salad dressings, sauces, ketchup or tomato sauce.
- Reduce or eliminate starch. Get rid of the white, refined and processed flour. Even whole grain flours can be a problem for some.
- Include good fats in the diet – olive oil, avocados, coconut oil and fish oil.
- Increase foods that are rich in compounds that help protect the liver from damage and improve liver function which include; high sulfur foods such as garlic, legumes, onions; and good sources of soluble fibre such as pears, oat bran, apples and vegetables in the brassica family especially broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage; as well as artichokes, beets and dandelion.
- Minimize or eliminate substances that increase stress on the liver such as excess coffee and alcohol.
- Silymarin, the powerful extract found in
