What dietary taboos should you pay attention to if you have fatty liver?

For patients with fatty liver disease, the most important priority to avoid is not the stereotyped fat meat, but foods with a large amount of free sugars, refined grains and trans fats, followed by excessive animal fats and high-cholesterol foods.

I met a 30-year-old Internet operator a while ago. He rarely eats fat and plays football twice a week. Last year, he was diagnosed with moderate fatty liver disease in a physical examination. I was confused for a long time. Later, I checked his food records and found that he drank at least 1 cup of full-sugar iced American style and 1 cup of fruit tea every day. He worked overtime until late at night and relied on hand-made bread and puffed food to fill his stomach. His daily intake of added sugar was more than three times higher than the normal recommended amount. In fact, our liver is like an energy dispatch station. The sugar we eat, especially free sugars such as white sugar and fructose syrup, is digested and absorbed very quickly. If it is not consumed in a day, it will be directly synthesized into fat and stored in the liver. If it accumulates too much, it will become fatty liver. This conversion efficiency is higher than if you eat fat directly.

Many people's first reaction when they find out about fatty liver disease is to go vegetarian and abstain from meat. In fact, there are actually different views on this approach in the academic circles. Many nutrition guidelines earlier recommended that the intake of all saturated fats should be strictly limited, and even red meat should be avoided as much as possible. However, many clinical cases and new research data that I have followed in the past two years have shown that as long as the total daily caloric intake does not exceed the amount consumed, eating some lean pork, beef and sheep, and eating deep-sea fish twice a week can provide the body with essential fatty acids and help the liver metabolize accumulated fat. I have seen many patients who completely stopped eating boiled vegetables, either because they were too hungry to bear it and secretly ate more refined carbohydrates, or they lacked fat-soluble vitamins and felt weak, which made their recovery slower.

Of course, this does not mean that you can eat fatty meat freely. For example, fatty pork belly and shiny animal offal should be touched as little as possible, especially do not eat it with polished rice, white noodles, or sweet drinks. The calories will definitely exceed the standard. Don’t use old oil that has been repeatedly fried in daily cooking. Foods such as crispy pork and fried skewers in takeaways are most likely to be made with shortening. They are high in trans fat, which puts a greater burden on the liver than ordinary fatty meat. Another taboo that all doctors and nutritionists agree on is alcohol. Whether it is low-alcohol beer, fruit wine or high-alcohol liquor, as long as it contains alcohol, it will directly damage liver cells. Even if you have mild fatty liver, it is best not to drink alcohol at all.

It’s not that complicated to say. I used to have a patient with severe fatty liver disease. I changed my daily sweet drinks to light tea, mixed half of the brown rice and quinoa with white rice, and ate fried food at most once a week. I didn’t completely give up my favorite sauce beef. After a 3-month review, it turned into mild disease. There is no need to scare yourself and make your life too miserable.