Fatty Foods and Liver Damage- a concern – By Dr Harold Gunatillake
As a reader, your role in preventing liver damage is crucial. Consuming excessive amounts of fatty foods can damage the liver and elevate the risk of fatty liver disease. It’s essential to be cautious and monitor your diet to support liver health. Your vigilance can make a significant difference.
Fatty foods pose a significant risk to liver health and can lead to severe damage. When consumed excessively, fat accumulates in the liver, resulting in fatty liver disease. This condition can progress to inflammation, scarring, and severe liver dysfunction over time.
To protect your liver and maintain overall health, you must make informed dietary choices and prioritise balanced nutrition. Your responsibility in this process is critical.
First, let’s define what fatty foods are. These foods are categorised as containing saturated fats, which include:
- Fatty cuts of meat and meat products, such as sausages and pies: Poultry, except for lean white meat,
- Butter, ghee, and lard: Cheese, particularly hard cheeses like cheddar
- Cream, sour cream, and ice cream: Sugary items like candy, regular soda, and other foods with added sugars, including high- fructose corn
- Some savoury snacks, like cheese crackers and certain types of popcorn
- Chocolate confectionery
- Biscuits, cakes, and
These items are examples of saturated fatty foods.
Most of these foods in Sri Lanka are beyond the average person’s reach. They are mostly imported and enjoyed by the wealthy class.
Their daily staple grub is rice and curry. So, let’s find out whether many saturated fatty foods are on such a plate.
Rice, white, long-grain, parboiled, enriched, cooked, 1 cup Protein (g) 4.6 Total lipid (fat) (g) 0.58 Carbohydrate, by difference (g) 41.16 Energy (kcal) 194.34 Sugars, total (g) 0.17 In eating rice, the carbs are converted into glucose molecules in the gut.
Excess blood glucose is stored in the liver as glycogen, a complex carbohydrate that can be quickly converted to energy.
Excess glucose from your diet is also converted into fatty acids by insulin and stored as triglycerides in many body parts as fat in adipose tissue, including the liver.
The above discussion emphasises the effects of saturated fatty foods on the liver.
Do unsaturated fats like olive oil, avocado fruits, Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, fish oils, vegetable oils, nuts, especially walnuts, flaxseeds and flaxseed oil, and leafy veggies, among others, also cause fatty livers?
Unlike the saturated fats in the foods mentioned earlier, unsaturated fatty foods do not harm the liver.
The reason for this is that most people with fatty liver disease often have a condition called insulin resistance, as in type 2 diabetes. By insulin resistance, we mean that their bodies make insulin but can’t use it well.
Fatty livers are common among Sri Lankans due to the excessive rice they sometimes consume in all three meals.
A study of 2,985 adults in urban Sri Lanka found that 32.6% had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Another study found that nearly one in five people in a rural, low-income population had NAFLD. An autopsy study found that 56.8% of Sri Lankan adults had fatty liver.
Rice is the main meal, and with spicy curries, the tendency is to eat more. Obesity, including pot bellies, seems to be very common among young and middle-aged men.
The rapid prevalence of obesity has led to an epidemic of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is strongly associated with insulin resistance and predicts the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Diagnosis of fatty Liver disease.
Symptoms of fatty liver disease can vary depending on the stage of the disease:
Early stages
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) often has no symptoms. When symptoms do appear, they can include fatigue, malaise, or pain or discomfort in the upper right abdomen.
Advanced stages
More advanced stages of NAFLD, such as NASH or fibrosis, can cause more severe symptoms, including:
Unexplained weight loss Extreme tiredness
A dull or aching pain in the upper right abdomen Yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice)
Itchy skin
Swelling in the legs, ankles, feet, or abdomen (oedema)
You must see your doctor if you have any of the above symptoms.
He will perform a series of blood tests called Liver Function Tests (LFT).
The most common presentation of NAFLD is an incidental finding of abnormal LFTs. Typical findings in NAFLD are raised ALT and AST, with a preserved ALT: AST ratio of 1.5, raised gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), and, occasionally, raised alkaline phosphatase (ALP).
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is emerging as a significant cause of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Sri Lanka. This trend is also observed globally. In urban Sri Lanka, more than half of middle-aged and elderly adults show ultrasonic evidence of NAFLD.
What remedial measures can we take to avoid fatty liver disease? Vitamins may help prevent fatty liver disease.
Vitamin D. Low levels may play a role in more severe fatty liver disease. Your body makes vitamin D when you’re in the sun. You can also get it in some dairy products. Choose low-fat dairy items because they have less saturated fat.
Potassium. Low levels may be linked to a condition called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which used to be known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Fish like cod, salmon, and sardines are good sources of potassium. It’s also in veggies, including broccoli, peas, and sweet potatoes, and fruits such as bananas, kiwis, and apricots. Dairy foods, like milk and yoghurt, are also high in potassium. Choose low-fat options.
Avoid Alcohol
You shouldn’t drink at all if your fatty liver disease results from heavy drinking. It can lead to more severe liver damage.
If you have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease due to the factors mentioned earlier, such as metabolic syndrome, including diabetes and obesity, consuming alcohol leads to double trouble.
Avoid sugary foods like candy, cookies, sodas, and fruit juices. High blood sugar increases the fat buildup in the liver, whether you have type 2 diabetes or not.
Exercise for a Healthy Liver
Aerobic exercise can cut the amount of fat in your liver. A heavy workout may also lower inflammation. Resistance or strength training exercises, like weight lifting, can also improve fatty liver disease. Aim for 30 to 60 minutes or more of mid- to high-level aerobic exercise on at least 5 days a week and mid- to high-level strength training 3 days a week.
Lose Weight
Even dropping just 5% of your body weight could lower the fat in your liver. Lose between 7% and 10% of your body weight, and you’ll reduce inflammation and the odds of injury to your liver cells. You might even reverse some of the damage.
Should you eat eggs if you have fatty liver disease?
Eggs are good for health, but should you eat eggs when you have fatty liver disease? Many people think that the high cholesterol in eggs is unsuitable for liver disease. According to many experts, people with fatty liver disease should not eat too many eggs.
Because:
The relatively high cholesterol in egg yolks can cause more fat to accumulate in the liver. Eating many eggs increases the amount of protein and lipids in the liver, creating a burden, and the liver has to work more actively.
Coffee may be suitable for fatty liver disease.
Coffee contains antioxidants and compounds that may help reduce liver damage. Some research suggests that drinking coffee may help slow the progression of liver disease and reduce the risk of liver cancer, fibrosis, and cirrhosis.
I hope this article enlightens you on the importance of consuming the right foods to safeguard your liver against fatty liver disease.
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