Handy Tips for Reversing Fatty Liver Disease
Please note I am not a physician, so this blog post should not replace medical care! I am just someone who discovered a liver virus the hard way and want to share the word about a widespread issue that many of us face. Hopefully you learn a bit here to not feel overwhelmed to talk to your doctor!
Millions of Americans suffer from fatty liver disease, particularly after the Covid lockdown.
With gyms closed, homes becoming offices, and nowhere to be at any particular time, most of us became a lot looser with our healthy habits. The longest walk most of us took during the day was from the couch to the kitchen.
Open another bottle of wine? Sure, I don’t have a 6 AM Spin class! Bored now that you finished your binge of Tiger King? Let’s open a bag of chips!
An added challenge is that it’s hard to notice when you start to slide down that slippery slope since we were all in sweatpants too. (One of my colleagues had a pair of Accountability Pants she tried on every week, and in retrospect, that really was a genius idea.) So for the most part, we all collectively slid together without realizing it until it was too late.
Unfortunately, part of the downside of less exercise, more processed snacks, and more wine (booze sales went up an insane amount during the pandemic), is a building up of fatty deposits in the liver.
We all did it. There’s no shame. But now we need to counteract those behaviors.
See, your liver isn’t just an organ you think about when you have a hangover. Yes, one of its jobs is to rid your body of alcohol, but in general it takes out the garbage from everything you eat.
Your liver is your body’s Detoxifier and Retainer of Nutrients-in-chief.
Read more about the liver and fatty liver disease from the Cleveland Clinic.
That means these fatty deposits make it less efficient at doing its job. In other words, it has to work harder – which we know is bad for the heart, so in the same way, it’s bad for the liver – and that it also takes the liver’s attention away from its metabolic duties and slows fat burning.
Fatty deposits make the liver’s detoxifying job more onerous, so it has less time and energy to burn fat and store nutrients.
This is bad both from a vanity perspective (added pounds!) but also from a long-term chronic health issue perspective (you need those nutrients!).
But here is the good news: your liver is quite regenerative!!
That means you can rewind and reverse fatty liver disease.
Unless you have cirrhosis, the damage done to the liver can for the most part be repaired.
In order to do this, we need to limit three things that clog it up:
1. Sodium
2. Added sugars
3. Alcohol
From there, we should feed it what it needs to thrive.
That means lots of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, proteins, and whole grains. The Mediterranean Diet is an excellent off-the-shelf option for kick starting your liver health, if you want to go that route. (And if you do, I wrote all about it HERE.)
The reason I turned my attention to liver health is because of a health crisis I had over Christmas in 2020. I ended up in the hospital with a virus that almost killed me.
Long (horrible) story short, when I was released with essentially no medical guidance as to what to eat/limit eating, I had to do my own research to try to build my body back to health.
The nutritional plan I built for myself was wildly successful – within six weeks my bloodwork was back to normal!
And because of this experience, I wanted to share my story with others and help them rebuild their bodies too. The key thing I did was load up on produce.
Produce, produce, produce.
And then more produce. I was eating probably 12 – 15 servings per day. And still do, actually (easier to do with Balance of Nature though). And once I was strong enough, I started adding lots of walks and light strength training again too. (Physical movement is also important for liver health!)
I like to consider myself a liver superhero of sorts, and I want to help you reverse any liver damage you have!
This post brings together the most important pieces of information, tips, and easy tweaks you can make to your routine to improve your liver health.
Because in healing your liver, you will see big improvements in your overall health!!
(As a less important but very pleasant side effect, you’ll notice weight loss! I would be willing to put a guarantee on that.)
So without further ado, please see these resources for tips on improving your liver health:
Nutrition for the Liver:
Limiting Alcohol:
Other Associated Benefits/Tips:
I hope these resources get you started on making some changes to improve your liver health. You’ll be surprised at how great the results of your blood tests will be if you implement some of these changes (and your doctor will too)!
In an effort to get you started on this new lifestyle, I am happy to announce that I have finally finished a 30 day program based on the way I ate and the lifestyle tweaks I made to recover from severe liver illnesses. This program includes 30 days of recipes, tips for eating out, alcohol alternatives, and more! Check it out here!
In the meantime, if you’re looking for an added boost this holiday season, which is prime time for salt, added sugars, and alcohol, click here for my FREE Liver-Healthy Holiday Sides Menu, complete with shopping list and recipes!
