Fatty Liver? Carbohydrates Might Be The Culprit

Have you ever had foie gras? It’s a French delicacy made by force-feeding a duck or a goose to give it a fatty liver and give that liver a unique flavor. Pretty shocking stuff. But what do they feed the animals to produce this fatty liver? Fat, right? Nope! Sugar, corn and starch.

So when your doctor tells you that you need to reduce the amount of fat in your diet and replace it with carbohydrates, may the alarm bells ring loudly in your head. Here’s why. Research shows that carbs—and NOT FAT—cause a buildup of fat in your belly and liver. Bad news. And pretty counter-intuitive.

But what actually happens is that sugar switches on a fat-production factory in your liver: a process called lipogenesis. It’s your body’s first response to sugar, particularly fructose. Yes, fructose is the most detrimental type of sugar for your fatty liver. It heads straight for your liver, when the lipogenesis kicks in immediately. Are you consuming a lot of fructose?

It can be found in:

Soda
Fruit juices
Tea, when sweetened with sugar
Energy drinks (e.g. Red Bull)
Wine coolers
Starbucks Frappuccino
Cakes, pies and pastries
Candy bars and cookies
Ice cream and other frozen treats, including low-fat fruit yogurts
Breakfast cereals, including corn flakes, raisin bran and some granolas; cereal bars
Condiments, salad dressings and sauces, including reduced-fat French dressing and balsamic vinaigrette
Dried fruits: raisins, dates and figs
Canned fruit, jellies and jams
Sweet Asian sauces, including teriyaki sauce
Honey, maple syrup and agave syrup
Brandy and liqueurs

Fatty liver is now the most common liver disease and the leading cause of liver transplant, too. And it can lead to the sort of inflammation that can trigger insulin resistance, pre-diabetes and visceral fat (where fat builds up around your organs and middle).

But that’s not the only type of havoc excess sugar and starch can create in your body: you might be saying hello to high triglycerides, low HDL (that’s the “good” cholesterol), high bad cholesterol (yes, LDL), and a higher chance of heart attack.

Signs Of Fatty Liver

This is quite disturbing: most people have absolutely no idea they have a fatty liver.

The possible signs and symptoms include:

Abdominal swelling
Enlarged breasts in men
Enlarged spleen
Red palms
Enlarged blood vessels just beneath the skin
Fatigue
Yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice)

Dietary Fat And Fatty Liver

Want to hear something crazy? You’d think that dietary fat would make a fatty liver worse, right? Wrong! Dietary fat actually TURNS OFF fat production in your liver. Weird…

But cool: dietary fat doesn’t trigger insulin secretion in the pancreas (unless you combine it with carbs—which spells disaster). When you eat the right types of fat, you can increase your metabolism wonderfully, stimulate fat burning beautifully and decrease hunger pangs big time.

The Fat You Need

So here’s what to do:

Increase the amount of coconut or medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil in your diet.
Increase healthy saturated fat foods, like grass-fed beef
Get plenty of omega-3 fatty acids into your meals (try chia, flax and omega-3 oils containing krill oil)
Cut processed carbs of all kinds, and whole grains (if cold turkey is very challenging, try consuming small amounts of millet, quinoa and buckwheat while you transition)
Consume lots of fiber-rich, low-carb vegetables, like leafy greens

This may sound strange. The truth is that the government tells us to limit saturated fat to 7-10% of all calories consumed. And the whole grains! The truth is that healthy saturated fats lower inflammation when you eat them as part of a low-carb, omega-3 rich, high fiber plan.

The Early Tell Alls

Watch out for the early signs that may be associated with a fatty liver, including:

Cravings for carbohydrates
A little belly fat
Eating lots of sugar and/or flour

You can also get a blood test or an ultrasound, which can both pick up the disease. An ultrasound is more sensitive and likely to detect it.

Reversal and Prevention

If you’re worried about getting fatty liver, or you already have it and would like to improve the situation, here are the key strategies you’ll want to employ:

Choose protein

Fill up on nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, chicken and grass-fed meat. Integrate about a palm-sized serving of these foods into every meal, especially your first meal of the day.

Start a liver-repair plan

Eat detoxifying foods like broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts; pack in around 1-2 cups of leafy greens like cabbage, arugula, watercress, kale and collards every day. Try increasing your garlic and onion consumption, too! Their natural sulfur content helps you flush out liver toxins. Beets and carrots are also nice.

Supplement yourself

Healing is optimized when your body is getting everything it needs to transform you into a healthier version of yourself. Some helpful liver-supporting supplements include

Herbs like organic milk thistle, turmeric and dandelion. We love Purathrive – it’s an organic Tumeric.
Nutrients, such as lipoic acid and N-acetyl-cysteine, which increase levels of the powerful mother-of- all-antioxidants, glutathione (as does milk thistle)
Vitamins and minerals: B vitamins and magnesium are essential

Add healing oils

As mentioned above, healthy fats are absolutely critical if you want to have a healthy liver. Consume:

Olive oil
Avocados
Coconut oil or MCT oil
Grass-fed butter
Fish and krill oil

And get plenty of low-sugar fruits, like berries: vegetables, lean animal protein, seeds and nuts into your body.

All of these will help curb the sugar cravings and combat sugar damage.

Move to improve metabolism

Daily exercise improves insulin resistance. Walking for 30 minutes is a great start. Your dog will love it, too.

Say farewell to the carbs

This is the last but most important point here. If you do anything, eliminate the sugar! Say chau to high-fructose corn syrup, most significantly. Tell starches you no longer need their services, that you choose health, want more energy and are on the road to bullet-proof wellness.

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