Fatty liver – Is alcohol to blame?
Alcohol is often the cause of fatty liver and other liver issues, but Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver (NAFL) is where the liver becomes enlarged, discoloured and has fat deposits in it. It is also called Metabolic Associated Fatty Liver Disease.
This can be caused even when the person has never consumed alcohol but usually applies if someone is consuming less than 2 standard drinks per day.
The factors that can cause NAFL include:
- Obesity – a small amount of weight loss can create a big change to fatty liver
- Diabetes
- Insulin resistance
- High fat levels in your blood (hyperlipidaemia)/high cholesterol
- Coeliac disease
The liver is constantly trying to regenerate and renew it’s cells. You can have surgery to remove some of your liver and it will grow back! Quietly it does a huge job to process sugars, stress, toxins, create vitamin D and many more tasks. Often this condition is asymptomatic even though it’s quite prevalent effecting approximately 30% of the population.
You can provide support to your liver through what you eat as well as natural supplements.
Foods that can improve liver function include:
- Dandelion root and dandelion greens
- A great tea is Love Tea Organic Liver Cleanse Tea – give it a try
- Green tea
- Good fats from avocado, olives, nuts and fish
- Lots of vegetables
Foods to avoid:
- Alcohol
- Fried foods and trans-fats
- Lots of saturated fat – avoiding grain fed meat
- Lots of carbs and sugar – especially avoid high fructose corn syrup
- Inflammatory foods – processed foods, gluten/wheat, dairy
Supplements that can support liver function particularly for NAFL include:
- St Mary’s Thistle (also called Silybum marianum, Silymarin and Milk Thistle). We recommend Henry Blooms Liver Health Milk Thistle Plus or Herbs of Gold Liver Care
- N-Acetylcysteine
- Vitamin E
- L-Carnitine
- Olive Leaf
- Selenium