Fatty Liver – it’s not just for French Ducks!

Fatty Liver – it’s not just for French Ducks!

Hey I love Foie Gras but I am not sure I will be able to ever eat it again.  It is made by force feeding the poor ducks with corn syrup, sugar and starch to give them fatty liver!  Yikes!  

Humans, like those ducks get fatty livers from eating sugar, flour, fructose (soda) and processed grains.  Fatty liver is a dangerous disease. In America, it affects 90 million of us and 17 percent of our children.  Fatty liver literally means your liver fills with fat, paving the path for chronic disease and inflammation. Are you ready for some of that pate’ now?  

Do you need to be screened?

If you eat lots of sugar and flour, have belly fat, or if you crave carbs, drink soda’s, you may have a fatty liver.  If you have elevated triglycerides, hemoglobin A1c, fasting glucose or elevated liver enzymes, you may have fatty liver.  Most people have no idea they have a fatty liver.

Screening:

  • Blood tests and an ultrasound can both detect fatty liver.   A liver function test doesn’t always detect a fatty liver. An ultrasound is more sensitive.

Consequences of fatty liver:

  • Inflammation, which triggers insulin resistance and pre-diabetes, insulin resistance causes fat accumulation in your liver and organs including your belly (called visceral fat).
  • High blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and abnormal cholesterol.
  • Liver failure, and we can’t live without one!

To prevent or reverse fatty liver:

  • Add foods like low-sugar fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean animal protein like chicken and fish and good, healthy fats like olive oil, macadamia nut oil, avocados, grass-fed butter and fish oil, as part of a low-carb, high-fiber, omega 3 fatty acid-rich diet..
  • Eliminate all high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
  • Minimize or get rid of white, processed flour and eliminate or greatly reduce starch.  Remember when it comes to food unless it is cauliflower, “if it’s white it’s not right!”
  • Eat broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, as well as leafy veggies like kale, collards, cabbage, arugula, and watercress. At least a cup or two every day can help repair and heal the liver. Garlic and onions are amazing sulfur-rich foods that help detox the body.
  • Eat protein at every meal, especially breakfast, include nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, chicken or grass-fed meat for protein at every meal. A serving size is four to six ounces, or about the size of your palm
  • A healthy liver is essential for life!

Quack….Quack….Quack

To read more on this read Mark Heyman’s: Eat Fat, Get Thin, and The Glucose Control Diet

– Connie
Back to blog