Fatty Liver & The Food Connection

Transcript:

MELANIE: Good morning and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. I'm Melanie Beasley, and I'm a registered and licensed dietitian. And I'm excited to launch this show with a new free service we have added for all our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners. We started a private Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook group so you can communicate with us and we can communicate with you better. Through this private Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook group, you can ask questions, share recipes, let us know about your successes and challenges, and you can request specific show topics. In fact, the topic today, the Food Connection to Fatty Liver, was a request that a listener sent in two weeks ago. And today we're going to do it.

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So we'll be sharing all the reasons why almost 2 billion people worldwide have a condition known as fatty liver disease, and we'll discuss how, what you should be drinking, what you should be eating and how that affects your liver. And the health problems related to fatty liver disease are going to be discussed as well. And most importantly, how can you reverse it? How can you reverse fatty liver disease?

BRANDY: Very interesting topic today. I’m really excited to share some information and be with you in the studio again, Melanie.

MELANIE: It's so fun. It's so fun. And we both were just talking before the show about how we're seeing so much fatty liver is kind of our passion right now to be helping clients who've been that scary diagnosis has been given to them.

BRANDY: Yeah, there's I, I see many, many more clients coming in lately with this diagnosis and we've got some solutions for you. So stay tuned. I want to introduce myself really quick. My name is Brandy Buro. I'm also a registered and licensed dietitian. I actually just celebrated my 11th year anniversary of being a dietitian.

MELANIE: Wonderful. Congratulations.

BRANDY: Yeah. Thank you. So, excited to be here today. And I want to share a little bit more about this special Facebook group. If you'd like to join, just go to facebook.com/groups/dishingupnutrition and let us know how we can help you.

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Let us know what you need to stay on your real food wellness journey. We know all too well that our culture is, is just full of processed food. It's really hard to avoid, but that is what we must do. So we're here to give you the tools and teach you the skills to overcome that temptation of processed food, fast food, all the junk food that you're constantly bombarded with all day.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRANDY: And really just set you up for success so you can follow that real food lifestyle.

MELANIE: Absolutely. I, you know, junk food in, junk food body, you know. We want to take care of the only body we have.

BRANDY: Absolutely.

What is fatty liver disease?

MELANIE: Onto our topic: what is a fatty liver and why do almost 2 billion; yes, I said 2 billion people worldwide have a fatty liver? Fatty liver disease is when the liver stores extra fat and sugar in the liver. The fat and the sugar gets stored as triglycerides. And if you have more than 5% fat storage, it's considered non-alcoholic liver disease. Having a fatty liver can become a very serious health problem, but about 80% of all fatty liver cases can be reversed while following the real food eating plan that we're going to talk about.

BRANDY: And that is such a relief to hear I'm sure for many listeners that yes, fatty liver disease can be reversed if you have the right meal plan in place and other lifestyle factors adjusted, especially if you catch it before it gets to the late stage phase of what many know as cirrhosis.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRANDY: So we're going to, we're going to talk about what those steps are, but first I'm going to give you a little background about what fatty liver disease is and what different types of this this disease can take on. So there are three main types of fatty liver disease. I think many of us are familiar with the form called alcoholic fatty liver disease. So as the name suggests, this form of fatty liver disease comes from drinking too much alcohol and drinking too much alcohol over a long period of time. So this excess alcohol causes the healthy liver cells to be replaced with fatty deposits. So over time, these fatty deposits can then turn into scar tissue. And that's when we reach that late stage fatty liver disease called cirrhosis; cirrhosis of the liver. So this can be life threatening when you reach this stage.

MELANIE: Absolutely. And you're, and, and patients, when I worked in hospitals, absolutely miserable, horrible to watch.

BRANDY: Mm-hmm. Well, when you think about it, when your liver is made up of scar tissue, the blood isn't able to flow through the liver, therefore it's not able to perform its functions. You know, every organ needs blood to function and the liver is such a crucial organ. It has a lot of life supporting functions; processes our nutrients, filters out toxins. So chronic alcohol use is often the cause of this type of fatty liver disease, which often leads to cirrhosis.

MELANIE: Yeah, it's scary, but it's reversible, like we said.

BRANDY: Right.

High triglycerides can lead to fatty liver

MELANIE: Not the cirrhosis, but the early stage if we catch it. So there's another type of fatty liver disease caused from eating a poor diet, mainly too much sugar and processed carbs. When people eat high sugar processed foods in excess, I'm thinking chips, French fries, fried potatoes, bread, they often develop insulin resistance, which does not allow the sugar to be deposited into the cells for energy. And all of the sugar and bad fats are then deposited into the liver as triglycerides. Well at Nutritional Weight and Wellness, we encourage clients to keep their triglycerides under 100 or even under 75, not to be strict, but that's kind of my goal. I work with clients to get their triglyceride level between 50 and 60. So then triglycerides are not leading to a fatty liver.

Higher levels of triglycerides can lead to inflammation of the liver, which you were talking about Brandy. And actual scarring and cirrhosis of the liver. So it's very important to manage your triglyceride level to avoid that fatty liver disease. So if you listeners, if you don't know what your triglyceride level is, go into your MyChart, your medical record, or request a lipid panel. And, and find out. It's good information for you to be the boss of your body. And a high sugar diet can lead to cirrhosis of the liver much the same as the damaging effects of too much alcohol that you were talking about.

BRANDY: Wow. So really what you're saying, I mean, that's a powerful statement. What you're saying is too much sugar could cause as much damage to the liver as too much alcohol.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRANDY: That's wild. Cause I think everyone's well aware of the risks of alcohol, but who would've thought that sugar could be just as dangerous for some of these diseases we're developing?

MELANIE: Absolutely.

BRANDY: Wild.

MELANIE: And I think during COVID there was so, so many of my clients that reached for the glass of wine to try to help relax that anxiety that they were feeling. And this is information. So when you have information, then you can start making changes to take care of your body.

BRANDY: Absolutely. Definitely. So if, if you're just tuning in, to recap, today, we're talking about fatty liver disease. And what is that exactly? Well, it's, it's having too much fat buildup in your liver. So a healthy liver contains a very small amount of fat. I think 2% or less is ideal. But when the liver accumulates maybe 5% or even up to 30% fat, that's when your liver's in trouble. And for most people, a fatty liver doesn't cause a major problem. Oftentimes we don't really have symptoms until it's a little further in the disease state.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRANDY: But for about 7% to maybe a third of people with that fatty liver, the disease can get worse. And as that disease progresses, the liver becomes more and more inflamed. And it's that inflammation that damages the liver and compromises the liver's function. And like I mentioned earlier, this is when scar tissue can form and eventually cirrhosis of the liver, the liver occurs. And that just means that there's a lot of scarring in your liver.

MELANIE: Yeah. And it's interesting Brandy, when you're talking about this, something to note is that for a long time, fatty liver can be silent, where you don't know what's going on with your liver. And once you start experiencing symptoms, you know, then it's, it's pretty far along.

BRANDY: Right.

MELANIE: So it's good for us to know again, what are our triglycerides doing?

BRANDY: Yep. Easy test. You can get done at your annual physical.

MELANIE: Absolutely. And when cirrhosis occurs, the liver's ability to function slows and liver failure and liver cancer can occur. And as a dietitian, 20 years ago, seeing clients with fatty liver, just, it wasn't a thing. We didn't see this in clinic.

BRANDY: Yeah.

MELANIE: But today it's fairly common. As we had discussed, there are two types of fatty liver: the alcohol induced fatty liver. About 5% people in the U.S. have alcohol induced fatty liver. And that was the number before the pandemic. It may be more now. I don't know if we've got new statistics on that. I couldn't find any. Because, because people were reaching for more comfort foods and they were reaching for more alcohol and wine. Like I said, because we were trying to calm ourselves down in any way we can. And so those comfort foods are something we reach for, but it's time for our first break.

You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. We believe that in order to follow a real food eating plan, it's important to start cooking your own food. We offer monthly cooking classes through Zoom for only $25, where can you do that in the home, in your jammies. Marianne, our culinary nutrition educator, not only teaches us how to cook, but also teaches us the health values found in real food. On July 13th at six Marianne will be showing you how to cook healthy burgers and tacos. Yum. And after the break, Brandy will share more details. So stay tuned. We'll be right back.

BREAK

BRANDY: Well, I grew up on a farm in North Dakota and it was a beef farm. So you can imagine I ate a lot of beef growing up. But I don't think that the way we tended to prepare it was always the healthiest. I just never really felt that good after eating it. Think like tater tot hot dish or pizza. So I grew up thinking maybe beef wasn't the right choice for me, but I, I actually had a lot to learn. Beef can actually be part of a real food plan that it's balanced and nutritious. And we're actually offering a class, a cooking class next week. Our culinary instructor, Marianne, is going to teach you how to cook the perfect juicy burger and some flavorful tacos and how to incorporate that in a real food meal plan. So not only ground beef, but we're also going to cover things about ground Turkey and tips for preparing ground pork. So this is a really good class to take. And this is happening next Wednesday on July 13th, 6:00 PM, over Zoom, very convenient. And if you can't make it on Wednesday or exactly at 6:00 PM, the cool thing is everybody that registers can access the class or a recording of the class for three days afterwards.

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MELANIE: That's wonderful.

BRANDY: So I really encourage you to sign up. It's only $25. We've gotten so much good feedback about Marianne's classes. I personally learn something every time I attend one of her classes. It's just a wonderful experience. You'll walk away with a few new recipes and a little more motivation to get in the kitchen.

MELANIE: It's and why you're doing it. I love how she, she ties in why, you know, each ingredient and what the health benefit is.

BRANDY: Definitely. Yeah, it's, it's a little different than some of the other cooking classes you've probably taken, cause it's, it's got that lens of health and nutrition behind it. It's amazing. So before we were talking, before we went on break, we were talking about fatty liver disease and the different types of fatty liver disease. We already covered what I think most people are familiar with the alcoholic fatty liver disease, but there's also another form called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And this occurs in people that aren't heavy drinkers. It could occur in people that don't drink at all. So this type of fatty liver disease affects one in three adults. It's quite common actually. And I was really surprised to learn that it also affects children.

MELANIE: I know it's so sad.

Connection between fatty liver disease and high fructose corn syrup

BRANDY: One in 10 children, it's, it's astonishing. So one in three adults and 10% of children have this non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. So we have to assume that this type of fatty liver is not from drinking alcohol, but what could it be from? What do all these people, people of all ages have access to? Maybe it's the juice drinks. Maybe it's the soda or that fancy coffee drink with the flavored syrups. So what's the common, common thread in all of these drinks? You probably guessed it. It's not just sugar, but it's a special type of sugar: high fructose corn syrup. So this is a common additive in a lot of beverages in a lot of processed foods. So do you think maybe there's a connection between high fructose corn syrup and fatty liver?

MELANIE: I think so. I think there is. And as always, we like to turn to the research. I love reading the research from the National Institute of Health and in 2020, a research team led by Dr. Michael Karin of the University of California found that mice who were fed a high fructose corn syrup diet developed fatty liver disease within a month.

BRANDY: Wow.

MELANIE: Not only did these mice develop fatty liver, but they found that the mice that were fed a high fructose corn syrup diet also had damaged intestinal lining plus liver tumors.

BRANDY: My goodness.

MELANIE: The study was published in Nature Metabolism on August 24th, 2020. And you know, when you were talking about the children, you know, children years ago, back when I was a kid, you ran around. You didn't have a beverage in your hand. If you got thirsty, you drank from the hose because you didn't want to go in.

BRANDY: Yep.

MELANIE: And the size of juice was maybe a small two inch glass.

BRANDY: Right.

MELANIE: My husband and I love to go antiquing and the juice glasses are tiny. And think about what you're given when you are in a restaurant and it's not just juice anymore. It has the high fructose corn syrup.

BRANDY: Yep. It's like a juice cocktail.

MELANIE: It's candy in a cup.

BRANDY: Exactly: liquid candy. So you might be wondering, well, where is this high fructose corn syrup hiding? And I guess the answer is easy for me. I mean it's in almost all processed foods. High fructose corn syrup is added to yogurt, a food I think many of us think is a health food. It's added to baked goods, soda, those drinks we were just talking about; the juice drinks, sweet tea, coffee drinks, of course the candy bars and the cookies; really surprising to learn that it's even in the more savory foods like the canned soups or the frozen dinners.

MELANIE: Protein bars.

BRANDY: Protein bars: right. You know “health food”. So it's added to all these processed foods for taste, but what it's not added to is the real foods, the broccoli, cauliflower or spinach. So when you're eating mostly processed foods, that's when you're exposed to the high fructose corn syrup. The only way to truly avoid fructose is to eat non-processed real foods. So with my clients, I'm always encouraging them to eat those vegetables, lots of vegetables, low sugar fruits like berries and cantaloupe, even peaches and stay away from those factory foods. Just get them out of your diet.

MELANIE: If you got to unwrap it, it's probably a factory food. If you have a label that you can read, chances are it's a factory food, right? Well, many experts have weighed in about high fructose corn syrup in fatty liver. And here's what Dr. Theodore Friedman said: “High fructose corn syrup can lead to a non-alcoholic fatty liver in several ways. It can increase the amount of fat made by the liver. It can increase inflammation in the liver and affect how it metabolizes glucose. It can also increase abdominal fat that can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.” Clinically, I've noticed clients who've been soda drinkers or those high sugar coffee drinks often have a very slow metabolism. And to get their metabolism to work again, we need to repair the damage that's been done to the liver due to their poor diet.

The liver’s role in breaking down fat and toxins

In our classes at Nutritional Weight and Wellness, we explain to clients that in order to have a well functioning metabolism, they must have a well-functioning liver. The liver helps the body break down the fat and toxins that have been stored as body fat. It's literally the factory that we need to process all the toxins we are assaulted with on a regular basis.

BRANDY: Such a crucial role the liver plays, you know, it's the center of metabolism in our body and it's helping, like you said, it helps convert toxins that we're exposed to from the environment in our, in certain foods that we're consuming into forms that our bodies can eliminate. So if it's busy metabolizing toxins, it doesn't have a lot of time to work on weight loss.

MELANIE: Which is interesting just to, to touch on that. You know, if you think about it, a fatty liver, the fat is accumulating also on the outside of the liver, literally in a waiting line to be processed. You’re listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you're wondering, how can I switch from eating a processed food diet to a healthy, real food diet, let me suggest taking our Nutrition for Weight Loss virtual zoom series that starts July 20th at 6:00 PM. It's a 12-week series that can help you learn step by step how to support your health. After break, Brandy and I will share more details about this series and how to sign up.

BREAK

BRANDY: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. We're offering another Nutrition for Weight Loss series starting July 20th. So this class will be offered virtually through Zoom, which I think is really convenient for these Nutrition for Weight Loss classes. I think it's a great way to stay on track time any time, anywhere, especially during the summer when you might not even be in the state some of the time.

MELANIE: I love it.

BRANDY: So I, I think the virtual class is a good option for the summer and we're offering a special promotion right now. So it's an even better time to sign up. If you sign up before July 17th, we'll knock off $50 off that registration fee.

MELANIE: Wow. It's a screaming deal.

BRANDY: Yeah. Screaming deal. So to sign up, you can give us a call at 651-699-3438, or you can go online and sign yourself up at weightandwellness.com. We're happy to answer all of your questions and get you scheduled for two individual appointments with one of our nutritionist or dietitians. And I think that combination of having the education during class paired with an individual consult is a winning combination to help you succeed because you're, you're learning in class. And then with that appointment time, you can ask all the questions you need, tailor your plan to fit your lifestyle and your personal health needs.

MELANIE: It's wonderful. And you can call 651-699-3438 or go online at weightandwellness.com to get signed up.

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BRANDY: Perfect. Well, before we went on break, we were talking a little bit about the connection between fatty liver disease and the damage it's causing to your liver and how that can impact metabolism and how that can impact weight loss, or at least challenge to lose weight. And I just want you to repeat what you were talking about before we went on break, where you were describing the fat deposits that are building up in the liver and how that impacts metabolism.

MELANIE: So when we get fatty liver, we get striations of fat throughout the liver, which is, you know, not how nature designed it, but also they can see liver deposits that are building up almost in a waiting line is what I like to say outside of the liver. And it's because the fat cannot be metabolized properly if it's so busy trying to deal with toxins, high blood sugars, too many triglycerides. And so it slows your metabolism down because now the liver cannot break down the fat that you're trying to lose. And so it, it, it impacts everything.

BRANDY: Right. So there's kind of like a hierarchy of needs. It prioritizes its functions.

MELANIE: Absolutely. I've seen people with fatty liver who are on a multitude of medications, or like we had mentioned too much alcohol because liver's too busy. It's busy prioritizing what it perceives as toxins.

Processed foods can cause damage to the liver

BRANDY: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So when we think about trying to lose weight, you really need to have a well-functioning metabolism, and hopefully you're making the connection now. It's, it's so much more than just calories in and calories out. We have to think about the health of our liver. And we need to start looking at the quality of those calories and avoid the processed foods that are causing more damage to the liver.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRANDY: And the processed foods are full of refined oils and that high fructose corn syrup that we've already kind of reviewed has a very damaging effect to the liver. Therefore, damaging our metabolism.

MELANIE: Slows our metabolism. Okay listeners, think back. Maybe you've been a soda drinker and a low-fat sweetened yogurt eater. I know I was. So daily, you have sipped on your fancy coffee house mocha full of high fructose corn syrup that put a lot of stress on your liver. We didn't know about this stuff. How many years have you been damaging and inflaming your liver? Well, how long will it take to repair the damage so your metabolism can respond the way you want it to so you can lose weight if you're trying to? Perhaps you grew up on juice boxes full of high fructose corn syrup. Our mothers just didn't realize it was not real juice and that it may affect our metabolism when we became a teen.

BRANDY: Yeah. Well, in speaking of what we knew, or didn't know, I think many people in the past have had this thought that eating fat is bad for our health. And when we're talking about fatty liver disease, I think there's this misconception that eating a lot of fat can lead to this fatty liver condition.

MELANIE: That's a really good point.

BRANDY: Right. Well, it's in the name, you know, it's, it makes sense how people can jump there, but fortunately research has proven that to be wrong. So there's a recent study. This was actually published this year, March 4^th of 2022 out of the University of Barcelona. So this research team found that a high fat diet alone was not enough to cause short term liver disease. However, when they combined that high fat diet with intake of beverages sweetened with liquid fructose, the triglycerides started to, to increase. The fatty deposit started to accumulate in the liver. So beyond the fat deposits in the liver, those high triglycerides themselves increase your risk for cardiovascular disease.

MELANIE: Yes. So if you're thinking of poor fats and high carb diet, you know, like French fries or potato chips, you've got that perfect scenario that can lead to fatty liver. Well, to sum up the research, fructose, especially industrial sucrose and high fructose corn syrup, which is commonly used in all kinds of beverages and processed foods that we've been talking about, it is the driving force behind non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

BRANDY: That's right. So at this point in the show, you're probably asking some questions. “How can I…”

MELANIE: Hopefully not panicking.

BRANDY: Right. Don't panic. Please don't panic. So you you're, you could be thinking, “How do I prevent this? How do I prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease?” And maybe you're thinking, “Well, I've definitely indulged in the coffee drinks. I've definitely been a pop drinker most of my life, or at some phase in my life. How do I repair the damage that I've already caused to my liver?”

How to repair potential damage to the liver

Well I'm here to say it is necessary to avoid high fructose corn syrup at all costs, which means avoiding most processed foods. So we recommend following the Weight and Wellness eating plan, which includes eating real foods. We're talking high quality animal protein with many cups of vegetables and only natural unrefined fats. So fats from things like nuts and seeds or avocados, maybe a little butter. It means maybe giving up some of those processed foods you're used to for breakfast. Just giving your breakfast a makeover could be a nice way to start. So maybe instead of cereal, we're doing eggs and spinach with some butter. Maybe we need to give up the high fructose corn syrup that's in the, the protein shakes or the fancy coffee drinks, or just say no to the prepackaged waffles and the pancakes.

MELANIE: The huge glasses of juice.

BRANDY: Yep.

MELANIE: Changing your diet from that processed, convenient food diet to a real food diet, it's really not easy for a lot of people. Often it's taking just one step at a time. I loved how you said, start with breakfast. It might be as simplest switching from a coffee mocha to just coffee with real cream,

BRANDY: Right. Yeah.

MELANIE: Real cream: delicious, delicious. I used to go to the coffee house and to meet friends and I would do coffee. I, I did, you know, you can do full fat cream. And then I brought my own flavored stevia drops.

BRANDY: Oh, brilliant.

MELANIE: I had to make it a little bougie for myself without all the guilt and the, and the, I knew too much. Or switching from that Coke habit to unsweetened iced tea, or rather than presweetened yogurts, just plain full fat yogurt. And maybe two teaspoons of maple syrup drizzled over it. Or maybe some real fruit like blueberries. Now you're not only removing what's damaging, but you're putting in what's healing and nourishing.

BRANDY: Well, that's a good point. Well, and, and speaking of, you know, giving your breakfast a makeover, one of my favorite recipes to start with clients when they're trying new breakfast ideas is one of our egg bakes. We've got a few recipes on our website, but you're basically taking a few eggs, maybe some nitrate free turkey sausage, adding some sautéed spinach, maybe some sautéed broccoli and peppers that's been, you know, cooked in a little butter or olive oil. And then on the side you can have a half a cup or three quarters of a cup of fresh strawberries.

MELANIE: Yum.

BRANDY: Now that's a hearty breakfast. It's colorful and beautiful. And it's supplying you with the nutrients that your liver needs to heal all while avoiding those foods, the processed foods that are damaging your liver, the high fructose corn syrup, the refined fats.

MELANIE: Love it. That's delicious. You know I, I love to just make a hash with leftovers. So if I have leftover meat that we've grilled; chopping that up and stir, frying it up with whatever vegetables in the fridge I need to use up. Maybe add a little sweet potato or wild rice. It's delicious. And all I have to do is scoop it and warm it up.

BRANDY: Brilliant.

MELANIE: You know, most clients need some support, and they may schedule several appointments with us to get on the real food eating plan habit. It helps maintain the habit when you have someone in your corner helping and coaching and supporting you.

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I have a client story to share: before the pandemic Butch had made several appointments with me because he had been diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver. And we got him on the real food plan. We got rid of the grocery store cookies, the gas station packs of crackers and breakfast cereals and started eating, he started eating meat and vegetables, good natural fat that occurs in nature. And even without an appointment for over two years, he stayed the course. And when he recently retested, he no longer had fatty liver disease at all. And his treatment has just been real food because at the time there was no pharmaceutical medicine that had been developed to repair fatty liver condition. And you know, keeping in mind, these medications have side effects also. So if we can do it naturally, it's less burden on the body. You know, real food really is the answer, Brandy.

BRANDY: I agree. And when, and when we think about the liver and its job to filter toxins, and a lot of pharmaceuticals are recognized as a toxin to your body, this, it seems like it would just put more stress on the liver if there was a pharmaceutical treatment.

MELANIE: Well when you think about it, we were just talking is the liver will prioritize medications. And alcohol over process its normal processes, because it perceives these things even though they may be helpful to us as a toxin. It's not a natural substance. So the liver will prioritize. So there's always some side effect if we can do it naturally.

BRANDY: Definitely.

MELANIE: But you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you found this Dishing Up Nutrition show to be helpful, we invite you to rate and review Dishing Up Nutrition on Apple podcast or Spotify. Your review helps others find the show, especially the show on fatty liver disease. We'll be right back.

BREAK

BRANDY: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you are struggling with a chronic health condition, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, your best answer may be to make an appointment with one of the nutritionists or dietitians at Weight and Wellness. Some insurance plans even support your efforts. So I encourage you to look into that. We can help you schedule a time either online or by phone. And we, we do appointments over Zoom or in person now or the phone. So give us a call at (651) 699-3438. And we'll help you find time to get on the schedule.

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MELANIE: You know, while we were I, on a break you were telling me about a client success story that you had. I want you to share that with our listeners.

BRANDY: Yeah.

MELANIE: Such a great story.

BRANDY: Yeah. This is one of my favorite success stories so far. So I've been seeing this client for about a year now, Kathy, and she first came to me because she was diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And you know, she did not see this coming. She actually went to the ER last summer because she thought she had a stomach bug, you know, doubling over in pain with nausea and stomach aches. So really didn't expect this to be the outcome.

So they, they ran some standard blood work and her, her liver function test came back abnormal. So then they did an ultrasound just to kind of check things out. And that's how the, the diagnosis was confirmed. She had fatty liver. And on the same day, you know, with those blood tests that they ran, they also discovered that she was pre-diabetic.

MELANIE: Oh, this poor woman.

BRANDY: Yeah. This was not a good day for her.

MELANIE: No.

BRANDY: No. So we had some things to work on. And you know, like we were talking before we went on break that there's, there's no pharmaceutical treatment for fatty liver at this point. And what they did to help her was basically send her home with a pamphlet with some dietary recommendations. So…

MELANIE: Along comes Brandy.

BRANDY: That's right. So you can imagine how overwhelmed she was feeling like, how do I, how do I make, how do I make this work? This is a total 180 from my life. So we, during our first appointment, we got to work on a meal plan that made sense that she could follow. We made sure to remove all alcohol, you know, she wasn't much of a drinker anyway, but it's just stress that her liver didn't need at that point. So we just got rid of it. And processed carbohydrates.

MELANIE: Good.

BRANDY: Processed foods. Getting rid of those as much as possible. We even limited starchy carbs for a while just because, you know, they, they, they turn into sugar in the bloodstream and we just wanted to relieve as much stress on the liver as possible. So we, we limited the grains and the legumes and even just cut back on the portion of fruits; focused more on the low sugar fruits, like berries and melons.

And of course water; made sure that she was drinking plenty of filtered water. And so she came back once a month for, I would say four or five months. And we started to see some, some good changes almost immediately. The, the very first follow up I had with her, she, she said the nausea was completely gone.

MELANIE: Wonderful.

BRANDY: The stomach aches were completely gone. I mean, that was the biggest relief for her. So an immediate sign, things were trending in the right direction. Eight months later she's lost 20 pounds.

MELANIE: Oh, that's fantastic.

BRANDY: And swelling in her hands and her feet has disappeared. It was something that she had just kind of learned to live with. She didn't really think was something nutrition could address, but she's in so much, she's feeling so much better. No more pain in her, her hands or her feet. And what I thought was really interesting was she was able to tolerate foods that she thought she was allergic to.

MELANIE: It's fascinating. Fascinating that this happened. What were those foods?

BRANDY: Nuts mostly. So she couldn't eat any, any nut anytime, anywhere. She actually discovered this because she accidentally ate something with nuts in it and was totally unphased by it. So then she did a little experimenting, like I'll have a pecan today. I'll have a macadamia nut. So now nuts are something that she can enjoy, a healthy fat that she can incorporate in her meal plan.

MELANIE: You know, when the, when we give the body what it needs, the body really is designed to heal itself.

BRANDY: That's right.

Recap of preventing or reversing fatty liver

MELANIE: But we have to nourish it and take care of it. So we should do a little recap here. To prevent or reverse a fatty liver diet, it's real food without processed carbs. Then increase healthy fat intake, especially saturated fat. Yes. I said saturated fats, such as healthy foods that have a good fat like coconut oil, a grass fed beef. These are nourishing.

BRANDY: So some of you might be confused about this idea that we need to eat saturated fats, because we've been told for so long that we need to avoid saturated fats and eat a low fat diet. We were told that's what's best for our health. But turns out science does not support this anymore. And we're seeing with our own clients in clinic that we do need adequate fat in our diet to support good health. And saturated fat, especially has been demonized for so long that we've totally ignored the biggest enemy, which is sugar.

MELANIE: Sugar, that's our enemy. And as we mentioned, eliminate any food with high fructose corn syrup. So reading labels to protect yourself is critical. Even ketchup and pickles can have high fructose corn syrup,

BRANDY: Right. So if you find yourself reading a label to see if it has high fructose corn syrup, I mean, that's going to be a good clue. It probably does. Any processed food, high chance that it has high fructose corn syrup. And beyond the, the sugar, we have to start thinking about other hidden sources of sugar, like those processed carbohydrates. So start by eliminating the white and even maybe the whole grain flour products like the breads and the pastas. I think that's a great start. So these products will increase your blood sugar levels and that puts stress on the liver, which can result in high triglycerides, which we've been talking about. It does promote fatty liver.

MELANIE: Yeah. Yeah. And it's not something we think about flour, you know, a biscuit as being high sugar.

BRANDY: Right.

MELANIE: Nutrition to heal the body can be simple and not overwhelming. Simply remove the bad stuff. Add in the good stuff. Then finally consume anti-inflammatory liver healing foods like low sugar fruit, the cantaloupe and the berries, vegetables, nuts, seeds, animal protein like chicken and wild caught fish or grass fed beef. Bison is a good choice. Then add in healthy fats like olive oil, macadamia nuts, avocados, coconut oil, grass fed butter.

BRANDY: Sounds delicious. And I think those healthy fats pair very nicely with some of my favorite vegetables, the cruciferous vegetables. And that's another thing you can do to support your liver: focus on the cruciferous family like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, even the leafy veggies like kale and collard greens and cabbage. One of my favorites, arugula.

MELANIE: Love arugula.

BRANDY: Peppery, flavorful, leafy green. Just love that in some salads. You can find a lot of great recipes on how to prepare these vegetables on our website, weightandwellness.com. Just browse the website. Pick out a few things. It takes the thinking out of meal planning and just ensures you're getting a tried and true delicious recipe.

MELANIE: So we shared, we did share a lot of information. So when you boil it down, keep it very simple. If it grew up in nature and it stayed pretty close to nature, you can name the plant you plucked it from, or the mother it came from, it's probably going to be a real food choice. And real food supports your liver.

BRANDY: Right.

MELANIE: Lots of water. Move your body. That helps the liver to detoxify, the cruciferous vegetables. Right now we have farmer's markets here in Minnesota. And so I get bags full when I go to the farmer's market and I'm rinsing, washing and freezing. So I will always have some, and I put a good cup or two of vegetables for each my husband and I, and we have a smoothie once a day that…

BRANDY: Oh, that's wonderful.

MELANIE: The last one, we said, arugula, I put arugula in there cause it was going to a little sketchy. And I thought, well, I freeze it because what we're paying for food right now. Not wasting anything It's also great: the arugula, if you stir fry it in some bacon fat; nitrate free bacon fat. Stir fry that arugula up. Get it a little crispy. Surprisingly, it's very delicious.

BRANDY: Yeah, that's one of my favorite ways to prepare vegetables, just using some rendered bacon fat from nitrate free bacon and adding some cauliflower, broccoli, a little pepper, onion. Oh, it's amazing.

MELANIE: Especially if you crumble that bacon on top of it that you did cook. I mean everything's better with bacon.

BRANDY: I think so.

MELANIE: So our goal at Nutritional Weight and Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through real food. It's a simple yet powerful message. Eating real food is life changing. You want to take care of yourself today. Have a great day.