Liver Recovery Diet

The liver is a vital organ that cleanses the blood of toxic substances, regulates blood sugar levels, and is involved in digestion and blood clotting. In diseases such as hepatitis, steatohepatitis, malignant and benign tumors, it is necessary to follow a diet. After surgical interventions, therapeutic nutrition is also required, including products for liver restoration.

What kind of food harms the liver?

The liver is a large gland involved in digestion due to the formation of bile in it. This green liquid breaks down large droplets of fat from food into smaller ones. This emulsification accelerates the processing of lipids by the pancreatic enzyme.

With hepatitis, fatty degeneration, after removal of a part of the liver affected by a tumor, it is necessary to spare this digestive gland. Doctors prescribe diet No. 5 according to Pevzner.

Basic principles of nutrition in liver diseases:

1. Foods rich in saturated fat should be avoided, especially if you have fatty liver.
2. Proteins are required in the required amount (0.8-1.5 grams per kg of body weight), but not in excess.
3. Food should be as easy to digest as possible.

Excess saturated fats are bad for the liver and gallbladder, as more bile needs to be produced to digest them. In addition, lipid-rich foods are contraindicated in people with fatty degeneration (steatohepatitis). This condition can turn into cirrhosis in the absence of treatment and diet. After all, cells overflowing with fat burst, and coarse scar tissue develops in their place.

Protein is a building material needed by the body. However, with its excess, putrefaction occurs in the intestines and toxic substances are absorbed from it. Indole, skatole, cresol, phenol, cadaverine, putrescine load the liver, as it oxidizes and binds these compounds.

Normal digestion of food is important for liver health, as the decomposition of undigested residues serves as food for bad microflora. Harmful microorganisms produce toxins that are absorbed into the blood. Therefore, food intolerances should be taken into account and unsuitable ones that cause intestinal disorders should be excluded.

Contribute to the disruption of the functions of the liver diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, such as:

1. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
2. hypoacid gastritis.
3. Spasm of the sphincter of Oddi, insufficient production of bile.

With a lack of enzymes of lipase, amylase, trypsin and chymotrypsin, food is not properly digested and absorbed. Usually, patients have fatty stools. A decrease in the acidity of the stomach contributes to the decay and decomposition of food, especially protein. Therefore, with hypoacid gastritis, betaine hydrochloride is indicated with food, and with a lack of enzymes - Ermital, Pancreatin, Mezim.

With poor bile secretion, drugs are recommended - Ursodeoxycholic acid (Livodex, Urdox, Ursosan, Ursofalk), Allochol. They prevent putrefactive processes.

Foods harmful to the liver:

1. Smoked products, preservation.
2. Chocolate.
3. Aged cheeses.
4. Fat meat.
5. Fried foods are a source of free radicals that increase inflammation.
6. Flour.

Smoked foods contain many harmful substances. Dried sausages, fish (especially mackerel) are a source of histamine, an allergy mediator, which is already characteristic of liver diseases. In addition, many substances are spent on the neutralization of this substance, which are necessary to prevent fatty infiltration in steatohepatosis.

Chocolate disrupts the activity of liver enzymes.

Aged cheeses are a source of histamine, which binds lipotropic compounds necessary for normal lipid metabolism.

Fatty foods are a big burden.

Fried food contributes to the process of peroxidation, which is already enhanced in hepatitis and hepatosis, cirrhosis. Free radical oxidation leads to massive death of hepatocytes, scarring of functionally active tissue.

Starchy foods and sweets are especially harmful for fatty liver. In addition to disrupting fat metabolism, these products contribute to the reproduction of harmful intestinal microflora.

Foods that help the liver recover

Hepatitis, steatosis, cirrhosis are serious diseases that disrupt the vital activity of the whole organism and require diet therapy. The food that a person eats has a very strong effect on the liver, and this relationship is close.

Foods that are good for liver repair are foods that are easy to digest and contain the right vitamins and minerals. The diet should exclude harmful elements.

What you need to eat to restore the liver:

1. Cottage cheese, acidophilus, fermented milk products with a fat content of not more than 5-10%. Contains choline.
2. Beets are a source of betaine and fiber.
3. Pumpkin and zucchini.
4. Fresh cabbage - lipoic acid.
5. Linseed, olive, borage oil, pumpkin seeds.
6. Apples, berries - blueberries, cranberries.
7. Vegetables.
8. Enteral nutrition - Nutrison, Nutridrink, Modulen - diet after liver resection, surgery, exhaustion after oncological diseases.

Cottage cheese is a complete source of protein. Therefore, doctors recommend that patients with liver disease consume about 200 grams of this product. Low-fat cottage cheese contains choline to restore cells and break down fats in them. In addition, lactic acid in cottage cheese prevents the formation of putrefactive products in the intestines and unloading the liver. Microorganisms partially helped break down proteins and lactose in milk.

What foods help the liver recover? Acidophilus contains many lactic acid bacteria that eliminate putrefaction in the intestines, unloading the detoxification system. These microorganisms also perform a digestive function.

Beets are a source of betaine, a healthy food for liver recovery . This lipotropic substance, like choline, helps to use fat for cells and improve lipid metabolism. In addition, beets contain fiber, which binds toxins and removes them from the intestines.

Pumpkin, pumpkin seed oil - products that help the liver recover. Recommended for patients with viral, toxic and alcoholic hepatitis, fatty degeneration. Contains fiber that accelerates the elimination of liver-bound hormones and toxic substances.

A liver repair diet should include fresh cabbage - a source of vitamin U - lipoic acid. This compound, along with choline and betaine, improves fat metabolism in cells, and also helps the healing of stomach ulcers. Especially useful for fatty degeneration (steatosis). With fiber intolerance, only cabbage juice can be consumed.

Linseed, olive oil have a choleretic effect, improve digestion, and prevent putrefactive processes. Contain unsaturated fatty acids that help disturbed fat metabolism. Nutrition for liver recovery should include such oils.

Apples contain pectin, which binds toxic substances in the intestines. The diet after liver surgery may include baked apples.

Berries are also a source of pectin. Blueberries, cranberries and other berries contain benzoic acid, which has an antiseptic effect in the intestines and prevents putrefactive processes.

Vegetables are a source of fiber that binds bilirubin, hormones metabolized and sulfated by the liver, and accelerates their excretion. With a lack of dietary fiber, harmful microorganisms decompose compounds that were in a bound and safe form. As a result, these substances are again absorbed into the bloodstream, entering the portal vein of the liver, providing it with unnecessary work and increasing intoxication.

Enteral nutrition - ready-made mixtures in the most digestible form, prescribed to patients in a state of exhaustion after chemotherapy, operations to remove tumors. The diet after liver chemoembolization, resection and other operations can only be based on mixtures such as Nutrisone, Nutridrink, etc. Ideal for weight gain in malnutrition, after suffering viral infections, with cirrhosis.

Products that help restore the liver help to significantly alleviate the condition of hepatitis, cholangitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis.

What to eat to restore the liver?

With liver diseases, cereals, especially buckwheat, oatmeal, can be included in the diet. They contain valuable fiber. Semolina, legumes contain a lot of phytic acid, which binds calcium, which is undesirable in liver diseases. Indeed, under these conditions, blood clotting is already reduced.

Lean meats - chicken, turkey, lean pork and beef are allowed.

Pasta can also be eaten, but cereals are preferable, because. contain fiber.

Diet for liver restoration - menu:

1.       Breakfast - cottage cheese with low-fat (10%) sour cream.
2.       Lunch - vegetable soup or borscht.
3.       Snack - pumpkin puree.
4.       Boiled fish with vegetables, vinaigrette or coleslaw.

Conclusion

A more detailed menu for liver restoration will be recommended by the doctor after a complete examination. Diet can cure fatty degeneration, which is characteristic not only for obese people. Nutrition is very important for maintaining a healthy liver.

Diet to restore the liver - video