Fatty Liver

[grazy101]

I just found out DH liver is very fatty : We do eat a lot of TF. Bacon, butter and raw milk. Is the TF making his liver worst? Or, is it more beneficial since those are good fats.

[tracykg]

: Wondering the same thing, too. My husband has a fatty liver, and conventional treatment would be to watch the fats. We are not completely TF, but more whole foods, less processed, though all those things creep into our diet. He doesn't see the danger of a fatty liver, but I know it's serious. Anyone else?

[pampered_mom]

I wish I had more information on this for you...as it is my notes are less detailed than I'd like. At our recent local WAPF meeting we were discussion iodine. Based upon what I understand, iodine plays a crucial role in our bodies in the usage of fats. As such, those of us who eat higher fat diets need more iodine in our diets. In my foggy mind I remember there being a side discussion on fatty liver with this particular tidbit of info, but unfortunately I didn't take better notes during the discussion.

I'm not sure if anyone else out there has any more detail on this for you. In the meantime, though, I'll try to see if I can russle up some more specific information.

[cristeen]

Anecdotal evidence at best, but maybe it'll help.

I was diagnosed with a fatty liver about 6 months ago. It was only borderline, but the dr wanted me to come back and test in a few months. By eating sugar-free, grain-free and soy-free, by the time I tested again the problem had corrected itself.

[HerbanGirl]

Originally Posted by cristeen

Anecdotal evidence at best, but maybe it'll help.

I was diagnosed with a fatty liver about 6 months ago. It was only borderline, but the dr wanted me to come back and test in a few months. By eating sugar-free, grain-free and soy-free, by the time I tested again the problem had corrected itself.

Interesting...:

[grazy101]

We should definitely try reducing the grain intake... Sugar, if we are talking about the white stuff, we are good. We only use maple syrup or honey. Soy, I hope fermented ones are OK.... Grain is definitely our problem. Since we are also trying to lose some weight, that is definitely a good thing!!

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by grazy101

We should definitely try reducing the grain intake... Sugar, if we are talking about the white stuff, we are good. We only use maple syrup or honey. Soy, I hope fermented ones are OK.... Grain is definitely our problem. Since we are also trying to lose some weight, that is definitely a good thing!!

My diet is refined sugar-free (I do eat small amount of honey or maple), grain-free (this includes all processed corn products, although I do eat whole corn), and processed soy free (I eat soy sauce, miso or edamame on occasion). I do still eat potatoes (once or twice a week). Essentially the three restrictions combined means I make just about everything from scratch. A really great cookbook for this is Grain Free Gourmet, they use these same guidelines, plus lactose restriction. Essentially, I concentrate on eating things as close to nature as possible, lots of meats and produce, eggs, some dairy.

[provocativa]

Herbal treatments for liver ailments are dandelion root tincture or infusion, milk thistle seed tincture or infusion. Beets are also a liver tonic. You could make the nt beet kvass, and one can also purchase beet powder. I've been going to get some for dd1, whose favorite color is purple. At her imaginary friend's house all the food is purple, and she needs liver support anyway. When people do a liver cleanse, they generally do a non-fat diet all day, to build up bile, and then down a great big glass of olive oil and lemon juice. That's for gallstones and similar bile duct clogging. I would think you can do some googling and try to find out if there is a liver cleanse for fatty liver.

[bluets]

eat your (good) bacteria. ferment, ferment, ferment.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/en...RVAbstractPlus

there seems to be some suggestion in the (mainstream) medical literature that probiotics may be helpful in addressing live diseases.

[grazy101]

yeah! Thanks for sending me the link. It is always much easier to have readings to back up my request for DH to eat other non mainstream food.

[ChristieB]

Here's an interesting article I saw recently. It's written about kids, but I think it's pertinent to adults who don't drink. It goes along with what Cristeen experienced. The way she describes her diet, it sounds pretty low-glycemic. Keep in mind that what you eat with a food also affects its glycemic index. So, for example, if you eat potatoes, be sure to eat them with plenty of butter, and some animal protein.

I would guess that grains might have some effect aside from their glycemic index. In our family, we mostly stay away from grains, and we're healthier for it.

In addition to the Grain-Free Gourmet cookbook (which uses a lot of almond flour, btw - not saying that's bad, just an fyi), there is Cooking with Coconut Flour, by Bruce Fife. We really like baking with coconut flour. I don't use sugar in his recipes, though (which he calls for most of the time). I use a small amount of honey, and add a little stevia sometimes to make it sweeter.

There are also the recipes on pecanbread.com, as well as scdiet.org and scdrecipe.com. The SCD recipes are really helpful when eating grain-free, even if you're not doing the SCD.

As an aside, cutting back on/cutting out grains and sugar can also lower your triglycerides.

I hope you and he can get a handle on this!

[ChristieB]

I forgot to give some other links. Here are some links to coconut flour recipes (from Bruce Fife's book).

http://www.scdrecipe.com/recipes.html

http://www.simplycoconut.com/coconut_flour_recipes.htm

http://www.simplycoconut.com/Coco%20Flour%20Recipes.pdf

Some recipes are probably repeated. I haven't taken the time to check.

You want to follow a recipe written for coconut flour, don't just substitute coconut flour for some other flour in a recipe. It will be too dry.

Of course, you may not be at all interested in all of this info on grain-free baking , but hey, I'm nursing and have some time on my hands. Besides, we think it's so great I like to share.