New to NAFLD

[KateH1972]

Having recently had an abnormal GGT, I was sent for an ultrasound which discovered I had NAFLD. This is despite following a low fat, low carb and low dairy diet for 2 years to tackle symptoms of IBS and lose weight. The only fat I have is found naturally in meat (I remove all skin), I don't eat bread so don't have butter or margarine, and I cook with one-cal spray.

My diet mainly consists of fruit, veg, salad and protein - my only dairy is fat free natural yogurt and (rarely) a small portion of cheese. I occasionally have pasta but limit this due to IBS. I drink very little alcohol , maybe one glass of wine a week. So I can't understand why I have fatty liver.

All my other bloods come back normal with the exception of Vitamin D deficiency so have started Vitamin D Protocol.

I'm finding it almost impossible to lose weight (I need to lose another stone) despite my strict diet and without removing all meat from my diet, I can't see any other way of reducing my fat intake.

I'm at a loss to know what to do?

[briccolone]

Hi Kate did anyone advise you on a low fat low carb dairy free diet. I doubt whether this will aid fatty liver. The main thing is to avoid sugar . I guess you're doing that and you're not drinking much alcohol. The main thing for fatty liver is weight and exercise. You could try the 5:2 diet which I found helpful. I lost about 10 kgs in 6 weeks and made a big difference to weight around the tummy. Give it a try.

[KateH1972 in reply to briccolone]

Thanks for replying Briccolone

I suffer from IBS which is aggravated by dairy and wheat, so I avoid eating these where I can, so the carbs I eat come mainly from veg. I've been following a low fat diet in an aim to lose weight and my sugar intake is low, also in an attempt to lose weight.

Any sauces I make to go with food are made from scratch so I know what goes in - I will occasionally use honey as a sweetener in a home made stir-fry sauce but that's probably only once a week. I do eat rather a lot of fruit though and I know this is high in natural sugars.

I'm not big on exercise - I do ballroom dancing once a week for a couple of hours and we go walking every weekend and I swim a couple of times a month but because my Vitamin D is so low, I have bone, muscle and joint pain, so am restricted from doing anything too high impact.

Despite following my diet, my weight has probably stuck at the same point for around 12 months.

Do you think I should try cutting down my fruit?

[briccolone in reply to KateH1972]

Hmm,

sounds like you're doing the right things really. Interestingly, I attended my wife's GP session this morning and something similar came up in the discussion. My wife has equally aches and pains to yourself and is being sent for screening of wilsons disease-she has slightly raised ALT. The low vitamin D may well be a factor. I would really give the 5:2 diet a go-fruit has a lot of carbs/sugar.

[KateH1972]

Thank you for replying Briccolone

I will have a go at cutting down the fruit and see if this has any impact on the scales - hopefully an drop on the scales equates to better GGT results.

It's going to make my morning yogurt very boring though- might have to have see if there are any seeds that I can add to make it more interesting, though I guess these probably contain some oils/fat?

I'll let you know

[Hidden]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum, The British Liver Trust have a publication 'Diet and liver disease' that you may find useful to look at, see here;

britishlivertrust.org.uk/wp...

However, please note that this publication is for general information only.

There are some special considerations you may need to make in your diet to stay nutritionally well and to help to manage your condition. Some of these are specific to certain liver diseases, others relate to how advanced the liver disease is.

As a charity we cannot make specific recommendations, so it would be advisable to discuss starting any new diet plan with your doctor first.

In addition, it may be a good idea to ask for a referral to a hospital registered dietician for more specific advice and a diet plan.

Warm wishes,

Rebecca