diet and cirrhosis

[Daisie07]

Hello - I am wondering if anyone had tips for a healthy diet to maintain compensated cirrhosis - I’m overweight and have to loose weight as quickly and safely as possible. Is it just the same principles as recommended for NAFLD do you know? Anyone know is sweeteners are an issue for the liver to process? Thanks ☺️

[Gus63]

Hi Daisie

When I was diagnosed with decompensated ARLD I found diet really difficult to get my head around.

I'm not a dietician so these are my personal thoughts:

Obviously no salt or as little as possible, some breads really hi in salt. Chapatis are good. Tried baking my own bread.. a complete failure !

Sugar was a difficult one. It was difficult but I got there in the end. Used Erythritol sweetener (you can by on amazon) as I hate the taste of stevia and these types of sweeteners. My view was it was better than refined sugar. My research indicated that there was no thing as 'good sugar'- in the body the chains are the same. So sugar is sugar whether it comes from bee or plant. My opinion only - others may have different opinion.

Another interesting thing I found was if you eat your vegetables first it lines your stomach making abortion of carbohydrates slower - a good thing (why many cultures have vegetables starters like anti-pasti)

The best advice my consultant gave was stay away from processed foods where possible. I take that to mean actually mainly super processed foods .. so if there is a long list of ingredients that I don't understand like E numbers and starches, stabilisers, preservatives etc (the list is monstrous)..I try to avoid.

It's tough at first. So to bore you further :

1. I stopped sugar and transfered to sugar substitute for hot drinks then later quit the substitute.

2 Quit fizzy drinks obviosly- reduced fruit juice to one glass a day. Soft drinks was plenty of filtered water and to taste squeeze in a bit of fresh lemon or lime. Fruits were berries not bananas (high in sugar)

3. Don't add salt to anything (I did use a little if boiling pasta- brown wholegrain of course)

2. reduce carb intake. So say breakfastmayb -2 or 3 boiled eggs ( I like them runny) and steamed asparagus to dip in. Asparagus can get expensive so could have another vegetable instead No potatoes or chips. Lose the bread if poss.

Quit white rice- small potions of wholemeal brown I found better.

Fewer chips/ potatoes etc.

Lose the snaking crap like crisps etc. Or at least reduce .. I like cellary so had that in fridge with 'healthy ' dips.

So the list goes on. When I got over the shock of needing to do a 180 % change I found what I put in my body really interesting. I spent a bit of time beating myself up if I went off track. Now I just accept that there are days it's not perfect!! But some of the above really helped me.

Remember (and this helps me) I was sick with an illness and the right food is part of my medication.

I could bore on forever this just scratches the surface- but hope this helps. Happy to share more info if you like. Hope I haven't scared you off !

Really good luck.

Gus

[diage in reply to Gus63]

lots of common sense

[Gus63 in reply to Gus63]

Sorry 'absorbtion ' not abortion- spell check !!!

[Confused2024 in reply to Gus63]

Gus - I have heard "no fizzy drinks" before but I asked my hepatologist and she wasn't aware of why we could not have those...what is the reasoning for you if you do not mind me asking? This is not the first time I have read to avoid carbonated beverages so perhaps each person is unique?

[Gus63 in reply to Confused2024]

Hi. Sorry. Wasn't really talking about all fizzy drinks. Mainly all the crap ones. Full of sugar or aspartamine. Coke, fantas, iron brew- that kind of stuff. I drink fizzy carbonated water sometimes. Had a coke or rather a swig of one a few weeks ago. Hadn't had one for two years.. tasted disgusting 🫣 I knew it would but tried it anyway.. bonkers !! 🤣

[Liver135 in reply to Gus63]

what stage or you

[Gus63 in reply to Liver135]

Hi So I was diagnosed with decompensated cirrhosis in September 22. Then HCC liver cancer in November 22 and Diabetes 2 in March 23.

Transplant on 12th July 23.😁

[Daisie07 in reply to Gus63]

That’s amazing Gus63 thanks so much for sharing all that good advice - much appreciated

[LilacPoppy]

Finding this interesting as I have recently had my blood sugars hit the type 2 range. A lot of what Gus63 has written is pertinent to type 2 as well. From my research I have found that vegetables, protein, and fats slow the absorption of carbohydrates and sugars and ALL carbohydrates and most other foods end up as glucose to fuel your cells.

The liver 'dumps' glycogen into your blood stream to help cope with certain situations, one of which that I found surprising as I didn't know was to wake you up. Hence why diabetics suffer something called "The Dawn Phenomenon", give it a Google.

The use of artificial sweetners is a bit controversial. A lot of people would prefer a little of the real thing and many find things like Stevia doesn't agree with them. There are 2 schools of thought on sugar & carbs:

Everything in Moderation

&

Never eat sugar, carbs, most fruits, processed food, etc.

I am not someone who can cut everything out of my life, but I have severely cut back and lost over a stone in 5 weeks.

I take Metformin, which seems to agree with me, and this suppresses glycogen production in the liver, something a fatty liver produces a lot of, and glucose absorption in the gut.

I am NOT talking about alcohol, but food wise, we all have a few bad days. Don't beat yourself up if you eat a baddie, but clean eating is much easier than people give credit for.

I drink black tea, have done all my life, fizzy water, again used to drink Pepsi Max and gave up some decades ago, I have some coffee pods that do have some milk and sugar, the only way I can drink coffee as black coffee makes me sick.

I tried a Pepsi Max the other day as I needed a cold drink. OMG, it was so sweet. Never again.

I think it's more about being mindful and cutting out the really bad stuff like sweets, crisps, alcohol, any processed food that may have hidden amounts of salt and sugar, etc. Eat certain sweet fruits in moderation, research what foods are carbs and again be mindful about eating them. Whole grain bread not white or wholewheat, that said I still eat white rice or pasta as I cannot stomach wholewheat. Obviously we have to be more mindful of fat than diabetics without liver issues, but overall the diet is pretty similar.

All this said, I am going to the cinema on Friday, for the first time is many years, with a friend. I will have popcorn, because no cinema visit is complete without it 😉😃