To Heal Fatty Liver, Eat This Fat

We’ve all heard the warnings that fat is unhealthy and that it causes nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

But a study that has just been presented at the Liver Meeting 2021, held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, suggests that eating a specific type of fat is actually extremely effective at reversing NAFLD.

The Mediterranean diet includes a substantial amount of oil in the form of olive oil, fish, and sesame oil.

But people who eat the Mediterranean diet are less likely than the general population to develop NAFLD.

This fact casts doubt on the theory that a high intake of fat causes NAFLD, and it was one of the motivating factors behind this study.

Accordingly, the authors reviewed studies that had previously been conducted to determine whether healthy fats could reduce liver fat and thus the severity of NAFLD.

The researchers found 22 studies, all published between 2008 and 2020.

They discovered that the following three strategies improved liver fat, liver damage, fasting glucose levels, insulin metabolism, and cholesterol:

1. Supplementation with polyunsaturated fats in pill form.

2. Replacing saturated and trans fats with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats in the diet.

3. Replacing cooking oils based on saturated and trans fats with those based on polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.

There is a major caveat, however. The researchers admit that previous studies supported the Mediterranean diet as the best diet to prevent and treat NAFLD. But the Mediterranean diet actually contains fairly little polyunsaturated fat in the form of omega-6 vegetable oils.

Its common sources of polyunsaturated fats are omega-3 fish oil and sesame oil, which has just as much monounsaturated fat as omega-6 polyunsaturated oil.

Therefore, the best diet against NAFLD contains fairly little omega-6 polyunsaturated fat.

Moreover, another review of the literature published in the journal Nutrients earlier in 2021 found that people who consumed too much omega-6 compared to omega-3 oils were more likely to have severe NAFLD.

As a result, the best strategy at the moment is to replace saturated and trans fats in your diet with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats but ensure that the polyunsaturated variety consists of more omega-3 than omega-6.

But changing out your fat is only one piece of the puzzle to completely reverse fatty liver. Thousands of readers have already rid themselves of NAFLD by applying the simple steps explained here…