Changing Country Heals Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

It’s well known that the typical American diet, high in fat, sugar, processed foods, and red meat, poses a risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

So, what should we eat instead to tackle NAFLD?

A team of researchers has tested the effects of a diet from another continent on NAFLD. Their results, reported in the journal Nutrients, are breathtaking.

The authors of this study knew that the effects of Asian diets on NAFLD had not been properly tested in good scientific studies, so they decided to close this gap in the literature.

To be precise, they wanted to know whether the Japanese diet could limit liver damage caused by diet and other lifestyle factors.

They recruited 136 patients with NAFLD and measured how serious their liver damage was using a new system called the Agile 3+ score. This score indicates whether one’s liver is on a trajectory to better health or worse liver damage.

They checked their participants’ diets using a 12-part Japanese diet index, and they also measured their muscle mass.

Muscle mass is considered to be important because muscle helps with glucose metabolism. Low glucose metabolism is a risk factor for NAFLD, so low muscle mass may be an NAFLD risk too.

Among the participants, about half were men, half were women, and 34% had a medium to high risk of liver damage, according to the Agile 3+ score system.

Let’s examine the findings.

1. Patients with medium to high-risk scores were, on average, 15 years older than those with low-risk scores. They also had more cases of diabetes and high blood pressure.

2. The Japanese diet index score was linked with higher intake of protein, potassium, magnesium, iron, folate, vitamin C, beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, and dietary fiber. For women, it was also associated with higher intake of calcium, cholesterol, and salt.

3. The higher the Japanese diet score was, the lower the risk was of having a medium to high-risk Agile 3+ score.

4. Among specific foods, eating more soybeans, fish, shellfish, and seaweed also lowered the chance of having a medium to high-risk score.

5. There wasn’t a clear link between muscle mass and the Agile 3+ scores, but people whose muscle mass was in the top 25% for their gender had a lower risk of having a medium to high-risk score.

6. The Japanese diet score didn’t have a clear link with muscle mass, but eating more soybeans and foods made from soybeans was linked to higher muscle mass.

Therefore, eating the Japanese diet is a good way to prevent liver damage due to NAFLD.

This diet includes foods like whole grain rice, seafood, soy products, vegetables, fruits, fermented foods like miso and natto, soba (buckwheat noodles), thinly sliced beef, and green tea.

There is a simpler way to heal NAFLD than taking on a completely new diet. Thousands of readers have done just that using the simple lifestyle changes explained here…