Blog 3171 – 07.06.2024

Fifty Ways To Lose Your Liver (Or Five Ways Not To)

Singer/songwriter Paul Simon wrote and sang a song that some years ago became quite a hit, Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover. Soon after that song came out you would hear people doing a dyslectic take on the title of the song that I have chosen as the title for this piece.

A year ago last January after an extensive ultrasound examination at the recommendation of my primary care physician I was told I had a fatty liver. This is a condition that can and usually does, if unaddressed, lead to sorosis of the liver and ultimately liver failure. I tried to watch my diet, exercise and failed miserably. I was not motivated enough even by the threat of death. Three months before my seventy-third birthday last year I became a first time grandpa. Every time I see or hold that wonderful little girl I am motivated to do everything I can to be a part of her life for as long as I possibly can. Talk about your great motivations.

On the twenty-fourth of this month I have an appointment to see a liver specialist, but more important than that I am already committed to losing the fat in my liver so that when I do check-out, hopefully many years from now, it will not be losing my liver that punches my ticket. The experts do not always agree on every point, but all seem to agree that fatty liver is caused by eating too much of the wrong stuff.

One doctor said he had seen fatty liver completely reversed in hundreds of his patients by merely avoiding seven things in their diets:

1. Avoid sugar in all its forms

2. Avoid sweetened soft drinks, even artificially sweetened ones because artificial sweeteners make your liver work harder to filter them out.

3. Avoid fruit, especially fruit juices for they are full of natural sugar

4. Avoid grains, all grains, wheat, corn, rice, oats , etc.

5. Avoid all industrial seed oils (corn, canola, soy bean, sunflower, etc.), instead use olive oil, or butter, even animal fat is better for you.

6. (Bonus) Avoid between meal snacks during your eight hour eating window

That last bonus avoid bit is the most important way to avoid losing your liver to fatty liver disease. Intermittent fasting is what it takes to signal your liver to start burning fat. Many of us are already fasting eight or ten hours a day from our evening meal to breakfast (break fast). The doctor recommends that we extent that fast to twelve to sixteen hours to give our liver a chance to start burning away fat deposits that the body holds onto as an emergency store for lean times. Snacking between meals prevents the liver from burning excess fat between meals. I intend to make breakfast and an early supper my two meals in my eight hour eating window to also allow time between those meals for my liver to do its job of burning fat and filtering my blood.

If lean is what we want to be and stay we need to reset our liver to fat burning mode and avoid over working it filtering out the things that we should not be eating in the first place.

If you are as I am in it for the long haul, carrying a lot of extra weight is the last thing we want.

Your friend and fellow traveler.

David White