The modern rhythm of life: stress, poor nutrition, alcohol abuse, smoking - extremely negatively affects the condition of internal organs. In particular, the liver suffers. According to statistics, in recent years, the proportion of toxic hepatitis is growing. And this disease is directly related to taking medications, malnutrition, drinking alcohol. What you can’t eat with a sick liver and an approximate diet of proper nutrition - all this is described in the article.
Diseases of the liver and gall bladder
In our body, the liver and gall bladder are adjacent, and the functioning of one organ is closely related to the proper functioning of the other. So the list of what you can’t eat with a sick liver is almost equivalent to what is forbidden for use with gall bladder dysfunction. At the first stages of the development of liver diseases, the patient practically does not experience any discomfort. Symptoms usually appear when a pathology has already developed and requires special treatment. Hepatologists (doctors who treat liver) usually prescribe hepatoprotectors and nutrition on medical table No. 5. This is the name of a special diet, the menu of which includes only products for a diseased liver. Diet is the main key to recovery from liver disease. Depending on the diagnosis, some patients will have to adhere to proper nutrition for the rest of their lives. If the patient decides to eat dangerous foods with a diseased liver, then an exacerbation of a chronic disease awaits him.
The main danger lies in the fact that almost all diseases of the body: toxic hepatitis, fibrosis, hemangiomas - sooner or later lead to a precirrotic state, and then to the development of cirrhosis. And this, in turn, is an irreversible and fatal condition. Only a liver transplant can help - but this is a very complex and expensive operation. In addition, the donor organ may not take root. So it is better to thoroughly study the list of what you should not eat with a sick liver, and not to violate it.
Causes of liver disease
You can highlight the most common reasons why liver pathologies develop:
- Unhealthy diet and an abundance of fat in the diet for many years. This is a direct way for healthy organ cells to begin to be replaced by fatty ones. The longer the patient eats improperly, the more damage he causes to the liver. In addition, an abnormal outflow of bile develops, over time, gallstone disease can be diagnosed - and this, in turn, can lead to resection (removal) of the gallbladder. In this case, the patient will be forced to follow an even stricter diet than table number 5.
- Alcohol abuse. Who does not know that alcoholics often die of cirrhosis? But this can also happen to people who are quite safe-looking, who simply got used to regularly “relaxing” with the help of impressive dosages of drinks, which include ethyl alcohol.
- Infectious diseases, in particular hepatitis C, are another common liver damage factor. Without the availability of appropriate therapy, which should be accompanied by a strict diet, you can not hope for recovery.
- Parasites that are located in the tissues of the liver and gall bladder. An experienced doctor usually always checks the patient for parasites - for this it is enough to carry out just a few simple tests. After the diagnosis, you should undergo a short treatment that will help get rid of the parasites once and for all.
The main prohibitions for liver disease
In the modern world, liver diseases are becoming more common, it is associated with toxic, viral and drug stresses on the body. The liver, like a filter, protects the body from poisons, takes the whole blow on itself. The most common class of organ pathologies is chronic hepatitis. Against the background of the development of the disease, the patient may not give any complaints, just feel weak and unclear kind of malaise. Over time, he feels heaviness in the right hypochondrium, suffers from an digestive disorder - for this reason he goes to the doctor, as a result of which he receives a diagnosis and recommendations.
The main prohibitions for liver diseases:
- establish a strict drinking regime (refusal of alcohol and some other drinks);
- strict food regimen (nutrition rules on table No. 5);
- taking special medications.
The liver, with the development of various pathologies, increases in size, and fatty degeneration of the organ begins. As a result, the deposition (conservation) of glycogen is disrupted, immunity is reduced, carbohydrate metabolism is impaired. As the disease progresses, each body system suffers, a person feels worse and worse. Unless you change your diet and take other measures to restore the organ, cirrhosis will develop over time and death will occur. Death from cirrhotic disease is very painful. It is preceded by hepatic encephalopathy, during which the abdomen swells to a large size, the patient suffers from oppression of consciousness: speech connectivity, fine motor skills are disturbed, drowsiness, loss of consciousness occurs. All this can be avoided if you timely start eating according to the rules of the menu for a sick liver. Diet can be varied and even tasty, if you learn how to cook and show imagination.
What to eat with a sick liver: a list of products
The list is rather big; you can cook many dishes from these products. Allowed products for a sick liver (during an exacerbation of the disease) and dishes from them:
- include lipotropic foods in the diet: cottage cheese with a minimum percentage of fat, whey, boiled buckwheat porridge;
- diet soups cooked in vegetable broths;
- as a dressing for dishes and sauces, it is permissible to use sour cream with a low percentage of fat content, milk or cream;
- bread is allowed, but only in dried form or in the form of crackers (without spices and with a minimum of salt), not more than 100 grams per day;
- low-fat varieties of meat and fish;
- inedible cookies (no more than 100 g per day);
- cereals on the water: semolina, oatmeal, buckwheat, rice;
- thin boiled vermicelli from durum wheat;
- any dairy products with a low percentage of fat content;
- butter - in scanty amounts and not every day;
- you can eat egg white;
- a small amount of natural vegetable oil (a couple of tablespoons per day) - at the same time, do not fry food on it, but add it to salads or cereals;
- vegetables - boiled potatoes, cauliflower, pumpkin, beets (during cooking, grate finely, only after that eat);
- fruits can only be consumed in ripe form, carefully chopped (for example, grated or scrolled in a blender).
Sample menu for a few days
Menu for a sick liver for several days:
- Breakfast - oatmeal on water with the addition of a teaspoon of vegetable oil, snack - protein of a pair of boiled eggs, lunch - vegetable soup with a slice of chicken, snack - one medium-sized apple, grated, dinner - mashed pumpkin with a spoon of vegetable oil, a glass of kefir with low fat content.
- Breakfast - buckwheat porridge with milk, a snack - a cracker of dark bread, lunch - goulash on the water with a small amount of turkey meat and boiled potatoes, a snack - carrot salad with low-fat sour cream, dinner - a piece of fish baked in the oven without butter (exclude red, fatty fish).
- Breakfast - a cup of tea and a cracker of dark bread, a snack - cottage cheese casserole, lunch - pilaf with chicken, a snack - a couple of bananas, dinner - hake fish in sour cream sauce, a glass of kefir.
- Breakfast - protein omelet with cauliflower, snack - yogurt with grated fruits, lunch - soup with vegetable broth or soup puree, snack - vegetable salad seasoned with a minimum amount of oil, dinner - kefir or yogurt with several crackers.
- Breakfast - oatmeal with fresh mashed fruits, lunch - cottage cheese casserole, snack - vegetable stew, dinner - fish cooked in tomato sauce, you can take crackers or boiled potatoes for garnish.
What you can not eat with a sick liver: a list of products
When compiling the menu, it is important to be guided not so much by the list of allowed products, but by the list of prohibited. What to eat with a sick liver, the patient decides. However, he must remember that if he at least occasionally includes the following products in the diet, then the liver condition will imperceptibly worsen:
- dishes prepared on meat and fish rich broths;
- various canned foods;
- products with flavoring additives, a large amount of salt and spices, spicy and spicy products;
- instant soups, chips, salted nuts, popcorn and other so-called junk food;
- vegetables with a high content of acids, in particular oxalic acid (this is radish, radish, onion, spinach, garlic and sorrel);
- fatty meats: venison, goose, pork, beef loin, sausages, bacon, greaves, seafood prohibited crabs, crayfish, shrimp, mussels;
- red fish - salmon, trout, pink salmon, etc .;
- fried chicken eggs, it is forbidden to eat egg yolk;
- sauces: mayonnaise, fat sour cream, horseradish, mustard, various ketchups (occasionally it is permissible to use only a small amount of tomato paste diluted with water - for example, stew meat or fish in such a sauce);
- offal of animal origin - hearts, liver, kidneys, etc .;
- legumes and vegetables with excessively coarse fiber (radish, turnip, radish, white cabbage with a sick liver is prohibited);
- dairy products with a fat content of more than 5% (you should choose products with the lowest percentage of fat content);
- fried pies, pasties, khachapuri, etc .;
- fast food;
- milk with a diseased liver should be used with fat content not exceeding 1.5%;
- sour berries and fruits (cranberries, red currants, black currants, green apples);
- confectionery (with the exception of non-butter cookies);
- chocolate, sweets, cakes, ice cream, etc.
Fast food for diseases of the liver and gall bladder
So, we figured out what you can eat on a diet with a sick liver. You should especially dwell on a category of food products such as fast food. These are french fries, all kinds of burgers, chebureks, subways. People with a diseased liver are strictly forbidden to eat such dishes.
The fact is that in the manufacture of fast food dishes, a huge amount of fat is used, as well as flavorings. Of course, the final product is very tasty. Simple boiled dishes in comparison with fast food seem fresh and completely unattractive. But if there is a history of liver disease, then you will have to refuse fast food once and for all.
Drinking and liver tissue
Despite the fact that food with a sick liver plays a huge role, the drinking regimen is no less important. If you eat right, but drink anything horribly, the result of treatment will be unsatisfactory. For example, coffee with a diseased liver is prohibited, as is strong black tea. But it is especially worthwhile to dwell on the problem of drinking alcoholic beverages.
If a person has been given any diagnosis, be it fatty hepatosis, toxic hepatitis, hemangioma, etc., you should forget about drinking alcohol once and for all. Otherwise, the disease will worsen and sooner or later will go to the stage of cirrhosis. In modern society, there is a myth that alcohol in small quantities helps to relax, relieve nervous tension. This is not so: in fact, even small doses of alcohol lead to the death of neurons (nerve cells), and also adversely affect the liver. It is not necessary to be a chronic alcoholic to "earn" cirrhosis. It is enough to abuse alcohol stably once a week. Fatty hepatosis will develop over time. If a person does not give up his habit, after a few years this condition can provoke the development of cirrhosis. Therefore, if the patient at least somehow cherishes his own liver, he will have to abandon the use of alcohol.
Simple recipes for diet foods
Recipes for a diseased liver imply the absence of frying and adding a large amount of oil. Products should be crushed as finely as possible and boiled in a small amount of water. It is occasionally acceptable to add tomato paste sauce.
- Soup with zucchini - hearty and diet, calories per serving - about 200 kcal. Vegetables: carrots and broccoli - chop and stew in water with butter. Dip finely chopped potatoes (250 grams) into the vegetable broth, and after 15 minutes. add chopped zucchini (200 grams), mashed tomato, salt. When serving, sprinkle with chopped herbs.
- Casserole of chicken and zucchini. Cut boiled chicken meat (200 grams) as finely as possible or pass through a blender, add whipped protein and a couple of spoons of low-fat sour cream. Stuffed meat from boiled chicken fillet, mix with grated raw zucchini (200 grams), salt, put in a mold, and top with the remaining milk sauce. Bake in the oven at a temperature of 180-200 degrees for half an hour. If a crust is desired, you can increase the cooking time.
- Chicken dumplings with cottage cheese. Skip chicken meat through a meat grinder several times, add mashed curd. Mix well, add a beaten egg, butter, salt. Cut knels are steamed. Serve with milk or sour cream sauce.
As you can see from the recipes, the set of products is quite rich, and with due imagination you can come up with many different unusual and tasty dishes - casseroles, stews, soups, etc.
What can I eat with a sick liver from sweets? Here is an example of a simple and tasty dessert:
- Apples with cinnamon. Select several large apples of a sweet variety (green ones should not be taken, they are very rich in acid). Cut into halves, remove the bone with the tip of a knife. Sprinkle a little cinnamon and put in the oven for 10 minutes. The apples are baked, and you can eat a fragrant and sweet dessert right with a spoon from chopped halves.
- Cottage cheese casserole. Beat a couple of egg whites, add a sweetener to taste and 200 grams of cottage cheese to them, mix to a homogeneous consistency. Bake in a small mold for 10-15 minutes. If there is a possibility, for example, if at the moment there is no exacerbation, then instead of a sweetener, it is quite possible to use regular sugar.
Pumpkin with a diseased liver is not only permitted, but also a desirable product. This vegetable is rich in vitamins and microelements, when preparing it, there is no need to spend time on abrasion and grinding, since the finished pumpkin itself has the consistency of mashed potatoes. Pumpkin can be baked in the oven, stewed in a pan with a small amount of water. When cooking, you can not use a lot of spices or sugar. Pumpkin is tasty in itself, it can be included in your daily diet.
Fruits with a diseased liver can replace the usual high-calorie and fatty desserts. Of course, at first it will be difficult to abandon the usual desserts. However, over time, both health and appearance will only improve. Avoid eating fruits with a high acid content and the same berries. These are green apples, cranberries, black and red currants. The remaining fruits are allowed, but it is necessary to grind them as carefully as possible before eating.
Hepatologists tips: how to prevent the development of liver diseases
The disease is always easier to prevent. This thesis can also be attributed to liver pathologies. Simple tips should be followed to never be seen by a hepatologist:
- from time to time arrange for the body and digestive organs to unload, adhering to food according to the rules of table No. 5;
- completely give up smoking and drinking alcohol;
- avoid physical overwork (it has an extremely negative effect on all body systems);
- avoid the possibility of contracting hepatitis of a viral nature;
- regularly undergo examinations, donate blood (biochemical analysis) for the most important indicators that can signal the onset of liver problems - this is total bilirubin, ALT, AST.
Alas, rarely does anyone think about the need for preventive measures for liver diseases. And when pronounced symptoms of the disease of this organ appear, it is often too late to take any action. People thoughtlessly abuse alcohol, eat junk food and do not think at all about how this will affect their health in the future. A simple way to help your liver function properly is a complete and proper diet, which is balanced in all the necessary nutrients and vitamins, and you need to adhere to it constantly.