Food Fads in Liver Disorders

In an attempt at trying to do well to those they love, spouses and parents often enforce diets on patients of liver diseases that often turn out to be detrimental.

The commonest food fad is pale insipid boiled cabbage being doled out to nauseous patients suffering from hepatitis that makes them puke even more. 

The liver, in a way, is a buzzing manufacturing unit that requires lots of energy to keep its multiple functions going. And it derives all this from the food we eat.

During disease, such as during an attack of jaundice, when many of the liver cells get killed, the liver attempts damage control by trying to regenerate quickly. For its cells to multiply however, it requires a generous supply of energy that comes from carbohydrates, and protein, the building block for its cells and tissues.

Boiled green vegetables unfortunately have neither of these. Hence the situation often progresses to that of a starved liver unable to recuperate due to cut-off food supply.

Recent studies are beginning to show how adequate supply of energy and protein food during this critical phase revives damaged livers. Carbohydrates (starch and sugar), the most important sources of energy are sourced from rice, sugar, idlis, idiappams, sooji, noodles, as are fruit juices, sweets and rasgullas that need to be given liberally.

Interestingly, fat, thought to be toxic to livers, is good too, in moderation. Each gram of fat provides 9 Kilo calories, compared with only 4 of carbs. That patients do not enjoy fried food at this stage of their illness is of course another matter.

Adequate importance has not been given to protein, the other important ingredient our livers need most. International guidelines recommend a diet of 1 to 1.5 g per Kg body weight per day to meet the liver’s increased requirement.  Here again the spotlight has shifted from the conventional animal sources (meat, chicken fish, eggs, milk, curd and cheese) to those derived from veg ones such as daals, rajma and soya.

Soya is perhaps the most useful and yet the most neglected item. It is not only rich in protein (40%) but contains large proportion of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) that have been found to be specifically beneficial in liver disease.  Eating soya chunks at least once with lunch or dinner can do the liver much good.

Last, but not the least, is withholding “haldi” or turmeric from cooking. This fad stems from associating its yellow colour with that of bilirubin, the compound that gives the yellow hue in jaundice. The link is as stupid as feeding tomatoes which derive its red colour from a pigment called anthrocyanin, to anemic patients with low haemoglobin levels. We need to look beyond colour!

We often look to doctors to merely write medicines, and take it upon us to decide what food we should provide to our ailing relatives. No harm. As long as we update ourselves, and rid our minds of senseless fads!

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 17th February, 2013.