Diet with a sick liver

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Contents of
  • Which diet is most appropriate for a patient with a liver?
  • Basic nutritional requirements for liver diseases
  • What foods should be excluded from food?
  • What can I eat?
  • Justification of the useful properties of products included in the therapeutic diet for the liver
  • What products are supplemented with vitamin composition?
  • When is table 5a assigned?
  • Features of nutrition for various liver diseases
  • Video on topic

The conditions of modern life and harmful human addictions contribute to increasing the impact of negative factors on the liver of toxic nature( including medicinal), viruses, traumatic injuries.

It is important that the body for a long time is able to compensate for its deficiency by overloading the liver cells. But sooner or later a person begins to feel signs of a malfunction in the functioning of the liver. At this time, a therapeutic diet with liver disease is able to provide tremendous assistance in therapy.

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Patients are important to know what can be eaten and what should be excluded from the diet to restore and support the body with initial symptoms of insufficiency. The final result of the pathology is the development of irreversible cirrhosis, so it is so important with the help of dietary nutrition to delay the process of fibrosis, brain damage( hepatic encephalopathy), kidneys accumulated uncleared nitrogenous slag, cardiac muscle.

What is the most suitable diet for a patient with a liver?

For various pathology of internal organs, variants of dietary rules have been developed, which, according to the classification of M.I.Pevsnera are called "tables".The proposed diet for problems with the liver is called table number 5.It is prescribed for inflammatory diseases, poisoning and intoxication, concomitant pathology of the biliary system, cirrhosis.

The goals of proper nutrition in liver diseases are:

  • supporting the required level of metabolic processes in hepatocytes;
  • recovery ability to process toxic substances;
  • preventing the spread of cirrhotic changes and replacing parenchyma with unhealthy tissue;
  • normalization of the function of bile formation, bile flow along the ducts.

Basic nutritional requirements for liver diseases

In addition to strict restrictions on certain types of products, taking into account the useful and harmful properties of food, the diet requires that the following rules be observed:

  • food should be consumed at least five times a day;
  • single portions should not exceed 200 g, overeating is unacceptable and causes significant overload, complicates the course of diseases;
  • eliminates fried, smoked, canned food, it is allowed to cook dishes by cooking, steaming, quenching, the diseased liver reacts badly to irritation, the spasms of the bile ducts cause pain;
  • for the purpose of mechanical shaking of the digestive process, all dishes should be ground in a blender, scrolled in a meat grinder or wiped, thus, it is possible to reduce the overall load on digestion, to reduce the reflex production of juices;
  • finished products are suitable for feeding the patient, if they correspond to the temperature regime from 15 to 50 degrees, the liver does not tolerate deviations and contrasts.

Steatosis or fatty degeneration needs a sharp restriction of incoming fat with food

What kind of food should be excluded from food?

Patients with liver pathology can not eat dishes containing an increased number of animal fats, light carbohydrates, which have a mild and irritating effect. Table 5 highlights the following harmful liver products, which are recommended to be discarded:

What can I eat with pain in the liver?
  • wheat bread, butter, pastry, culinary products with cream, puff pastry;
  • rich soups from meat, fish, cabbage, mushrooms;
  • fatty meat, fish, duck in second courses;
  • fat, cooking oil;
  • "rough" cereals( pearl barley, millet, porridge from a bowl, corn flakes);
  • legumes( peas, beans, lentils);
  • dairy products of increased fat content( whole milk, cream, sour cream, kefir, cottage cheese, processed cheese);
  • vegetables with a sodal stimulating effect( radish, cabbage, turnip, radish);
  • greens with a high concentration of oxalic acid( spinach, garlic, onion, parsley, sorrel);
  • chocolate and candy;
  • sour berries and fruits;
  • spicy seasonings( pepper, horseradish, mustard), ketchups, sauces, mayonnaise;
  • carbonated drinks, strong tea, cocoa, coffee;
  • alcohol in any form( drinks, tinctures);
  • ice cream.

What can I eat?

Doctors believe that a diet to restore the liver can not be hypocaloric. If the main organ, which produces energy for the body, suffers, then it needs the medicinal substances of food to compensate for the loss. The caloric content of the menu for each day is 2800-3000 kcal.

The following products are allowed:

  • rye or rye-wheat bread, dried, in the form of crackers;
  • meat and fish of lean varieties, chicken, turkey, squid, shrimp, veal, rabbit;
  • skimmed milk products( milk, cottage cheese, kefir, hard cheese);
  • from cereals - buckwheat, oatmeal, rice, semolina;
  • large variety of vegetables - potatoes, beets, carrots, sweet peppers, onions( preferably blue), cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkin;
  • berries and fruits of sweet varieties;
  • eggs are limited, only proteins in omelet, boiled yolk can be rubbed into porridge once a week( opinions of nutritionists diverge, some believe that you can eat up to three eggs a week, and restrict yolks only in cases of a combination of liver damage with cholelithiasis);
  • pasta from the highest grade;
  • drinks from berries and fruits of fresh or dried fruits in compote, broths, jelly, unpreserved juices, decoction from the hips is highly recommended, tea is only not strong;
  • nuts( better walnuts, peanuts are excluded), pumpkin seeds;
  • butter is combined with vegetable, preferably added directly to the plate;
  • is limited to honey, marmalade, marshmallow, jam, dried biscuit or biscuit( sugar is often substituted for xylitol).
The amount of salt should not exceed 10 g.

The allowed flavoring spices - bay leaf, dill, cumin, add flavor to the ready-made dishes

Justification of the usefulness of foods included in the therapeutic diet for the liver

Food ingredients that improve liver function, the diet provides certain products. Since their choice is important for the formation of the patient's diet, we will dwell separately on the explanation of the appropriateness of use. The main source of proteins is meat and fish, dairy products, eggs are limited.

. Only low-fat varieties will be used in the diet, since animal fat contains a high concentration of cholesterol and aggravates the fatty degeneration of liver cells. Bean plants are known for their protein properties, but they are difficult to tolerate by digestive organs, cause bloating and increased fermentation in the intestines, therefore, are not recommended.

To normalize fat metabolism in the diet, lipotropic substances are needed that restore active processing of liver lipids into energy, stimulating the excretion of fatty acids with bile into the intestine to combat fat infiltration.

The maximum lipotropic effect is provided by cottage cheese, seafood, fish, eggs, lean beef meat, soy flour. Moderate lipotropic property has vegetative fiber. It also improves the work of the intestines, therefore, promotes the accelerated excretion of cholesterol.

Fiber is found in all vegetables and fruits( maximum concentration in dried fruits), in fresh juices of their apples, pumpkin, beets, avocado. Wheat bran is added to the diet. The therapeutic value of beet for the liver is still in the increased content of pectins and betaine.

Lipotropic action enhances polyunsaturated fatty acids. Of these, the most known are: omega-3, omega-6, arachidonic, linolenic. They are in sufficient quantities contained in vegetable oils( linseed, corn, olive, sunflower, milk thistle).Therefore, the diet requires their use instead of animal fats.


In walnuts, the concentration of the amino acid arginine, which is necessary to help the liver in neutralizing toxins of

, is quite high in walnuts. Carbohydrates in the diet are quite high( up to 450 g per day), only light up to 100 g are limited. They provide high caloric content, maintain a glycogen reserve inparenchyma of the liver against a background of fat restriction. Patients receive a sufficient amount of cereals, sugar, bread, sweet fruits and berries, potatoes, carrots, honey, nuts.

The antioxidant effect of fruits and berries prevents the oxidation and destruction of the hepatocyte membrane. The strongest are: black currant, citrus, Bulgarian pepper, rose hips.

See also:
What can I eat with hepatitis C?
Nutrition for cholelithiasis

What products make up the vitamin composition?

Diet in liver disease must necessarily contain the most necessary vitamins. Vitamin A - is found in all vegetables and fruits of red-orange color( carrots, sweet peppers, beets, apples).From the initial beta-carotene, vitamin A is synthesized, which, together with vitamin E, neutralizes the accumulated free radicals.

Vitamin C is found in hips, sea-buckthorn berries, colored and Brussels sprouts, dill, oranges, strawberries, lemons, kiwi. Vitamin E - is a part of vegetable oils, cereals, fish, nuts, black chokeberry fruits, sea-buckthorn berries and blackberries, pumpkin juice and sunflower seeds.

Colored, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, besides vitamins, include the chemical element sulfur, vitamin K. With their help improves the processing of toxins, the synthesis in the liver of prothrombin and fibrinogen necessary for blood clotting is established. Sea kale and other seafood are enriched with salts of alginic acid and iodine.

They are known for their ability to bind heavy metal molecules and remove them from the body in toxic hepatitis, poisoning.

Artichoke plant - is considered a plant hepatoprotector, helps restore bile excretion, lower cholesterol level. A set of B vitamins provides cereals( especially buckwheat and oat), they are necessary as coenzymes in some biochemical reactions of the liver.


Dried apricots - high concentration of potassium and magnesium salts, prevents malignant degeneration of liver cells

When is table 5a appointed?

The most gentle diet for the liver is prescribed during the active phase of hepatitis, with a combination of liver pathology with cholecystitis, gastritis, colitis, pancreatitis. It requires compliance with all the recommendations and restrictions in accordance with table number 5, but differs by a strict approach to the degree of grinding of food: minced meat must be twisted twice, the mass of cottage cheese is grinded.

All dishes are prepared boiled in semi-liquid form, even stewing and passaging of vegetables is excluded. Soups are cooked mostly vegetarian, in the form of soups, purees, seasoned with cereals, butter or milk. The recommended amount of salt is reduced.

Porridge is cooked on water, grinded, served liquid. You can cook a small vermicelli, an omelet from the squirrel for a couple. Fruits and vegetables are pre-cooked and ground. It is allowed to drink broth of dogrose, tea with lemon, mineral water without gas. Meat broths are temporarily excluded.


Fine small size vermicelli well brewed, combined with vegetables, fruits

Nutritional features for various liver diseases

With liver pathology, doctors adhere to the nutrition scheme: in the acute phase - table number 5a, with normalization of blood biochemistry indicators - transfer to №5.However, different diseases require an individual approach and take into account the tolerability of products.

Nutrition after an attack of hepatic colic

A painful attack is a sign of cholelithiasis. It occurs against the background of the movement of stones in the gallbladder or duct, after consuming fried and fatty meat foods, alcohol, general overeating. Provoking action can have any stress, physical stress, shaking in public transport.

For the relief of the pain syndrome, medications are introduced, an emergency operation may be necessary. Regardless of the methods of treatment, the patient must completely exclude from the food products that promote biliary excretion from the liver( raw eggs, vegetable oil, spices), stop eating fried and fatty foods, drink alcohol, do not eat pickles, marinades, spicy sauces, ketchup.

Go to:

  • for semi-liquid cereals;
  • kefir, low-fat curd without sour cream;
  • vegetables and fruits to increase the proportion of fiber, you can add in the bran porridge;
  • for the purpose of liquefying bile and preventing the growth of stones in conditions of stagnation it is necessary to drink 1.5-2 liters of water daily.
How long will the diet follow will show a complete examination.

After surgery on the liver

Liver surgery is performed with injuries, abscesses, swelling. The first day shows a famine. From the second day, fractional meals are allowed in portions of 150 g 8 times a day with oat jelly, low-fat kefir. For drinking, a broth of dogrose, water, acidified with lemon juice( removes intoxication, promotes the excretion of bile).

On the third day, you can eat grated vegetable soup, liquid mashed potatoes, diluted juices( pumpkin or apple), sweetened weak tea. After 7 days, it is allowed to twist boiled meat or fish, mashed liquid porridge, cottage cheese, puree from vegetables, drink - kefir, yogurt, tea. In fact, the patient is transferred to the diet number 5A.

The duration of application of strict limitations should be observed 2 months after the operation, then stick to table 5 for life. If the postoperative period is complicated by signs of stagnation of bile, then sugar and sweets are limited, vegetables, fruit in the form of juices, kissels, vegetable oils are added.


When buying cottage cheese, it is necessary to pay attention to the production time, for the liver will be no more than 2-3 days.

. Nutrition in different stages of liver cirrhosis.

. If cirrhosis has a low-symptom non-progressive current, the patient is recommended to eat in accordance with the rules of table №5.When attaching dyspeptic signs( nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), the patient is tightened the diet to the table number 5A.

Frequent diarrhea, steatorrhea( increased excretion of fat with feces due to impaired digestion) requires reducing the number of animals and vegetable fats to 50 grams per day, excluding dairy products and all vegetables, fruits with a lax effect( beets, dried apricots, prunes).

When cirrhosis of the liver is accompanied by ascites, a salt-free diet is used( salt not more than 0.5 g per day, everything is prepared without salt).Sometimes the patient is transferred for 10 days to the table number 7( salt-free).Caloric content is reduced to 2000 kcal. Proteins should be 70 g. The amount of liquid consumed depends on the amount of urine output( the volume of urine released per day).

Nutrition in toxic hepatitis

Pathology causes prolonged intake of alcohol, a negative effect of certain drugs, poisoning with poisonous substances, surrogates. The main task of the diet is the removal of toxic products and formed slags from the body with bile, through the intestine. Diet №5а, plentiful drink, vitamin-containing juices, products of cholagogue nature, containing a lot of fiber are used.

After stabilization of the patient's condition, at least one year will have to eat on diet number 5.

From a variety of products you can select the ones necessary for liver restoration. Some people are given restrictions with difficulty. Diet treatment will require patience from the patient and his loved ones. But the result of nearly 100 years of use proves the correctness of the recommendations.