Positive Effects of Keto and Liver Health

The ketogenic diet has become one of the most popular weight management programs. Not only has it been linked with substantially improving metabolic parameters, but it has also been shown to improve markers of liver disease in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and non-alcoholic fatty disease (NAFD).

What is Non-Alcoholic Fatty Disease?

Non-alcoholic fatty disease is becoming increasingly common and can lead to some serious complications such as cirrhosis and liver cancer, similar to the liver problems caused by excessive drinking.

NAFD is a liver condition in which extra fat starts to build up in the liver. If left untreated, this can develop into a severe condition called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. With this, the liver becomes inflamed and scarred, and gradually the liver cells begin to die off. It can eventually lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer. Weight gain is a major risk factor for this condition.

Diseases like non-fatty liver disease can result in liver failure, a condition in which the liver stops performing its function. A number of complications can arise due to this disease. For people with end-stage liver failure, a liver transplant can be a life-saving surgery.

Weight loss is considered to be one of the best things to do for improving the overall liver function as well as reversing the effects of these liver diseases.

Effects of Keto and Liver Health

Many studies have reported the positive effects of diet and lifestyle factors such as exercise and avoiding high fructose items as these can play an important role in the overall chances of reversing fatty liver. ^[1] This may be especially useful for people who are obese or have type 2 diabetes.

In a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet, you eat few carbohydrate sources and get the majority of your calories from fat and protein. After following this diet for a few days to a couple of weeks, the body enters ketosis and starts to use fat for energy.As insulin and carbohydrates play an important role in the progression of fatty liver diseases, a high-carbohydrate and low-fat diet can further worsen the liver condition.

Within six months of being on the low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet, significant weight loss and histologic improvement of fatty liver disease have been observed.

But many people worry that the dietary fat that you eat on a ketogenic diet would lead to a fatty liver. According to many experts, this is not the case.

How Can the Ketogenic Diet Improve Your Liver?

Most of the fat that accumulates in the liver comes from a process called de novo lipogenesis, which occurs when the body creates fat from excess of carbohydrates or protein. The carbohydrate restriction in a keto diet restricts the intake of sugar or fructose, which can turn into liver fat. Also, it safeguards against the problem of insulin resistance and further protects from fatty liver.

A number of studies illustrate the benefits of a low-carbohydrate diet for keeping liver and metabolism health. ^[1]

Weight Loss: A study recently found that ketogenic diet followed for about 6 months can lead to significant weight reduction and improvement of fatty liver disease in obese patients. ^[2]

Fatty Liver: Another study shows that healthy people who followed a low-carbohydrate diet had a significant decrease in liver fat in only 10 days. Another one found that with two weeks of a ketogenic diet, there was a 42% decrease in liver fat in people with non-alcoholic fatty disease. ^[3]

Overall Liver Health: A randomized clinical trial with 45 patients having NAFLD claims that those who followed a low-carbohydrate diet, benefited from a positive impact on liver enzymes and serum fibrinogen, which is a protein found to be typically high in more severe forms of NAFLD.

Will You Go Keto for Your Liver?

Do you want to use the ketogenic diet to support your liver health? Have questions about how the keto diet can help? Let us know in the comments below.