Happy Liver

 

Before I start writing this story, I want to make clear that I absolutely don’t want to hear anyone’s horror stories about anyone they may know that is living with the same condition or possibly passed away from it. I would be truly sorry for your loss, but for the sake of my extreme panic attacks, I would rather just know about my own personal experience with it. 

Trigger warning for liver disease: 

Back in 2022, I went to the ER because that was the first time in my life that I experienced palpitations as a result of the panic attacks I had since 2014. Nothing was wrong with my heart, but they did some imaging and told me that I had a “fatty liver”. I had absolutely no idea what that meant. At first it felt like they were making fun of me and calling me “fatty”, but told me that I needed to see a gastroenterologist. They asked me if I drink alcohol, and since I do not, my official diagnosis was “Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease” or NAFLD.  The level of anxiety I suffered from at the time absolutely prevented me from seeking out a gastroenterologist. Finally in November of 2022, I did go to an inner city clinic and told them about it. They drew blood and tested me for all kind of stuff. All the hepatitises, lupus, aids, diabetes, I mean you name it I was tested. They ordered imaging and a consult the following day with a doctor. I remember freaking out so bad and not wanting to go, but my ex boyfriend convinced me to- although he convinced me from a place of seeming to believe I was terminally ill. 

The doctor at the inner city clinic in November of 2022 concluded that it was caused by high cholesterol and prescribed me atorvastatin. I’ve been taking it daily ever since. 

Fast forward 2.5 years later, about two months ago, I googled what were the best foods to eat for NAFLD.  I wrote them all down and went to the store and stocked up on all of them. A lot of the advice I was getting that I was actually able to listen to was “change your diet”, but no one ever seems to tell you how. On another hand, our society is jam packed with people who say that nothing ever works for trying to lose weight. A lot of people like that are in my family. It’s scientifically proven that a calorie deficit causes weight loss- but there are still just people literally everywhere who say calorie deficit doesn’t work for them. And I hate to say it but a lot of people in my family are in a sort of “fat pride” mentality. I’m all for believing you are beautiful no matter what, (and I do know many people who look better fat) however, sometimes that comes with extreme vitriol and hatred towards women who are slender. I was very slim as a kid, and got so much hate and verbal abuse for it. I was constantly told over and over to eat fattening things and so I did. Thinking back, that all really must have caused me to develop NAFLD in the first place. 

This whole experience has just been one aspect of unlearning things that were taught to me that were false and relearning. Before I finally had the courage to google best foods for NAFLD back in February, I was doing calorie counting and deficit which helped a little. But once I started eating mostly things on the NAFLD green light list, none of the things on the red light list, and some on the yellow light list, the weight has been Falling Off. I’m losing weight probably 2-3 times faster than I did when I was just doing “calorie deficit no matter what the food was”. 

My experience on the teledoc app was a nightmare. I had hoped to see a therapist to help me go to specialists to see if I had cancer or anything else that might kill me. It actually worked in the opposite way. That therapist left me so depressed that I didn’t care if I died.  So I called the gastroenterologist back and said yeah maybe I do want an appointment with him. We’ll call him Dr. HH, since he goes by Dr. first name and his last name has about six syllables and 20 something letters. I figured I’d just go tell him the entire NAFLD story. 

Dr. HH was SUPER NICE. He seemed kind of like a gym bro, and gym bros usually hate fat chics so I was nervous but he was a very nice gym bro. He told me I was doing everything right. But he wanted blood work and a certain type of imaging that wasn’t the same as what I had in 2022. This was like an ultrasound, but with a vibrator (held up against my upper right abdomen where livers are). . Idk it was weird. I went for the bloodwork afterwards. His office staff scheduled me for a follow up in mid June and said if there was something serious then Dr. HH would call, but if I was normal then I would just talk to him at my follow up in June. The vibrator ultrasound was Thursday the 10th. He has not called yet. I’m hoping he won’t of course. And yes he also consulted me about a colonoscopy. But I’m putting it off till June. 

If you’re wondering what the best foods for NAFLD are, then here’s my list.  Literally no one ever told me this condition existed. As I mentioned, I was raised harshly to eat a lot of bad things because they all hated that I was thin at the time. They tell you smoking causes cancer and they tell you having sex causes std’s, but they don’t educate you about much else. 

For oils, the best oil is avocado oil and olive oil comes in a close second. 

Nuts: almonds and walnuts

Fruits: apples, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, passion fruit and dragon fruit. Bananas are on the yellow light list- not “the Best” but I can have them. 

Any vegetable of course. No diet is ever going to be against vegetables.  Spinach is a plus  

Avocados all the way. 

Fatty fish: salmon, trout, tuna, and mackerel. Yellow light fish is said, flounder, and shrimp. 

No sugar, no grains!!!

Dairy: low fat dairy. I’ve been getting skim milk and almond milk for smoothies, “triple zero” Greek yogurt, fresh little mozzarella balls and string cheese sticks with skim milk in them. Feta cheese is on the yellow light list  

No peanuts and  or peanut butter  I use almond butter in some of the smoothies  

If I get a sweet tooth, I get the Atkins treats which have little to no sugar.  

Olives are a huge plus.  I make olives medley ziplocks to take to work.

Garlic is a huge green light, and the best drink is green tea 🍵  It’s just that it has caffeine, which tends to give me palpitations, but I do need to wake up somehow sometimes.  

That’s all I can think of right now.  

In 2022, I weighed about 215 at those appointments.  In January of 2024, I was 227 just like the old tv show.  “Calories deficit no matter what the food was” put me back down to 210, but I plateaued at 210  the morning of my appointment with Dr. HH, I weighed in at 197.4 (same scale since 1/2024). So switching to nothing but the good foods for my condition made me lose 12 and a half pounds. My goal is 165. 

My breakfast is usually my smoothies.  They cut the craving for ice cream. I do bananas, skim milk, triple zero Greek yogurt, and any medley of the fruits mentioned above and sometimes almond butter.  When I work, I bring ziplocks with almonds, walnuts, mozzarella balls, and olives of different kinds.  For dinner, I’ll oil a pan with avocado oil, chop up any veggies I have, and fry a fish with it, season it with Cajun spice, and right before I turn the heat off I’ll either mix in a whole avocado for some creaminess or I’ll have the single serve plain guacamoles since avocados are so hard to keep.  No more pasta or bread.  I no longer have sandwiches because of the bread.  I did have a cheat day when I traveled with my job. We stopped at Burger King and I had the impossible whopper- which is vegetarian but I ate the bun as well.  If I want to make salsa or guacamole, I look for baked Tostitos, no fried.  

That’s about it.  I hope I helped educate someone about this condition.  I told Dr. HH’s nurse that I was scared he was going to tell me I had a month to live. She glanced at my chart and said, “Well probably not, since he wants to see you in two months.”  I could see myself telling someone the same thing.