THUMBNAIL, Food products containing a significant amount of sugar. Junk food, What is Glucose? bigBEAD,
is very important to help you manage the condition. Your health care team may have told you to limit or even avoid alcohol, and to eat a diet that’s low in calories and But there’s another important part of your eating style — avoid sugar.
Research shows sugar can worsen fatty liver, MASLD. “Patients don’t realize that sugar drives fat buildup in your liver,” says Grace Derocha, RDN, CDCES, a national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in Detroit. Unfortunately, sugar is everywhere when it comes to our food content. The average American eats about 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day — that’s about 270 calories., but most of the time you get it from eating processed and prepared foods. Thankfully, there are ways to make smarter choices, healthier sugar swaps, and avoid added sugar. Here’s a closer look at how sugar affects your MASLD, plus ways to cut back on the sweet stuff in your diet. And lower sugar in your diet can contribute to reversing yourWhen you eat something with added sugar, your body breaks it down into glucose — your body’s primary source of energy. But any unused glucose turns into fat. And your body can store extra fat in your liver. Over time, your regular liver cells are replaced with fat cells, which leads to MASLD. This can happen even if you are at your target weight or don’t have other medical problems.“The added sugars found in so many processed foods affect our livers in ways we don’t realize, even if we are otherwise healthy,” says Derocha. Sugar has other effects on your liver, too. Especially if your body has a harder time using, storing, or controlling sugar.Build up inflammatory chemicals in organs such as your liver over timeWhen your liver is injured, it doesn’t work as well as an otherwise healthy liver. Avoid processed foods with sugary words ending in -ose, especially high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose. This will show you the combined amount of natural and added sugar in your food. For example, a product may have 15 grams of total sugar, but only 7 of those are added sugars. The rest are natural sugars.Nutrition labels list ingredients from the highest amount to the smallest amount. If some type of sugar is right on top, that’s a good clue that it’s high in added sugar.These are all forms of added sugar. The American Heart Association recommends that men consume no more than 36 grams, and women consume no more than 25 grams of added sugar each day. If you have MASLD, it’s smart to aim for even less, says Derocha.As soon as you cut back on added sugar, your liver will begin to benefit, says Amon Asgharpour, MD, a liver specialist at Virginia Commonwealth School of Medicine in Richmond. “Inflammation in your liver starts to decrease, and as you lose weight, there will be a decline in liver fat,” says Asgharpour. If you add in other healthy habits, such as regular exercise, you’ll help your liver even more. But if you're not sure how to cut back on your daily sugar intake, here are some ideas to get you started.Do you add sugar to your cereal, coffee, or tea? Try to stop slowly. First, cut the amount you use in half. Once your taste buds adjust, you can stop it entirely.Use fruit to add some sweetness to everything from cereal to yogurt to ice cream. You can use fresh, frozen, dried, or canned fruits.Pick low-sugar options When you’re at the grocery store, opt for packaged foods that have less added sugar, like plain low-fat yogurt or unsweetened applesauce.If you find that you want to snack on something sugary, try drinking a glass of water instead.You may also be able to satisfy your sweet tooth with a piece of fruit or a small square of dark chocolate. If you crave something specific — say, a chocolate milkshake — make a substitute smoothie that contains low-fat yogurt, cocoa powder, and fruit. Smoothies can be rich in protein and fiber, which will help you feel full and satisfied, says Derocha. But not all smoothies are full of protein and fiber. So make sure to choose healthy, nutritious ingredients.Less leptin, a hormone that makes you feel fullWhen you cut back on sugar, every little bit counts. You can make some easy swaps by skipping the top sweet offenders to choose a healthy alternative.Sweeteners known as low-calorie sweeteners contain no calories. But often, the sweeteners can taste much sweeter than regular sugar. Zero-calorie sweeteners are often used by people who want to lose weight or lower their blood glucose levels. Some common types of artificial sweeteners include:Some early research shows they may harm your liver. One study found that people who frequently drank diet soft drinks had twice the risk of developing MASLD. Other research links them to liver cancer, but it’s still unclear.Small amounts of natural sweeteners have been shown to lower liver inflammation compared to low-calorie sweeteners in laboratory animals. But keep in mind that these count towards your total sugar quota–and have calories, too. “Remember, you can still have added sugars in your diet, but in moderation,” says Derocha. “If you keep it to under 10% of your total calories, you can still enjoy some sweetness, while keeping your liver healthy.”
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