Chronic Liver Disease Brochure NUTRITIONAL CARE FOR THE LIVER THE BASICS: The liver is an essential organ located in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen. Its responsibilities are numerous! These roles include but are not limited to: regulating chemicals within the blood, metabolizing drugs, breaking down as well as creating substances that are easier for the body to use. For the purposes of discussing nutrition for the liver and patients with liver disease, we will focus on the liver’s role in glycogen storage and breakdown. your body won’t be able to properly process glucose into glycogen, or break glycogen down into glucose, which means your body won’t have enough energy to do all that it needs to unless it uses other sources of energy like protein and fat stores! CHRONIC LIVER DISEASE 1 help you either prevent yourself from developing CLD or help you slow the progression of the disease if you’re already suffering from it. ALSO, CDL can also result in malnutrition due to nausea and GI upset as well as muscle deterioration since the body has to find new sources of energy. For this reason, protein intake is super important! Chronic Liver Disease, also commonly referred to as Cirrhosis, is long term disease of the liver, often resulting in the replacement of healthy tissue with scar tissue in the liver. Causes of such a disease include Hepatitis, Alcoholism, and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Some of these diseases can be avoided with a healthy diet! A healthy diet can also slow the disease’s progression. 1.Avoid Alcohol! Patients with CDL should not consume alcohol at all. Otherwise, women should have 1 drink and men can have two. HOW DOES EFFECT LIVER? WHY IS THE LIVER IMPORTANT IN NUTRITION? The liver is where glycogen is stored. Glycogen is the readily mobilized storage form of glucose! Glucose is sugar that our bodies use for energy! If your liver is not working well, FOOD YOUR Everything we put into our bodies gets broken down into smaller nutrients that our bodies can use. For your liver, over consumption of alcohol, as well as constant consumption of foods high in sodium and cholesterol and triglycerides can be extremely damaging over a long period of time. Changing your diet can 2.Avoid Fatty foods, added sugars, and processed foods. These can make it harder for your liver to do its job! 3. Drink: Water (maintains weight), Coffee (protects liver from alcohol damage) and Green Tea (antioxidant). 4. Eat more fiber (oatmeal and veggies) and polyphenols (blueberries, herbs and spices) 5. Eat balanced! Restriction can lead to malnutrition! (ALSO take medication responsibly) Chronic Liver Disease Brochure 2 REFERENCES 14 Best and Worst Foods for Your Liver. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://www.webmd.com/hepatitis/ss/slideshow-best-and-worstfoods-for-your-liver ADA. (2020). Liver Cirrhosis. Retrieved from https://ada.com/conditions/liver-cirrhosis/ Berg, J. (1970, January 01). Glycogen Metabolism. Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21190/ ChooseMyPlate. (2020). Vegetarian choices in the Protein Foods Group. Vegeterian Choices. Retrieved from https://www.choosemyplate.gov/eathealthy/protein-foods/protein-foods-vegetarian Chronic Liver Disease/Cirrhosis. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-anddiseases/chronic-liver-disease-cirrhosis Goody. M. C (2009) Introduction: Cultural Competence and Nutrition Counseling Retrieved from 24active.com Hanson. J & Sehgal. R (2016) How Should a Hospitalized Patient with Newly Diagnosed Cirrhosis Be Evaluated and Managed? Retrieved from the Hospitalist Liver: Anatomy and Functions. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/liveranatomy-and-functions Silva, M., Gomes, S., Peixoto, A., Torres-Ramalho, P., Cardoso, H., Azevedo, R., Cunha, C., & Macedo, G. (2015). Nutrition in Chronic Liver Disease. GE Portuguese journal of gastroenterology, 22(6), 268–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpge.2015.06.004