Type 2 Keto and F3 Liver Fibrosis

[WinstonR]

So I asked a question on here yesterday, as I really want to tackle my type 2, and weight loss. People took the time to answer and suggested looking at Keto/low carb diets. I have done some research and I am interested to start Keto, although dreading not eating all those lovely carbs haha. However I also have Liver Fibrosis and worry the high fat content of a Keto diet, may aid my diabetes, but make my Liver worse. I would really like to avoid getting Cirrhosis of the Liver.

I wondered if anyone had any experience of doing Keto with Fibrosis and if this had made it worse?

I do have to have a check up every 6 months, luckily due at the hospital within the week, so I will be asking the doctor. However I would like to make a start on Keto in the meantime, and I always think asking people that might have similar circumstances is beneficial. Any advice is welcome.

 

[Oldvatr]

Hi, the ketogenic diet is generally associated as being good for repairing NAFLD damage.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7132133/

Once cirrhosis has occurred, then the foods to avoid on the standard advice is to avoid processed foods, and unhealthy fats, transfats, and seed oils and margerines.
e.g. From Healthline website:-
"Foods to avoid

• Highly processed foods: fast food, convenience meals, canned soups, packaged snacks.
• Unhealthy fats: margarine, vegetable shortening, fried foods.
• Salty snacks: chips, crackers, pretzels, microwave popcorn.
• Processed meats: hot dogs, sausage, deli meats, bacon, beef jerky

"
In other words, a keto diet would generally meet this but possibly hold the bacon and jerky.

The fats in the keto diet are there to provide energy and avoid the body scavenging protein which is detrimental to a damaged liver. Again , a bonus that an ultra low calorie or low fat diet will not help with.​

 

[Goonergal]

However I also have Liver Fibrosis and worry the high fat content of a Keto diet, may aid my diabetes, but make my Liver worse. I would really like to avoid getting Cirrhosis of the Liver.

Dr David Unwin has found (among other things) that liver function improves on a low carb/ketogenic diet. See this article and embedded video:

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/in-depth/david-unwin-low-carb-not-just-diabetes/

And here: https://twitter.com/lowcarbgp/status/1094323978833985536?s=21&t=MhV5xlJ1C4y_8vIkaf-Nbw

 

[catinahat]

When carbs are digested the resulting glucose ends up in your blood. T2's have trouble using that glucose for energy so our sugar level rise. Eventually that sugar we can't use gets stored as fat, usually in the liver. That's why T2 often comes with the added bonus of non alcoholic fatty liver disease.
On the other hand we have no problem using fat to fuel our bodies, so in the absence of carbs fat in our diet is used for energy not stored.

 

[Outlier]

Perhaps better to think of keto as Healthy fat rather than High fat. My keto regime hasn't added any more fat than I used to eat normally - I just cut out the carbs. and the already small amounts of sugar, which latter for me meant giving up fruit as I didn't eat sugary things anyway.