Getting The Fat Out: PART II
By Dr. Brenda Gill
The previous column, Part I, outlined the causes and hazards of Fatty Liver Disease. Here’s a guide to assessment and prevention
Part 2- Get the Fat Out-What Can I Do?
1. The first thing I do is have folks get their blood sugar, A1C, homocysteine and CRP checked. This tells you if your pancreas is putting out enough insulin, if your liver is controlling the fluctuations of blood sugar, if you are getting increased plaquing on your veins and arteries and if you have inflammation and fatty liver. You can also have your liver enzymes checked- AST/ALT/GGT/LDH/Alk phos, but, these are often normal, even with fatty liver disease. The liver over-compensates to work efficiently and will be 50-80% damaged before it shows up in some people’s blood work. That’s why the latest tests for homocysteine and CRP are more indicative.
2. Match your lifestyle with your calorie intake. By getting at least 1 hour of increased heart rate activity per day, you are starting to tap into storage fat and won’t accumulate excess. This could be walking, dancing, cycling, bouncing on a mini-trampoline or whatever works for you. Include intervals, in other words, every 15 minutes increase your heart rate as high as you can for a minute and then go back to your regular target heart rate. This increases your metabolic rate to the next level and it will stay increased for at least 4 hrs after burning those calories.
3. Increase your social interaction and create relationships with people while connecting with nature. Choose going for a walk with a friend instead of meeting them in the coffee shop. Increase touch and communication with friends, family and pets These all feed the psyche to feel safe, connect you with the greater energy around you and help you to feel cared for and valued.
4. Start walking around the outside aisles of the grocery store and choose mostly veggies and some fruit for food. The more fibre you eat, the happier your intestines. Ideally, we should be having 3 bowel movements per day—food comes in, waste comes out. Fibre provides a rich source of prebiotics (the food that feeds our good bugs (probiotics) in our intestines. Onions, leeks, garlic, jerusalem artichoke, asparagus, dandelion greens, rice bran and chicory root have the highest prebiotics. All those rich coloured foods like green leafy veggies (arugula, parsley, cilantro, kale, swiss chard, collards, cooked spinach, dark lettuces), dark-fleshed fruit and veggies (berries, cherries, plums, mangoes, pineapple, peaches, apricots, nectarines, beets, carrots, yams, squash etc), spices (curry, cumin, chili powder, cinnamon, ginger, allspice etc) have nutrients like folic acid, beta carotene, Vitamin A, C, K, quercetin and curcumin that contribute to digesting and absorbing our food well, are anti-inflammatory, improve liver functions, increase efficiency of cholesterol breakdown and decrease uric acid and homocysteine.
5. Pick high quality proteins such as fish (wild salmon, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, river trout), organic eggs, organic chicken/turkey, beans/legumes, lamb/bison, wild meat, tofu/tempeh or nuts/seeds. These all contain oils that not only lubricate our joints, keep our hair shiny and our skin moist, but, have choline and vitamins A, D, E and B’s. It has been found that only 10% of humans eat enough choline. It’s one of those vitamin-like essential nutrients that is used for many functions of the body like memory, proper liver breakdown of cholesterol, repairing cell membranes, making acetyl choline, a neurotransmitter that is responsible for muscle movement, heart rhythm and minimizes homocysteine.
6. Choose good fats like olive oil or coconut oil to cook with and for dressings, either olive oil or sunflower, sesame, pumpkin seed or almond oils. Replace cow products that are inflammatory with other sources. For red meat, try lamb, bison or wild meat, for milk, use almond, hemp, coconut, soy or rice milk, use coconut oil for lard, olive oil or nut/seed butters for butter and goat or sheep cheese instead of cow cheese.
7. Drink filtered slightly alkaline water. Due to most sources of water being chlorinated these days, I always suggest people have a good quality porcelain/solid carbon block filter system for their drinking/cooking water. This actually removes the chlorine (Brita filters don’t), any bugs and keeps the water at about 7-7.5 pH. When you are slightly alkaline, your body removes toxins, metabolites and breakdown products more efficiently, so, keeps the liver unloaded.
8. Get 8 hours of quality sleep/night. Your body repairs itself more efficiently from 9-midnight, so, best to be asleep by 10. This maximizes adrenal repair and balancing and replenishes the body for another day.
9. Consider supplementing with intestinal/liver repair tools like probiotics, quercitin, aloe, curcumin, berberine, L glutamine, fish oil, alpha lipoic acid, P-t-serine, Vitamin E, Vitamin C (non-citrus form), milk thistle (needs to have Vit E/fish oil to absorb)/B complex, B5. B6 and melatonin.
10. And certainly last, but, not least, have a purpose and your sense of well-being and happiness will shine!
