Israeli researchers say they found a diet that significantly reduces liver fat, adjusting the traditional Mediterranean diet to include special greens.
“For more than 20 years, our research team has demonstrated, through rigorous and randomized long-term tests, that the Mediterranean diet, rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and nuts, is the healthiest,” said epidemiologist Prof . Iris Shai. “Now, we find that specific changes in this diet can cause a big reduction in liver fat.”
In an 18-month study of 294 participants conducted in southern Israel, two-thirds of the participants ate a Mediterranean diet and exercised regularly. They lost weight in similar amounts, but those who ate the adapted “green” version, with less meat, more plant products and lots of green tea, saw specific benefits in their liver.
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“Even though the Mediterranean Diet and the Green Mediterranean Diet lead to equal weight loss in general, the loss of fat in the liver has been doubled among those on the green diet,” Shai told The Times of Israel.
Ingredients for a Mediterranean diet (here via iStock by Getty Images)
“The liver is so important for human health in general, and fatty liver disease has broad implications, but there is a lack of drug treatments and a lack of dietary protocol in addition to general weight loss, which makes this discovery important” .
The modified diet aims at high levels of polyphenols, organic compounds produced by plants, apparently to protect themselves from stress.
The study by Shai, a professor at Ben Gurion de Negev University in Beersheba and an adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health TH Chan, was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Gut. Several Harvard scholars were involved in the study.
One of the items in the diet is an aquatic plant called mankai, which an Israeli company, Hinoman, is selling as a superfood. Shai is a consultant for the company.
It is estimated that 20 to 35% of adults have fatty liver disease, a condition that doctors say increases the risk of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as decreased diversity of the intestinal microbiome and microbial imbalance. But no drugs are currently available and the only intervention is weight loss and reduced alcohol consumption.
Powder form of a mankai aquatic plant (Schachar Fleishman)
The diet is rich in vegetables, includes a daily intake of nuts (28 grams) and less meat than a regular Mediterranean diet. It is enriched with green items, including three to four cups of green tea a day and 100 grams of a green mankai shake.
Shai said: “We believe that there are components like polyphenols and fibers that modify the microbiome and that make this diet help to cleanse the fat from the liver.”