Sample of Daily Liver Loving Diet Menu – I tried to put all my recipes on the site, but there are too many. Here is a sample of daily liver loving diet menu, but if you download my book, it’s easy menus, good food recipes, my story, and a whole lot of great stuff to help you live loving stronger with the right protein to heal cirrhosis. By sharing this with your doctor, they can see your efforts and support your liver health!
WEEK ONE DAY (from Liver Loving Diet Book)
Breakfast – Cuppa Java – Protein Shake and French toast Snack – Yogurt with Karen’s granola
Lunch – Egg salad sandwich with Bean salad
Snack – Chocolate coconut balls Dinner – Shepherd’s pie with side salad and Karen’s Honey Mustard Dressing Snack – Bowl of cold cereal with fruit
Breakfast – Cuppa coffee with Protein Shake Snack – 1 Cup of melon or fruit will do. Mix with yogurt Lunch – Tuna salad sandwich and low sodium tortilla chips w/ salsa or dip Snack – Raisin bran or cold cereal and Karen’s Granola Bar Dinner – Cooked onions with 2 oz hamburger patty served on lowest sodium bread Side of Liver Loving Salad or 12 frozen low sodium fries or tots w/ low sodium catsup Snack – Hummus mixed with quinoa and tortilla chips
Morning and snacks
I wake up with coffee and a tablespoon of powered cappuccino to make it rich and sweet. I mix a scoop of protein powder (25 gm) with frozen fruit to jumpstarts my day and wash down my iron free liver SAFE multi-vitamin with. We have a lot of options to help us feel more energy in the breakfast section of my book. Try French Toast, eggs, a potatoes skillet, pancakes, muffins or something else that you may not have time for on a work day.
My mid-morning snack is a granola bar or fruit. Protein bars are filled with nutrition. We’re going for the lowest sodium (loso) and highest protein whenever possible. I might reach for snacks with low glycemic AND high protein with good fats, but it depends on your stage of live disease – which is explained in the book.
Our liver needs help with wacked out sugar production! Feed it small frequent meals!
Lunch
My lunch may be fresh, or left-over from the night before. Fold-over sandwich are easy to grab . My faves are egg salad, or for a sweet snack I like Nutella, nut butter and a fruity jam or honey.
For a quick snack try reaching for almonds, fruit, or mini-wheat cereal. You can eat as much of these as you want throughout the day. By eating constantly, our sugar and protein levels don’t overwhelm our poor liver. We are alert instead of having that groggy nappy dizzy feeling.
If you feel bad, then your diet is the first thing to tweak.
In the past, doctors considered protein to be the enemy of liver disease. It can cause Hepatic Encephalopathy. Please read all of my blogs or book on nutrition to get the big picture. Good sources of protein throughout the day in small doses can help heal your liver. This youtube talks about liver pain after eating and how to possibly prevent it with good food.
Evening Snacks and Dinner
I like to snack while resting or starting dinner. Low sodium tortilla chips and dip are good. Sometimes I’ll have a slice of cheddar with fruit. I also keep mangos, apples, a baked sweet potato, oranges, bananas.
Dinner is my main meal of the day. I try for about 20 grams of protein with a meat and veggie combo. Sometimes it’s a one dish meal, other times it’s a meat serving with veggies on the side or a grain like pasta, rice, or quinoa. If you have fatty liver, or autoimmune, check out my blogs on that.
TexMex is a fave and I always eat lean ground meat a couple of times a week. I do NOT work hard in the kitchen or feel deprived. Look at the Best Friends Liver Loving Recipes. Many of them came from readers like YOU.
Read more about what stage your liver is in.
Malnutrition is a big problem with Nash, Primary Billiary cirrhosis, fatty liver, or any stage of liver disease. Check out my blog about how protein is vital for healthy liver maintenance.
I hope this sample of daily liver loving diet menu is helpful. The book has over 300 pages, and you will learn so much about how to add variety to your meals and also expect to hear personal stories of how to make it work with your stage of liver disease in your home. xo I simply could not format it all for this site, so I wrote it in a simple format ebook.
There is a lot more in the book. Download it today! I’ve rubbed off that expiration date that was stamped on my foot! Enjoy your sample of daily liver loving diet menu and share it with your doctor. Your Liver Lovin’ Best Friend, Karen 🙂
Learn how to increase your energy and eat better with the with a Liver Loving Diet. You get over 250 recipes and a menu plan that’s easy to follow.
Click here to buy for $4.99.
Having cirrhosis means that I am ultra careful. In my book, you learn how to eat best for your stage of liver disease. It’s about low sodium and healthy protein. I’m alive and thriving! You will be too!
27 thoughts on “Sample of Daily Liver Loving Diet Menu”
I have looked at your site i am currently on my second round of dual therapy my haemoglobin is low and i was interested to see hoe your diet plays a part. i am impressed at how much our diets are similar! I do listen to my inner voice and respond to it i tend to eat at least five different colour fruit and veggies daily the granola type bars are great and so is the bio yoghurt blueberries and strawberries are a mainstay and eating little and often helps with fatigue
Wendy – It sounds like you are really tuned in to your body. It DOES help! Listening is hard when you don’t feel good. You’re a lot like me. Once the routine is in place, it is much easier. I hope your hgb problems can be overcome and your 2nd treatment gives you a sustained viral response! My best to you. xoxo Karen:)
I’m in the same situation as yourself. I’ve read online on many site that B-12 is really good for your liver.What are your thoughts on B-12.
I agree with you, liver pain is painful and very scary.
Thank you Karen.
Della LeBlanc
Della,
I really believe that the B12 helped me a lot with energy. I responded on the Vit B12 blog for ya girlfriend.
Liver disease is the pits. It is scary girl. We want to live our dreams… right? I am convinced that a good diet is what has gotten me this far. I’m eating quinoa with home made chili right now. I know for a fact that if I ate too much meat protein, I would be in the bed early tonight.
Much love to you,
xoxo Karen:)
Wow, Karen! Great information. Thank you! I’m also heartened (err…healthy livered!) that the way I’ve been eating for the past 18 months has probably helped keep my liver in good shape and feeling fairly asymptomatic. I look forward to learning more from you. Be well, all!
In vibrant good health,
Judy
Hi. I am 1 year out of having a liver transplant. I had liver failure after 18 months of taking a medication that killed my liver. I am having complications trying to figure out what and what not to eat. I have stomach aches all the time. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
I’m on the list for a transplant and have wondered what the diet is like afterwards. I plan on keeping as close as possible to the way that I eat now. It might be a good idea to try an elimination diet to see what works for you. For example, cut out all meat and use plant protein for a few weeks and keep a diary of symptoms. If that’s too much to change at once, drop dairy for a few weeks and track your symptoms. It could just be food allergies is what I”m thinking. Maybe wheat (gluten) is the culprit.
Try the Sherlock Holmes method and you might just be able to solve the mystery. Keep me posted, kk? xoxo Karen
Im thankful for your site. Im looking to help my mother-in-law come up with some recipes for my father-in-law with stage 4 cirrhosis. He has no energy and barely get around. How are you so active? Diet the answer? Thanks!
Hello, yes diet helped quite a bit but Karen just had to have a liver transplant almost two months ago. She started the liver healthy diet, drank a lot of water. Stopped red mead, fried foods, lowered her salt consumption and also did not eat processed food, i.le. lunch meats frozen TV dinners. When she was first diagnosed she was afraid to eat anything so ate a lot of oatmeal until she could do some research. Before that she was very tired all the time, would have to take a nap halfway through her hour commute to and from work. I know of someone else who was very sick, he completely changed his diet and improved quite a bit. I hope that some of these ideas will help you father-in-law. Thanks for writing, you are so nice to try to find help for him, take care, Dee
Karen, I am 2 years diagnosed with cirrhosis from hepatitis C most likely had the virus for 40 years without knowing it and unknowingly turned into cirrhosis I’m wondering about being put in contact with you or other people for support in what I’m going through it’s a lonely gig and as a housewife and mother I have no one to talk to about this I do the best I can but emotionally it’s very difficult can you point me in a direction where I could make a friend(s). Laurie
Hello there Laurie! This is a great place to start for support. Karen also has a FB page called IhelpC
You can go there and I will also look up some good sites for support. I don’t have the addresses off the top of my head but
will get them. Have you thought of treating your HCV with one of the new drugs? I had the beginning of cirrhosis back in 2008. It was a shock to me. and treated 3 years ago. One year ago I was told my liver was getting better. I stopped eating red meat, fried foods, processed foods, drink a lot of water to help my liver work better.
I do occasionally have some things as a treat but mainly drink water to help my liver filter everything.
How do you feel? Do you know if you are in early, medium or late stage cirrhosis?
I hope you will stick around, Karen has a lot of good articles in this blog. I am still reading them 🙂
Take Care, Dee
Laurie, You’ve come to the right place.. Like Dee said, you can find support on forums or on Facebook. Look me up and add me as a friend. I’m ihelpckaren on fb. You can join a lot of others there!!
Keep your chin up!
xo Karen:)
Thank you guys for the info. Yes I treated jan to june of 2014 with rib/solv I’ve been svr since march of 2014. I had a bipsy in 7/2013 and was said to be like between 2-3 of cirrhosis. I am compensated but afraid of falling off the ledge at any time. I recently started itching…..not too happy about that. Trying cholestyramine…so far it just gives me gas and bloating….i take all the vitamens and supplements that Ive found might help and changed my diet 2 years sgo…..no steak or burger for 2 years now….i do all the right things…….i research continously….now drinking more coffee! Just had my 1st grandbaby, have a lot to live for. Just need to have others to communicate with who understand. Laurie
Hi Laurie, there is an antihistimine that can help with the itching. I will look into it. Can you try taking the cholestyramine after eating a meal? That might help with gas, I will look. I am so sorry for slow reply, I have thrown my back out, then my A/C broke, ha ha. I will try to find the info and get back to you. I just read something about the liver, bile, itching, I just have to search my brain for it ha ha
Lots of love
Dee
The itching comes and goes. I tried cholestyramine and i didnt like the gas and bloating that it gave me.
Hey there! I am so sorry. I just found an article about this and it said to use an ice cube to scratch with. I know that is not much help but it seems to numb the nerves causing itching. I am sending you the link so you can read the article. There are other medications that might help listed in it. Maybe you could talk to the hepatologist or dermatologist. I am so sorry I only went through it for 6 months and thought I would go crazy. The only thing that helped me were wet wash clothes frozen in freezer then placed on spots that itched. Started with a wash cloth, ended up with a body towel. argh!
http://hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/pruritus.pdf
Did you get transplanted?
Hi there! Karen got her transplant on April 13th. It was scheduled for the 12th but the liver was too large, thank God there was another one available. Here is one of her posts after the transplant, there are several posts about her transplant starting with me asking for prayers for her on April 12th.
I hope by getting to this one you can see the other ones. If not, let me know I can send them one at a time, ha ha. I am not very good on the computer. She is doing very well.
https://www.ihelpc.com/going-back-to-bed-after-transplant/
Hi Laurie, this is a nice place to start. http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Cirrhosis/forum
There are some other sites but this is the first one that came to mind
The people on it are very kind, compassionate and they are going through
the same thing. I hope you find this helpful, good luck, please keep in touch
Dee
Dee Ernst recently posted…Writing a Thank You Letter to Donor Family
Laurie, as I am searching I just had a thought. Are you drinking plenty of water? That is really important to help your liver function.
Dee Ernst recently posted…Writing a Thank You Letter to Donor Family
Well if you call eating ice with water all day long. I’ve been doing this for about 3 1/2 years, something to do with iron deficiency. I think I need to drink more water and eat smaller amounts several times a day. I did ask my doc for some lactulous. I should start that today.
thank you,
Hi there, that’s funny ice with water all day long. Sorry, I always tell people to drink water cause it is something that is cheap and helps the liver work better. The cholestramine (sp) seems to be the first thing doctors will try. I take lactulose but have to take it after a meal or I am running to the bathroom 🙂
I found some information that daily grapefruit juice can help though you have to make sure it doesn’t interfere with any medication you are on. Studies have shown that 20 oz can help. I would try lowest amount first. They say it can increase or decrease certain medications It will say it on the bottle in most cases. Atarax has been known to help and benedryl is
worth a try at night. It knocks me out 🙂 I can so sympathize with you about the itching.
Going through the Incivek I had what I call itch attacks that were so bad they went on for hours and I just threw every thing at it till the itching stopped, I passed out or both 🙂 It was awful. It jumped from body part to body part. My doc wanted to see the rash, there was no rash just large scratch marks. I will keep looking to see if there is any other information. I am so sorry you are going through this. Oh, another thing I just thought of and I will check it out, Neurontin might help. I will take a look. The generic is Gabpentin (sp?) pretty inexpensive. Have a good day 🙂
Hi again, I found this article that lists more than I ever knew existed, it does say neurontin helps I am sending you link so you can take a look at all suggestions. HCV Advocate is a very good site with lots of information. When I asked Karen what site she thought were helpful she suggested this and also one by Lucinda. Of course I can’t remember last name right now, she is a registered nurse with a very good blog on HepMag.
http://hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/pruritus.pdf
Good plan for my mother!
I’m so glad to hear! I am sure Karen will be so happy to help! Take Care, Dee
My hep c was cured in 2005, my liver is still stage 4. My goal is to live long healthy life. At one time I went onto a hepatic coma, It was malnutrition. Being on disability it is hard to buy some foods due to price. Any suggestions? Ty grandma of 10!
Hi Judy,
This comment got buried in spam. I hope you’re still checking this and that I can help you get a copy of The Liver Loving Diet. I have a whole section on how to shop on a budget.
Please let me know if I can do anything to help. I think the spammer is gone and I should get my comments quickly!
xo Karen
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