World Liver Day 2025: Know why diet and lifestyle are crucial in protecting the liver

This World Liver Day 2025, we emphasise the importance of food and nutrition in keeping our liver healthy, hence the theme – “Food is Medicine”. It is an endeavour to raise awareness about the importance of a balanced diet in preventing liver disease and promoting normal liver function. How healthy food can be a game changer in liver health needs to be inculcated in the population.

Obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and high cholesterol are on the rise to the extent that they are becoming epidemics (over 1/3rd of the global population). It is no longer a disease of the elderly. A young, productive workforce involved in economic growth is being affected by liver disease. Metabolic dysfunction-associated liver disease (MASLD) is the name given to fatty liver disease linked to the above health problems (obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol). MASLD can lead to advanced liver disease (cirrhosis, scarring of the liver) and become a precursor for liver cancer if it remains untreated. Unfortunately, in the early stages, this disease does not present with symptoms. It is heartening to understand that this disease is preventable and reversible in the early stages. It is a matter of healthy lifestyle, healthy nutrition, and awareness.

This awareness must be created amongst the population. This World Liver Day allows us to create this focused awareness and leave an impact on all regarding simple measures that could make a big difference in keeping our liver healthy, which performs more than 500 functions in our body.

Some of the reasons attributed to this exponential rise in liver disease in the young population are related to the lifestyle (sedentary, chair work, no physical activity, lack of adequate sleep), food habits (ultra-processed food, high in carbohydrates, quick-fix diets), and addictions (alcohol intake). What you eat today decides your liver health in the future. Small achievable changes in diet and nutrition can reverse even years of liver damage in the early stage of the disease.

• When we spoke to Dr Vibha Varma, Consultant & Head, Liver Transplant and Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgeon, Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai, she said that a diet that is high in fibre, low in sugars and saturated fats, and rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, like olive oil, will support a healthy liver.
• If you are heavy around your waist, seeking healthy food habits along with lifestyle changes (physical activity, exercise) and losing even 5-10% of body weight can cause a significant reduction in the grade of fatty liver and potentially reverse early changes of liver damage.
• Also, adopting healthy meals can cut down about 50% of the risk of developing liver disease in the future. Silent liver diseases like fatty liver are associated with obesity and the ever-increasing incidence of diabetes, and this needs attention by adopting healthy food habits. The mantra: a healthy liver today lays the foundation for healthy lives in the future.
• Let us be more mindful of what we cook and eat. What our children eat today will lay the foundation for their liver health in the future.

If you feel you are suffering from any signs of liver disease (easy fatigue, yellowish discolouration of eyes, weight loss), it is time to act, seek help, and screen; you might be in a stage where simple measures could reverse the disease, and you will be able to prevent future distressing liver health issues where the medications might not help and only liver transplant (replacing bad liver with a new liver) becomes your chance to get cured.

(Disclaimer: The tips suggested in this article are for general information purposes only. Consult your doctor before starting any fitness program, making any changes to your diet or taking any remedy for any disease. India TV does not confirm the authenticity of any claim.)

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