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The most common cause of NAFLD is persistent fructose consumption. I.e. sugar
The most effective way to treat/reverse it is to eat a carbohydrate free diet
Purely anecdotal on my part, but I reversed mine 25 years ago through a low-glycemic, minimally processed diet. Not low carb, but certainly carbohydrate selective. Lost at least 115 lbs and have been fortunate to keep it off.
Tell us more!
I suspect fatty liver disease and it does not hurt to eat a bit better
Well, it was at a time when my health hit a point of crisis and for a time I wasn't sure what was going on. Eventually it was found I had picked up a nasty tick-borne disease. But getting really checked out for the first time in many years, I discovered I was diabetic, hypertensive and had NAFLD. Of course I was aware I was also carrying too much weight. The tick thing was difficult to treat and I had awful lingering problems for years. It occurred to me that I'd ought to do all I could for my health rather than taking the path of least resistance as I had until age 30. So I completely switched up my diet and lifestyle in the service of improving the metabolic illness. To my mind there was little choice.
I'd tried to lose weight before and failed. But this was important. Really taking my problems with sustainable weight management apart, I found that lousy satiety was a big deal for me. I know everyone is talking about satiety now with the new GLP-1 drugs, but it's been on my mind for 25 years. I found through a ton of trial and error that what I eat now had a large impact on how soon and how much I'll be compelled to eat later. So I began weighting all my choices toward low-glycemic, high fiber, low caloric density foods. This was far more satisfying for me than just a restriction in calories of my normal lousy diet. Ended up being a lot of vegetables, some legumes, lean proteins, some lower GI whole grains, adequate healthy fats, no added sugars. For me that was a bunch of salads, stir fries, stews, some breakfast porridges full of fiber, lower glycemic fruit etc. It worked. I lost a ton of weight in about 9 months and resolved my metabolic problems including NAFLD.
I was fortunate to have just read a book by Dr. Roy Walford - Beyond the 120 Year Diet, as there was some solid advice there on sustainable caloric restriction.
I went on the have continued complications from my initial health crisis that underscored the importance of keeping my health/weight managed as well as I can. It's served me well to make these choices in the long term. I've fared much better than I might have. My quality of life is worth whatever effort I've spent.
Sorry about this wall of text. It's always a difficult thing to sum up.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-821617-0.00010-3
“3.2.2.3 Fatty liver – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease”
“Clinical experience shows the treatment of carbohydrate-induced NAFLD with strict TCR is simple and rapid (3–7 days). There is no medication therapy for self-induced lifestyle disease. While treatment with insulin-sensitising drugs transiently improves NAFLD, such therapy has poor long-term value [37]. Bariatric surgery may briefly improve NAFLD, but unless CECC GLP-1 agonist medications, by suppressing gluconeogenesis, accelerates the process but may be used ancillary to but not as a substitute for TCR [38]. Abstinence from alcohol consumption accelerates fatty liver disease resolution [39].”
I recommend the book if your really concerned about NAFLD.
I would argue that the most effective way to reverse it is to fast. The best way to maintain and treat while not fasting would be a diet low in carbohydrates.
Why does it need to be carbohydrate free diet? Would not just excluding fructose and carbohydrates containing fructose be equally effective?
It would be effective but not as effective.
Once there's fat in the wrong places, ectopic fat, the body does not like fat inside of organs. You want the body to mobilize that fat as soon as possible. So you remove all carbohydrates to help the body stay in a fat burning metabolism. That way the body will remove the organ fat as quickly as possible.
If you're still eating a carbohydrate-rich diet, but no fructose, you're not continuing the most significant risk factor that's true, but the body has elevated insulin when you eat carbohydrates, and cannot mobilize fat until all of that insulin is back to normal. For most people they're eating three big meals a day and a bunch of snacks, which means they're insulin is always up. Which means it's very hard to remove that fat from the organs
So, removing all the carbohydrates, gets the insulin back to normal, allowing the body to mobilize fat, and the The body does prioritize removing ectopic fat from the organs when it can