It can be overwhelming to find out that you’ve been diagnosed with fatty liver disease. You’re probably already worrying about what to eat and what to avoid. That’s why we’ve created free 7-day fatty liver diet plan, along with some tips, tricks.
In addition to the meal plan itself, we’ve also put together some lists of breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner you can eat on a fatty liver diet plan. Feel free to jump ahead to this section on what fatty liver is, and what you can expect when following a healthy diet for fatty liver diseases.
Please also take note, while the information provided in this fatty liver diet plan is intended to support liver health and manage fatty liver disease, it is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Individual nutritional needs and medical conditions vary, and it’s important to consult with a healthcare professional or a registered dietitian before making any significant changes to your diet or lifestyle, especially if you have underlying health conditions or are taking medications.
7-Day Diet Plan for Fatty Liver
With most meal plans, day 1 is meal prep day. This means, most of the meals you prepare today are repeated throughout the week.
You can choose to prepare your breakfast and snack meals in advance, together with the meals you’ll be eating today. If you do it this way, you need around 3 hours allotted for preparation and cooking. It seems like a lot but it’ll pay off during the rest of the week!
Remember, look at the this table to to find out which recipes you’ll need to prepare multiple servings of. If you’re short on time, you can choose to skip pre-making the smoothie and the chia pudding.
To complete a 1600-kcal recommendation:
For dinner, pair your healthy baked salmon with some Southwestern Black Bean, Quinoa and Mango Salad. This is helps add fiber to your diet!
Day 2 is another meal prep day, so you can prepare your lunch and dinner meals for the whole week in advance. You’ll need about 3-4 hours to prepare all of the meals simultaneously, but remember that you’ll be saving time throughout the week if you choose to do it this way.
Remember, to look at the this table to know which recipes can be meal prepped in advance.
For the vegetable and fruit salads, lunch wrap, and lettuce wraps, you can prepare the main ingredients, and wash and prepare the fruits and vegetables in advance but assemble them on the day of the meal.
If you’ve already prepared (hopefully!) these meals for day 3, then you won’t need to cook anymore, but instead reheat them from their food containers. What a time saver, right?
To complete a 1600-kcal recommendation:
For dinner, pair your healthy baked salmon with some Southwestern Black Bean, Quinoa and Mango Salad. This helps add fiber to your diet!
Day 4 is also a time for you to rest from meal preparation and cooking. Today, you just reheat meals from their container.
To complete a 1600-kcal recommendation:
For dinner, you’ll be pairing your Southwestern Black Bean, Quinoa and Mango Salad with some Best Easy Healthy Baked Salmon.
To complete a 1600-kcal recommendation:
For day 5, on top of reheating your meals, you’ll be pairing your lunch with some Black Bean Salad with Corn & Avocado. To do this, you’ll need about 15 minutes to prepare and assemble – if you haven’t already from day 2
For day 6, you’re scheduled for another lunch wrap. On the day, you’ll just need to assemble it. But if you haven’t meal prepped it, you’ll need around 30 minutes to prepare everything from scratch.
It’s the last day of your meal plan, so if you’ve done your meal prep all you need to do is put together your smoothie and the Easy Fruit Salad Recipe for lunch. That will take you about 15-20 minutes to finish.
Also, if you don’t feel like making the Easy Fruit Salad Recipe as a dessert for your lunch, you can choose to make this as your AM snack and the smoothie as your PM snack.
Ingredient and Cooking Tips
This fatty liver diet plan has similar recipes and uses leftovers throughout the week. That’s because we want you to know that you can easily save time, money, and energy with careful meal planning! And you’ll be limiting food waste too.
Here are some additional meal planning tips to help you out:
- Start planning your grocery list on Friday and Saturday, and do shopping during the weekend.
- While preparing in advance, you can choose to pre-cut and cook your vegetables too.
- Try cooking methods that minimize added fats and promote heart health, such as grilling, air frying, baking, steaming, roasting, and sautéing with minimal oil. These methods help retain the natural flavors of foods without adding excess calories or unhealthy fats.
- As you’ve noticed in the fatty liver meal plan above, we’ve made a conscious effort to add veggies and other fiber sources like whole grains and fruits to your meal plan. Soluble fiber can help control your bad cholesterol and blood glucose levels.
- Opt for lean cuts of meat like skinless poultry, as well as low-fat dairy products. Try to limit ultra-processed meats like sausages, fast-food burgers, fried foods and commercially baked goods, which often contain unhealthy fats.
Below is a quick overview of the recipes that are repeated during the fatty liver diet plan:
Recipes | Number of servings to prepare | Day and meal planned |
Carrot Cake Overnight Oats | 2 servings | Breakfast, Day 2 and 4 |
Oat Flour Pancakes | 2 servings | Breakfast, Day 3 and 6 |
Spinach and tomato shakshuka | 2 servings | Breakfast, Day 5 and 7 |
Chopped Southwest Salad with Chipotle | 2 servings | Lunch, Day 1 and 3 |
Healthy Lunch Wraps | 3 servings | Lunch Day 4 and 6 |
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins | 3 servings | Snacks Day 1, 3, and 5 |
Easy + Crispy Air Fryer Zucchini Recipe | 2 servings | Snacks Day 4, and 6 |
Best Easy Healthy Baked Salmon | 2 servings | Dinner Day 1 and 4 |
Southwestern Black Bean, Quinoa and Mango Salad | 2 servings | Dinner Day 1 and 4 |
Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta | 2 servings | Dinner Day 2 and 5 |
One-Pan Roasted Chicken, Broccoli | 2 servings | Dinner Day 3 and 6 |
Some food safety reminders
This meal plan calls for some meals to be prepared in advance to save time. Here are some food safety tips to keep in mind when preparing meals in advance:
- Start with clean hands and surfaces.
- Use separate utensils, cutting boards, and cooking equipment if needed
- Use fresh ingredients and check expiration dates.
- Keep raw and cooked foods separate.
- Cook foods thoroughly and cool them quickly.
- Store meals in airtight containers with labels and dates.
- Thaw safely in the refrigerator, under cold water, or in the microwave.
- Reheat to 165°F (74°C) before eating.
- Use or discard leftovers within a safe time frame.
- Trust your senses – if it smells off, looks odd, or has mold, discard it.
What is Fatty Liver Disease?
Fatty liver disease or hepatic steatosis is when excess fats build-up in your liver which can cause inflammation in the long run and may lead to serious complications.
If you want to read more about fatty liver disease, click here. You can also look into the two classifications of fatty liver disease which are Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
What is the best diet for a fatty liver?
There’s is no specific diet label for when it comes to managing fatty liver disease. We shouldn’t also aim to eliminate food groups. Instead try to remember these principles:
- Balance your macronutrients (carbs, fat and protein)
- Focus on the quality and variety in each food group.
- Increase your fiber intake from fruit, vegetables, whole grains and beans and legumes.
- Limit saturated fat in your diet, and focus more on healthy fats.
- Limit added sugars and refined carbohydrates in your diet.
- Reduce your sodium intake by limiting processed foods, reading food labels and using more of herbs and spices.
- Limit your alcohol intake or avoid it altogether.
- Stay properly hydrated.
- Be mindful of your portion sizes.
To give you an idea of how to apply these tips to your meals, you can check out our food swap ideas for each meal!
Breakfast and Snack Ideas for Fatty Liver: Eat This, Not That
Instead of choosing: | Swap to |
Refined grains, frosted and sweetened cereals and sweetened cereal bars | No-sugar added muesli Whole wheat cereal Recipes: Breakfast Banana Bars No-Bake Peanut Butter Energy Balls Egg Porridge – High Protein & Healthy |
Pastries such as muffins, croissants, doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, pastry filled cream | Whole grain bread (wheat bread, rye bread, spelt bread, multigrain breads) Recipes: Healthy Chocolate Banana Bread Healthy Lemon Blueberry Bread |
Sweetened yogurt, and pudding | Sugar-free jelly Reduced sugar, no-added sugar or sugar-free yogurts, greek yogurt, plain yogurt with added nuts, and fruits Recipe ideas: Easy Blueberry Chia Pudding Healthy Yogurt Parfait Popsicles 5-Minute Healthy Peach Frozen Yogurt |
Beverage Ideas for Fatty Liver
Instead of | Swap to |
Sugar-sweetened fruit juices, soda, sugary drinks | Natural fruit juices (sugar-free or no-sugar added ones) Seltzer or sparkling water (you can also add some fruit juice for flavor) Recipe ideas: Japanese Iced Tea Recipe Raspberry Lime Fizz |
Sugar-sweetened sports drinks | Water (for intense workouts, you can add a pinch of salt and citrus) Coconut water No-sugar added sports drinks Recipe ideas: Lime Watermelon Coconut Water Recipe Homemade Electrolyte Drink |
Flavored milk and yogurt drinks | Plain milk or plain yogurt drink. You can choose to add fruit into it. Vegan milk alternatives (which usually have lower fat content). You can add some vanilla, or a teaspoon of your own sugar to add some flavor. |
Alcoholic beverages | Recipe ideas: Gut Healthy Blackberry Mint Mojito Mocktail Mixed Berry Mocktail Healthy Mojito Mocktail Strawberry Basil Mocktail |
Dinner and Lunch Swaps for Fatty Liver Meal Plan
Instead of | Swap to |
Fast food pizza, fries, and burger | Homemade versions where you can control fat and sodium. Pair them with some salad or veggies. Recipe ideas: Healthy Homemade Pizza Easy, Healthy, & Quick French Bread Pizza Jamaican pork burger with grilled pineapple (low sodium) |
Fried foods | Air-fried, Grilled, baked or roasted options Recipe ideas: Air Fryer French Fries |
Processed meat and red meat | Plant-based protein like beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh, or edamame (here are some meal ideas) Lean cuts of meat like skinless poultry, lean beef or pork, or trimmed cuts of lamb Seafood options like salmon, trout, tuna, or shrimp |
Refined grains | Whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, barley, oats, bulgur, whole grain bread, wraps, and whole wheat pasta |
Similarly, you can read about Low Cholesterol Diet Plan and our Mediterranean diet meal plan to get more inspiration on how to apply diet tips into your meal plan.
Lifestyle changes for Fatty Liver
Managing fatty liver disease is a holistic process. Not only do we improve our food choices, but we need to focus on other lifestyle factors too. To give you an idea, here some of the lifestyle changes that work in tandem with a healthy diet for fatty liver disease:
- Weight management
- Regular exercise
- Stress management
- Quitting smoking
- Regular medical check-ups
It’s also useful to know that there is a possibility that you may have some underlying conditions as well that may be related to fatty liver disease. This is why the last tip, which is to have regular medical check-ups, is important. It’s also ideal to consult a dietitian to help you calculate your nutrient needs while taking into consideration your medical needs – especially if you need to consider weight management, and/or specific nutrients related to your health condition.
FAQs on Fatty Liver
There is no single fruit that can magically make a fatty liver condition disappear. What you can focus on is trying to “eat the rainbow” or eating a variety of colors of fruits in your diet.
Eggs can be part of your diet when you have fatty liver. Choose to cook them in less oil, through boiling, poaching, or scrambling with minimal added fats.
Preferably, cook with less fat. Examples would be: baking, broiling, grilling, air-frying or steaming.
Try to choose food options from the menu that are grilled, baked, or steamed. Try to also choose lean proteins, fill up on veggies, watch portion sizes, and limit added sugars and fats.
Try limiting high-fat foods, sugary beverages, processed snacks, and excessive alcohol to manage fatty liver disease. Read more about this, in this section.