Mary Allen
The liver is the body’s central metabolic organ. It forms, stores, and detoxifies numerous nutrients, vitamins, hormones, etc. If this “Swiss army knife” of the organism is weakened, the diet must be adapted to the changed metabolic situation.
What is the Goal of a Liver Diet?
In the case of liver diseases, a diet adapted to liver problems helps to relieve the liver. The goal of dieting is usually not to treat the cause of the disease but to reduce the effects of liver disease.
For example, many chronic liver patients lose weight and develop deficiency symptoms after some time, since important processes in the energy metabolism and storage functions of the liver no longer function.
The main goals of a liver diet are, therefore:
- Sufficient energy intake, keep your weight as normal as possible
- Supporting normal metabolic processes
- Avoiding an accumulation of metabolic toxins (due to disturbances in the detoxification function of the liver)
- Supporting liver cell repair and regeneration
- Compensation for electrolyte imbalances
How should a liver diet be composed?
Limitations in liver function can have very different causes, but certain nutritional principles are the same for almost all liver patients since the liver always reacts in a similar way to disorders.
Changes in protein metabolism
Most of the proteins circulating in the blood are formed in the liver. In the form of small building blocks (amino acids), they are absorbed from food in the intestine and reach the liver via the portal vein, where they are used to build up exactly the proteins that the body needs, e.g.:
- Albumin: It makes up more than half of the protein produced in the liver and is responsible for binding fluid in the blood vessels and serving as a carrier for other substances. A lack of albumin leads to fluid accumulation in tissues (edema) and body cavities, for example, abdominal dropsy (ascites)
- Blood clotting factors: They ensure that blood vessel are sealed again quickly in the event of minor injuries. If there is a lack of coagulation factors, this process takes longer, so that large bruises can form in the subcutaneous tissue, for example.
- Excess protein building blocks (amino acids) that the body does not need at the moment are normally broken down into their individual parts by the liver and partly converted into carbohydrates or fats for energy production. This releases nitrogen compounds that have to be detoxified or stored by the liver. If the liver cannot do this, ammonia builds up in the blood (hyperammonemia). Certain amino acids (aromatic amino acids) also accumulate in the blood when the liver is weak, as they are more difficult to metabolize in the liver. Both lead to brain damage, which can manifest itself in the form of seizures, decreased consciousness, or behavioral problems and is known as hepatic encephalopathy.
Proteins in the liver diet
The consequence of the changes in protein metabolism is that a liver diet should by no means contain too much protein in order to reduce the risk of hepatic encephalopathy. On the other hand, of course, it must not contain too little protein so that the organism is not forced to metabolize endogenous proteins, e.g. from the muscles, in order to build up albumin and the like.
In the diet of healthy dogs and cats, there is usually more protein than is absolutely necessary, so a liver diet has a lower protein content than an “average food”. It is all the more important that the proteins in the liver diet have a particularly high biological value, i.e. that they contain exactly the amino acids that the organism needs so that there is a little “waste” as possible that has to be detoxified. A high proportion of branched-chain amino acids has been shown to help reduce the concentration of ammonia in the blood and thus the impairment of the nervous system. A high proportion of the amino acid arginine supports the liver in ammonia detoxification via the so-called urea cycle.
Some vegetable proteins best meet these requirements, such as soy protein, which is why liver diets can contain less meat than other foods. The biological value and digestibility of the proteins in liver diets are significantly higher than in the conventional ready-made feed.
In the case of hepatic encephalopathy due to severe liver failure or a liver shunt, the protein supply may first have to be restricted to the extent that it is below maintenance requirements. Your treating veterinarian will recommend appropriate feeding measures in these cases.