Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes for Fatty Liver Disease: Good or Not?

Ah, what would life be without potatoes? Well, if you’ve just been diagnosed with a fatty liver, you might soon find the answer to that question firsthand because potatoes and NAFLD/MASLD are not best friends – on the contrary!

Fortunately, you don’t have to say goodbye to potatoes forever and completely take them out from your diet, nor stay away from them for a long time if you do it right.

And today we’ll learn what “do it right” means. We’re going to talk about potatoes and fatty liver in this article and answer the burning question that many of us have: are potatoes good or bad for fatty liver?

The quick answer: Yes, potatoes can be bad for fatty liver if consumed in excess or cooked in unhealthy ways, but in moderation and prepared correctly, they can be part of a healthy diet.

When you first start learning about the diet and lifestyle adjustments you have to make after being diagnosed with a fatty liver, you are most likely told that you have to cut off fats (and if you are lucky, sugars too).

Although this is indeed what you have to do, it is by no means enough: reducing fat and sugar consumption is just one of the steps that you have to take. Keeping an eye on carbs (aka carbohydrates, which are also sugars) is also extremely important!

Why? Well, because excess carbohydrates turn into fat too! Some even say that carbs are even more dangerous than fat itself, as our body goes the extra mile to synthesize them into fats – and the liver does all this!

When you consume more carbs than your body needs, the liver converts excess glucose into fat through a process called de novo lipogenesis (DNL). Over time, this stored fat accumulates in your liver cells, worsening your condition (or causing it).

And guess which food is also high in carbs? The good ol’ potato! So, this takes us to the following logical question:

Why are potatoes potentially bad for fatty liver?

baked potatoes

Please, before anything else, note the use of the word “potentially” above. We’ll get back to this later as potatoes are not inherently bad for the liver. There are healthier ways to cook them and still enjoy them, and we’ll talk about those below as well.

But until then, here’s the bad thing about potatoes:

A single medium sized potato will have anything between 25 to 35 grams of carbs (you can check out all the nutritional values on Wikipedia).

Since a healthy adult should consume about 130 total carbs daily, it means that eating a single medium sized potato would already give you at least 20% of the daily carbs a healthy body needs.

It would be safe to assume that somebody who isn’t healthy (as in having NAFLD) will actually have to eat even fewer carbs each day until they reverse it.

But that’s not all! Things become a bit more complicated, because we eat potatoes cooked in an unhealthy way: frying a potato or even eating boiled potatoes with melted butter and cheese turns them into a caloric bomb that’s extremely unhealthy!

Any gravy we might add on top of it adds extra fats and sugars, making potatoes a pretty bad choice if you’re trying to reverse your fatty liver.

In other words, the way you cook your potatoes can make them really bad for the liver and NAFLD especially. Here are the types of fries you should stay away from:

  • French Fries.
  • Baked potatoes with extra fats, gravy, or sugary stuff on top.
  • Boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes also with extra fats, gravy, melted butter, and/or cheese.

However, as I said earlier, a potato is just “potentially” bad for a fatty liver (and for general health).

If you boil or bake a potato and eat it without adding the stuff that makes it unhealthy, it shouldn’t be a huge problem, on the contrary: you’d get a bit of variation into your diet and a pleasant taste!

Potatoes, The Glycemic Index and Its Role in Fatty Liver

For reference, a boiled or roasted potato has a Glycemic Index of around 60, which is relatively low. Mashed and Instant Potatoes hover at around 80. Fried potatoes go all the way up to 95, which makes them the worst choice.

Why do we care about this Glycemic Index?

Foods with a high GI can increase insulin resistance, a key driver of fatty liver disease. This spike leads to insulin signaling your liver to start storing fat instead of burning it. And since you already have excess fat stored in your liver, it’s not something you want more of!

If you haven’t tried eating potatoes that are just boiled in water or baked without anything added on top, give it a try: you will be surprised to see that the taste is still really good!

Of course, you can add a bit of salt to improve the taste and all sorts of spices to make it taste better (I usually add paprika powder and turmeric, but you can also add oregano, rosemary or basil – basically, any spice you enjoy!)

If you really need to add some sort of a dressing, top your boiled potatoes with a bit of balsamic vinegar (or, even better – apple cider vinegar) or add some low fat yogurt on top (instead of cream/butter).

This is how I ate and still eat them and I had no problems, having reversed my fatty liver. However, I have an additional piece of advice here.

You should not eat potatoes daily and you should divide potato consumption in two phases: the strict phase, which lasts for one to six months (first months of your diet) should only include potatoes once a week at most – and just one medium potato.

Afterwards, ideally after you have reversed your fatty liver, you can start adding potatoes to your meals: half a potato in a soup or stew, an entire medium sized potato to your meal a few days later – all these are acceptable as long as you don’t eat them too often (and without added fats or sugars).

Try to only eat once or twice per week and keep the portions as small as possible. To reduce the glycemic impact, always pair your potatoes with fiber-rich vegetables, lean proteins, or healthy fats (like avocado or olive oil), which help slow down digestion and prevent unhealthy insulin spikes.

Cooked without added fats and sugars, potatoes still have a high amount of carbs due to the starches inside them, but they also offer a solid nutritional value: they have a bit of fiber and protein, but also larger quantities of iron, potassium, vitamin C and B6, which are beneficial for our bodies.

But if you think you’re not getting enough vitamins as you diet, make sure to read my previous article about the best vitamin supplements for fatty liver.

Another thing to keep in mind is the fiber content of potatoes. Potatoes, especially with the skin on, contain a decent amount of fiber. Fiber is crucial for liver health because it helps regulate blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

High-fiber foods also help feed the good bacteria in your gut, which are important for reducing inflammation and managing fatty liver.

Your gut and liver are closely connected through something called the gut-liver axis, and research shows that poor gut health can contribute to liver inflammation and fat buildup.

So, when you’re thinking about what to eat with your potatoes, focus on fiber-rich foods like leafy greens, broccoli, or other non-starchy vegetables to help balance things out.

Are Sweet Potatoes Good for Fatty Liver?

sweet potatoes

Even though they are called “sweet” potatoes, these vegetables can have a lower GI than regular potatoes, when cooked properly.

Sweet Potatoes are very similar to regular potatoes in terms of carbs (around 20% carbs). They also have a lot of vitamins and minerals – in some cases more than regular potatoes. You can check the full nutritional values and more about their health benefits over at Heathline.

But the conclusion would be that yes, you can also eat sweet potatoes if you have a fatty liver. Eat them in moderation and don’t add the stuff we usually add when cooking them like extra sugary things or extra fat.

Basically, treat Sweet Potatoes just as you would treat regular ones. This also means that if you had your portion of regular potatoes this week, you should wait until next week if you feel like having Sweet Potatoes. Don’t treat them as two different things.

Here’s something sweet potatoes have over regular potatoes: beta-carotene. This antioxidant converts to vitamin A in your body, and vitamin A is known for its anti-inflammatory properties, which can benefit liver health.

Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of fatty liver disease, and diets rich in antioxidants can help protect your liver from further damage.

While sweet potatoes still have carbs that need to be managed, their extra nutrient density, including beta-carotene, makes them a slightly better choice compared to regular potatoes, as long as you don’t add ingredients to make them unhealthy.

Conclusion

Just like with most of the foods out there, potatoes or sweet potatoes and fatty liver follow the same golden rule of thumb: moderation is key.

They are potentially unhealthy if you eat them together with unhealthy foods (or consume then in excess). But the same can be said for spinach or avocado or anything, in the end.

Put a bit of kale in a melting soup of cheese and honey and you’re not eating healthy! You get the idea…

Although potatoes are potentially worse than most vegetables you can eat when on a diet to reverse NAFLD, you can still keep them in your diet and eat them boiled or baked so you don’t have to completely wave them goodbye.

If you want to learn more about various specific foods and fatty liver, I recommend checking out these articles:

Now back to our potatoes: if you have any additional comments or questions, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments section below.

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8 thoughts on “Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes for Fatty Liver Disease: Good or Not?”

  1. Thank You very much – your article addressing potato’s was just what I needed to read as there are so many things I can not eat any more.
    SSA in MN

    Reply
  2. I nuke them to get them cooked, then I use non-fat sour cream and/or EVOO to juice them up. If you don’t put something on them, they will literally choke you when you try to swallow them.

    Reply
  3. My son was just diagnosed with NAFLD and me and my wife are so upset because he also has F2 fibroses and we don’t know how to handle this. The doctors have told him that he has to change his lifestyle and diet. My wife is making mash potatoes with turkey dinner and I was wondering if potatoes is good for fatty liver and you answered it.

    Thank you,

    Sal

    Reply

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