Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes and Fatty Liver: Can You Still Eat Them?

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 MASLD (aka fatty liver disease, formerly NAFLD) are not best friends – on the contrary!

Fortunately, you don’t have to say goodbye to potatoes forever, nor do you have to completely remove them from your diet if you know exactly how to prepare them.

And today we’ll learn everything about regular potatoes, sweet potatoes, and fatty liver and answer the burning question: are potatoes good or bad for fatty liver?

The short 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 liver-friendly diet.

When you first start adjusting your lifestyle after a MASLD diagnosis, your doctor hopefully told you to cut back on fats and sugars.

While that is true, it is by no means enough: keeping an eye on total carbohydrates is just as important as cutting sugar because excess carbs also turn into fat.

Our bodies synthesize these extra carbs into triglycerides in the liver through a process called de novo lipogenesis (DNL). Over time, this stored fat accumulates in your liver cells and can make your condition worse.

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?

Please, before anything else, note the use of the word “potentially” above. Potatoes are not inherently bad for the liver, but their macronutrient profile requires respect, while preparing them the right way is essential.

Until we get there, here are the bad things about potatoes and fatty liver disease:

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

Mainstream health guidelines suggest that a healthy adult needs at least 130 grams of carbs daily just for basic function (to a recommended 45-65% of your daily calories), which might seem a lot, but in reality, it isn’t quite so, as almost all foods have some carbs.

If you are working to reverse fatty liver disease, you also need to keep your carbohydrate intake lower than a healthy individual and eating just one potato takes up a massive chunk of that daily allowance.

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, cheese, and gravy turns them into a caloric bomb that’s extremely unhealthy!

So it’s actually these heavy fats and extra sugars that make potatoes a terrible choice for a healing liver.

Here are the preparation methods you should never choose after being diagnosed:

• French fries or anything deep-fried.
• Baked potatoes loaded with extra fats, gravy, or sugary sauces.
• Mashed potatoes whipped with heavy cream, butter, and cheese.

If you boil or bake a potato and eat it without adding the heavy ingredients that make it unhealthy, it becomes a much better choice, especially since potatoes do have plenty of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) that our bodies need. Plus, you get a bit of variation into your diet and a pleasant taste.

Potatoes, The Glycemic Index and Its Role in Fatty Liver

The Glycemic Index (GI) measures how quickly a food spikes your blood sugar. Foods with a high GI increase insulin resistance, which is a primary 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!

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.

If you haven’t tried eating potatoes that are just boiled in water or baked without anything added on top, give them 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 and is liver-friendly!)

If you really need to add some sort of 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.

How to Make Potatoes Healthier by Forcing Resistant Starch

There’s a useful “hack” everybody should be aware of, one that changes how your body processes potatoes. If you boil or bake a potato and then let it cool in the fridge overnight, its chemical structure changes.

The cooling process converts some of the digestible starches into something called “resistant starch.”

This type of starch resists digestion in the small intestine and acts much more like soluble fiber. It significantly lowers the glycemic index of the potato, meaning it will not spike your blood sugar or trigger the same heavy insulin response when you eat it.

Resistant starch also feeds the good bacteria in your gut. Your gut and liver are closely connected, and some research suggests that a healthy microbiome can directly reduce liver inflammation.

So, cook your potatoes a day ahead of time, let them cool down, and eat them cold or reheated after that period. Sure, they’re not going to taste as good, but you will get used to the taste sooner rather than later – I guarantee it!

But even if you apply this “hack,” you should not eat potatoes daily, and you should divide potato consumption into two phases:

The strict phase, which lasts for one to six months (the first months of your diet), should only include potatoes once a week at most – and just one medium potato.

The second phase, ideally after you have reversed your fatty liver: you can start adding more 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 add unhealthy ingredients and, at the end of the day, you’re still meeting your goals for calories, carbs and fats.

Try to only eat once or twice per week and keep the portions as small as possible. To reduce the glycemic impact even further, 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.

Are Sweet Potatoes Good for Fatty Liver?

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%). 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 Healthline.

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:

• Is oatmeal / porridge good for fatty liver?
• Can you eat noodles if you have NAFLD?
• Can you eat cheese if you have a fatty liver?

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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