Fatty Liver: What to Drink Each Day, when Plain Water Becomes Boring

You don’t have a lot of options when it comes to the beverages you can drink when you have a fatty liver, with the best option being that of drinking plain water.

But drinking plain water gets old really fast, and you’re starting to look for other options available. And this is exactly what we’re talking about today: what to drink when you have a fatty liver disease.

And before we get there, we’re going to quickly go through the things you are definitely NOT allowed to drink anymore:

• You are not allowed to drink alcohol with fatty liver. This is one of the most important things you have to understand and accept, no matter how difficult
• You are not allowed to drink any sodas or juices with added sugars. They all have a ton of chemicals and/or carbs that are extremely unhealthy. I wrote more in depth about drinking diet sodas with fatty liver here.
• Even natural juices should be consumed scarcely, because they contain a ton of carbs (which are unhealthy) and not much else.

As you can see, there are quite some changes that you need to make if you want to reverse your fatty liver – even when it comes to what you drink.

But as you will see below, it’s not extremely difficult and you still have a ton of options. Let’s see now what beverages can you drink with MASLD.

What to drink if you have a fatty liver

Besides plain water – which should be your main source to get hydrated during the day and night, here are some of the things that you can drink to have some variety throughout the day:

1. Lemon Water

This is probably the most popular alternative for water when it comes to MASLD patients, so I am listing it first.

Basically, it is as simple as adding a teaspoon of natural lemon juice (or more, depending on taste) into your water. Make sure that you squeeze the lemon yourself and drink it relatively fast.

You can add some crushed mint leaves (also fresh) to improve the flavor, but don’t add any sugar or sweetener.

If you have organic lemons (or lemons without chemicals on their peel), you can add a few slices of lemon too. Otherwise, stick to using the juice only.

It might sound strange at first and even taste a bit funky because of the lemon with no sugar, but you will get used to it and start loving it sooner rather than later.

You also get a bit of extra vitamin C, as well as the lemon juice which some say helps you lose weight.

If you want to read more in depth about this drink, I have an entire article dedicated to lemon water for fatty liver.

2. Sparkling Water

I absolutely love sparkling water. It’s the best option or alternative to the fizzy drinks that I enjoyed so much before being diagnosed with a fatty liver.

For some reason that I can’t really understand, many people hate soda aka sparkling water. If you’re one of them, you don’t really have to force yourself to drink.

But do try it because after a month or two of plain water, you might start to enjoy it.

Plus, you can add lemon to it for an extra spunk.

3. Coffee

Fortunately, you can still drink coffee if you have a fatty liver. Sure, you might not be able to drink your favorite Caramel Macchiato (or anything like that), but you can still drink plain coffee!

Ideally, you should have your coffee black. BUT a small amount of milk and even a bit of a natural sweetener (like honey or Stevia) won’t do a ton of damage.

I used to add a quarter of a teaspoon of honey in my coffee, but recently I was able to stop adding it at all, but instead I do add milk to it.

If you were used to heavier, sweeter and flavored coffee it will take some time to adjust, but you’ll to it eventually.

And if you enjoyed your creamer, I wrote an article about coffee creamer alternatives for fatty liver that you might want to check out.

4. Tea

This opens up a plethora of flavors and options. You can fortunately drink all kinds of tea if you have a fatty liver, as long as we’re talking about natural tea without sugar.

So green tea or black tea are allowed, just as all the types of fruit or plant teas out there, as long as they are made from the dried leaves and/or fruits and have no additional aromas or chemicals.

Don’t add anything else to your tea, though: just water and the teabag are enough.

The good thing is that you have a ton of flavors available, so you will easily find some that work for you without the need of any sweeteners (or milk). You can add some extra lemon, though.

I personally love this green tea brand, and also drink a lot of mint tea. (affiliate links)

Don’t drink tea to cure your fatty liver, though as there are no medical studies to back that up. Do drink them for added variety and their nice taste, though.

5. Smoothies

While not technically a drink, I decided to put them here because, well, I sometimes drink a smoothie and it feels so good!

The best part about smoothies (as opposed to freshly squeezed juices) is that they keep the pulp of the fruit, making them healthier options.

You’re not getting just the juice and some vitamins and minerals, you also get all the fiber and other goodies you can find in the pulp of the fruits.

However, you should not add any sweeteners to your smoothies. Also, you shouldn’t overdo it with them as some (if made with some of the sweetest fruits) can still pack a big caloric punch, as well as have lots of carbohydrates.

6. Flavored water

Before starting to jump up with joy, I have to mention that I don’t consider most of the flavored water available in stores as a healthy option.

Most of them are still highly processed, have added sugars and artificial aromas, which don’t go hand in hand with our fatty liver diet and the overall lifestyle changes that we need to make.

But you can make your own healthy, flavored water at home. It’s similar to lemon water – you just use various other fruits for this.

Using the juice from an orange, a grapefruit or some watermelon juice adds a nice touch to your regular water. You can use other fruits as well – like adding slices of strawberries, for example. You can add mint leaves or even cucumbers.

Prepare in smaller batches though and drink them before they go bad.

And yes, you can go for store-brought flavored water as well, like Spindrift and Hint (affiliate links), although it’s still best to make your own at home from real fruits.

7. Freshly squeezed juices

Freshly squeezed juices are not really recommended because when you prepare them, you lose most of the beneficial elements that fruits have to offer and instead you get a beverage with a high sugar content (even though it’s not artificial sugar).

However, it is still much better than store-brought juices and other fizzy drinks. So you can have these every now and then to satisfy your sweet tooth and get a treat.

But don’t make it a habit to drink them: instead, drink a glass every couple of weeks as a treat. Or, if you can do without, don’t drink at all.

But I did have them every now and then and still managed to reverse my fatty liver, so they’re not really the end of the world.

Do squeeze your own fruits though instead of going for the 100% juices in store (which are made from concentrate). Directly squeezed fruit juices from stores are allowed, as long as it’s 100% fruit content and they’re not made from concentrate.

Conclusion

As you see, things are not that bad when it comes to alternatives to the good ol’ water drinking when you have a fatty liver.

There are even more options in the grey zone – like alcohol free beer or zero-alcohol wine, but I don’t want to include them on the “allowed” list. I don’t think you should touch those until you have reversed your fatty liver, if ever.

But even without them, you still have a fair number of options. I personally drink my coffee daily, have one cup of tea almost each day (more during the cold season) and I drink sparkling water as a treat.

Most of the time, I drink lemon water and sometimes I switch to orange juice, pomegranate juice or the juice from a grapefruit.

It’s going well, so I can’t say I am really missing the old and sweet (and unhealthy) beverages that I used to consume.

And now that we have the drinks covered, let’s find out more about less popular diets that are still good for reversing fatty liver: the Paleo diet is one of them and I recommend you to continue reading about it.