CMHC Pulse Blog

A global coalition of leading health organizations unites to mark World Liver Day on Saturday, April 19, emphasizing the pivotal role of nutrition in supporting liver function and preventing disease. With the theme “Food is Medicine,” the campaign urges the global community to take action through sustainable lifestyle changes.

Chronic liver disease currently affects 1.5 billion worldwide, claiming 2 million lives annually. Yet up to 90% of liver diseases are preventable through modifiable risk factors such as diet, weight management, and physical activity. Organizations like the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the Latin American Association for the Study of the Liver, and the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver are leading the charge in advancing awareness and evidence-based interventions, while highlighting the importance of a healthy diet with the theme of “Food is Medicine.”

“Diet and exercise still remain the underlying thing that we need to really focus on for everyone,” says Layla Abushamat, MD, MPH, DABOM, Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, who in addition to her teaching duties is also a researcher and has a clinical practice. “When it comes to cardiometabolic health, you want to focus on things like making sure you’re getting lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of fiber, and reducing added sugars and salts and saturated fat to help reduce your risk of all these other comorbidities.”

Taking Action for World Liver Day

To support individuals and providers, the World Liver Day site offers resources aimed at promoting dietary awareness and healthier dietary habits, such as downloadable fact sheets and a link to Yuka, an independent, ad-free app that allows users to scan food barcodes for details about the product’s health and environmental impacts. There is also a link to LiverTox, which provides evidence-based information about the effects of dietary and herbal supplements on the liver.

At CMHC, our Lifestyle Management Educational Hub offers additional tools to support sustainable change, including webcasts with expert insights and perspectives on topics ranging from Dietary Strategies for Reducing Type 2 Diabetes to Practical Approaches for Managing Obesity. Additionally, an interactive online CME activity featuring escape-room challenges combines high-level information on the diagnosis and treatment of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (MASH). You can acquire advanced knowledge from top faculty, then challenge yourself in virtual, case-based escape rooms where you’ll solve clinical puzzles, address real patient scenarios, and implement key concepts interactively. It’s an immersive experience that enhances learning and strengthens crucial decision-making skills, making the process of earning CME credits both educational and enjoyable.

Evidence-Based Steps for Liver Health

The World Liver Day initiative emphasizes realistic, impactful strategies to improve liver outcomes:

• Weight Management: Losing even 5% of body weight can significantly improve liver function.
• Personalized Nutrition: Diets rich in whole, unprocessed foods and low in added sugars and saturated fats support liver health.
• Consistency Over Fads: Sustainable, balanced dietary habits are more effective than restrictive, short-term diets.
• Early Intervention: Healthy childhood nutrition sets the foundation for future liver and cardiometabolic health, underscoring the need for diets low in ultra-processed foods.

Dr. Abushamat emphasizes that consistency—not the type of diet—is the key to success.

“Every study comparing low-carb, low-fat, or Mediterranean diets shows similar outcomes—as long as there’s calorie restriction and adherence,” she explains. “The most effective diet is the one the patient can sustain.”

A Multidisciplinary, Patient-Centered Approach

Recognizing the social, cultural, and geographic variables that shape behavior, Abushamat calls for a more collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to patient care.

“Every single study that’s been done to look at what’s better — low-carb versus low-fat versus Mediterranean — ultimately, they all lead to the same weight loss as long as you can adhere to the diet, as well as reduce your calories,” she says. “So it really comes down to calorie restriction. And the best way to do it is whatever way the person in front of you is willing to do it and can be consistent with it.”

She admits it can be a challenge, though, to know what recommendations to make, given the various physical, cultural, socio-economic and geographical elements in play. “Physicians aren’t necessarily the best people to provide exercise prescriptions or even nutrition prescriptions. We don’t really know a lot about nutrition therapy, we’re not great necessarily at being able to identify what’s good exercise for a patient, unless that’s specifically what you’ve been trained to do. And so it’s really working with a multidisciplinary team to help a patient meet their goals.”

It’s part of what Abushamat describes as the “big umbrella” of cardiometabolic disease and the variety of experts needed to address it. “The future of this area is really that it’s going to become more personalized,” she says. “I think it’s also going to be more collaborative, all the different specialties and different people within the specialties, whether it be physicians or dieticians or physical therapists. All of us really need to work together to identify the needs of the patient in front of us and how we can get them on a regimen, a therapy they can adhere to.”

Her own personal dietary recommendation? Coffee.

“Coffee is actually beneficial for fatty liver — it can help reduce fatty liver. And that’s probably one of my favorite factoids. When someone tells me I drink too much coffee, I say, well, it’s good for fatty liver.”