Dr. Prabhat AryaMBBS, MD (Internal Medicine) · DMC Reg. No. DMC-83759drprabhatarya.com

Reviewed by Dr. Prabhat Arya, MD (Internal Medicine) on 29 September 2026

Diet chart for fatty liver

Fatty liver goes back when the weight comes down. No special food is needed: ordinary Indian home food in smaller amounts, no alcohol, and a 30-minute walk five days a week are the treatment.

½ Vegetables and salad ¼ Dal, paneer, curd, egg, fish, chicken ¼ Roti, rice or millet
  1. Lose weight slowly, about half a kg a week, until 7 to 10 kg of every 100 kg is gone (for a 70 kg person, 5 to 7 kg). Crash diets harm the liver.
  2. No alcohol at all. Even small amounts keep the liver fatty.
  3. Fill half the plate with vegetables and salad, a quarter with dal, paneer, egg or chicken, and only a quarter with roti or rice.

Eat more

  • Green and leafy vegetables: lauki, tori, bhindi, palak, methi, cabbage, cauliflower, beans
  • Salad before meals: cucumber, tomato, onion, carrot, radish
  • Dal, chana, rajma, sprouts, soya, paneer, curd, eggs, fish, chicken
  • Whole fruit, one at a time, twice a day: guava, apple, orange, pear, papaya
  • A small handful of nuts: almonds, walnuts, peanuts
  • Water, chaas, lemon water; tea, and 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day, all without sugar

Eat less, and measure

  • Roti: two small ones per meal. Mix besan, bajra, jowar or ragi into the atta
  • Rice: one small katori, not a heaped plate; eat it with dal and sabzi
  • Potato, arbi, shakarkandi, corn: count them as roti or rice, not as sabzi
  • Mango, banana, chikoo, grapes: a small portion only
  • Cooking oil and ghee together: 3 to 4 teaspoons per person for the whole day
  • Salt: less than one teaspoon a day in all, counting pickle and papad

Avoid

  • Alcohol of every kind: beer, wine, whisky, desi daru
  • Cold drinks, packaged juice, fresh fruit juice, sweet lassi
  • Sugar, gur, honey, sweets and mithai
  • Maida: white bread, biscuits, rusk, naan, bhature, noodles
  • Fried snacks: samosa, pakora, namkeen, chips, puri
  • Desi or herbal "liver tonics" not given by your doctor

A sample day

Vegetarian first; the swap is for those who eat eggs, fish or chicken.

On waking
Water. Tea or coffee without sugar. 4 or 5 soaked almonds
Breakfast
Two besan or moong chilla with vegetables and a katori of curd, or one bowl of vegetable daliyaSwap: Two-egg omelette with vegetables and one multigrain roti
Mid-morning
One fruit: guava, apple or orange
Lunch
Salad first. A big katori of sabzi, a katori of dal or rajma, two small rotis or one roti with a small katori of rice, raitaSwap: Chicken or fish curry in place of dal
Evening
Tea or coffee without sugar with roasted chana or makhana, or a bowl of sprouts chaatSwap: A boiled egg
Dinner, by 8 pm
Sabzi, paneer or dal, one or two rotis. Lighter than lunchSwap: Grilled fish or chicken with sabzi
Bedtime
Nothing more. If hungry, a cup of chaas

Common myths

Only drinkers get fatty liver.
Most fatty liver in India comes from extra weight, sugar and diabetes.
Thin people cannot have fatty liver.
They can, especially with a belly. The same diet helps.
A liver tonic or detox drink will clean the liver.
None does. Some desi medicines damage the liver.
Stop all oil and ghee.
A small measured amount is fine. Fried food is the problem.

Dr. Arya’s note for you

Vomiting blood or black stools: go to hospital at once. Yellow eyes, or a swelling belly or feet: see a doctor the same day. These are signs of serious liver damage.

This is general advice for adults. If you also have diabetes, follow the diabetes chart for sugar and this one for weight. If you have cirrhosis, kidney disease or are pregnant, your diet may need changing: ask Dr. Arya first.