In a bid to lose weight, Ms Liu (surname transliterated from Chinese) — a 29-year-old woman from Ningbo, China — decided to eat steamed vegetables for her meals.
This came after she was diagnosed with mild fatty liver during a medical checkup.
According to Elephant News, Ms Liu believed the condition stemmed from her excessive eating of meat.
Hence, she stopped eating meat and replaced the protein in her diet with “steamed leafy vegetables” and “steamed grains”.
Southern Metropolis Daily reports that Ms Liu was about 1.6 metres and weighed about 58kg.
After six months of dieting, Ms Liu lost about 5kg and shed considerable volume from her abdomen.
But when she returned for another round of checkups, doctors found that the 29-year-old’s fatty liver condition had worsened.
According to Jimu News, her fatty liver condition was now “moderate to severe”, as compared to “mild” six months before.
Source: 中国蓝新闻 on Weibo
Ms Liu was taken aback by the test results:
I’ve been on a vegetarian diet for the past six months and basically ate steamed vegetables, how could I’ve been diagnosed with severe fatty liver? This isn’t scientific.
Commenting on Ms Liu’s situation, Dr Yang Naibin (name transliterated from Chinese) — a doctor from The First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University — said many people have a flawed assumption that fatty liver only affects obese patients.
Dr Yang clarified that for patients whose fatty liver conditions are caused by obesity, “healthy and scientific” weight loss would help lower fat levels in their livers.
However, he warned that “unhealthy and unscientific” weight loss methods might end up aggravating fatty liver conditions. This is especially the case for those who undergo excessive dieting and have a severe lack of protein intake.
In Ms Liu’s case, Dr Yang pointed out that the 29-year-old consumed nearly no protein and fat for the past six months.
Dr Yang explained that the liver needs protein to break down and metabolise fat. If fat cannot be transported out of the liver, it will start accumulating in the organ.
Also read: 36-year-old man in China found to have green blood after drinking almost every day
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Featured image adapted from Ahanov Michael on Canva and 中国蓝新闻 on Weibo. Picture on the left is for illustration purposes only.
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