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Asian Perspective of Nutrition in Liver Disease

  • Nutrition in patients with Chronic Liver Disease (AV Kulkarni, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Nutrition is one of the essential foundations of the management of chronic liver disease. In cirrhosis, malnutrition is common and is associated with poor prognosis. There will be differences in cultural, social, and ethnic specific body composition among various nations and these are to be considered during the nutritional advice. This review will discuss the assessment and management of nutrition in ambulatory adult patients with cirrhosis from an Asian perspective.

Recent Findings

All patients with chronic liver disease are to be screened for risk of malnutrition and those at risk of malnutrition need to undergo a detailed nutritional assessment, which includes dietary assessment, anthropometry, sarcopenia assessment, muscle function tests, and global nutritional assessment. The daily energy requirement for a stable cirrhotic is 25–35 kcal/kg with daily protein requirement of 1 to 1.5 g/kg. Diet should be diverse and should include all the food groups daily to meet the requirements. Three main meals and three-time snacks especially bedtime snack and breakfast are important in cirrhosis, which is an accelerated starvation state. Micronutrients deficiency is also to be considered and managed.

Summary

Nutrition is an essential component of cirrhosis management, and all patients are to be screened for risk of malnutrition. Nutritional counselling must be personalized and appropriate to the patient’s condition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Discipline of Nutritional Science, School of Continuing Education, IGNOU, New Delhi, India

    Namrata Singh

  2. Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition Unit, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India

    Srikanth Gopi & Anoop Saraya

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  1. Namrata Singh
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Correspondence to Anoop Saraya.

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Singh, N., Gopi, S. & Saraya, A. Asian Perspective of Nutrition in Liver Disease. Curr Hepatology Rep 21, 131–141 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11901-022-00593-1

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