The foods and drinks that are linked to increased fatty liver risk

What you eat and drink could be putting you at risk of deadly liver disease – even if you rarely touch alcohol.

Liver disease is rising rapidly around the world, with experts warning it could affect up to 1.8 billion people by 2050 unless diets and lifestyles improve.

Once seen largely as a condition affecting heavy drinkers, it is now increasingly being diagnosed in people who drink little or no alcohol.

This form, now known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD – formerly called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – is driven by factors including obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and unhealthy diets.

It often develops silently, causing no obvious symptoms for years. As a result, many people have no idea they are living with it until significant liver damage has already occurred.