Our livers work extremely hard everyday to protect us from
adverse affects from toxins and often it is easy for our livers to
become overworked compromising our health significantly.
Here are 7 common foods you can include daily to help cleanse your liver naturally.
The primary way in which your body expels toxins is via the liver, which
detoxifies and cleanses your body by continuously filtering the blood
of poisons that enter it through the digestive tract, the skin, and the
respiratory system. But when your liver becomes overworked as a result
of stress or excessive exposure to toxins, your entire system can be
thrown off balance, and your health severely compromised.
Since the liver is also responsible for producing bile, another form of
detoxification that is metabolically necessary for the breakdown and
assimilation of fats and proteins from your food, it is exceedingly
important that your liver be properly maintained. Without a
well-functioning liver, your body will be unable to cleanse itself and
absorb nutrients, which is a recipe for a health disaster.
"The thousands of enzyme systems that are responsible for virtually
every body activity are constructed in the liver," writes Dr. Karl
Maret, M.D., about the importance of vibrant liver function. "The proper
functioning of the eyes, the heart, the brain, the gonads, the joints,
and the kidneys, are all dependent on good liver activity."
"If the liver is impaired from constructing even one of the thousands of
enzyme systems the body requires, there is an impairment in overall
body function and a resultant greater metabolic stress on the
individual."
So here are seven important foods you may want to begin incorporating into your diet in order to maintain a healthy liver.
1. Garlic
Garlic contains numerous sulfur-containing compounds that activate the
liver enzymes responsible for flushing out toxins from the body. This
bulbous relative of the onion also contains allicin and selenium, two
powerful nutrients proven to help protect the liver from toxic damage,
and aid it in the detoxification process.
2. Grapefruit
Grapefruit is rich in natural vitamin C and antioxidants, two powerful
liver cleansers. Like garlic, grapefruit contains compounds that boost
the production of liver detoxification enzymes. It also contains a
flavonoid compound known as naringenin that causes the liver to burn fat
rather than store it.
3. Green Tea
Green tea is loaded with catechins, a type of plant antioxidant that has
been shown in studies to eliminate liver fat accumulation and promote
proper liver function. This powerful herbal beverage also protects the
liver against toxins that would otherwise accumulate and cause serious
damage.
4. Green Vegetables
Leafy green vegetables such as bitter gourd, arugula, dandelion greens,
spinach, mustard greens, and chicory also contain numerous cleansing
compounds that neutralize heavy metals, which can bear heavily on the
liver. Leafy greens also eliminate pesticides and herbicides from the
body, and spur the creation and flow of cleansing bile.
5. Avocado
Rich in glutathione-producing compounds, avocados actively promote liver
health by protecting it against toxic overload, and boosting its
cleansing power. Some research has shown that eating one or two avocados
a week for as little as 30 days can repair a damaged liver.
6. Walnuts
Walnuts, which contain high levels of l-arginine, an amino acid,
glutathione, and omega-3 fatty acids, also help detoxify the liver of
disease-causing ammonia. Walnuts also help oxygenate the blood, and
extracts from their hulls are often used in liver-cleansing formulas.
7. Turmeric
Turmeric, one of the most powerful foods for maintaining a healthy
liver, has been shown to actively protect the liver against toxic
damage, and even regenerate damaged liver cells. Turmeric also boosts
the natural production of bile, shrinks engorged hepatic ducts, and
improves overall function of the gallbladder, another body-purifying
organ.
