How To Keep Your Liver Healthy

In our last two articles we looked at the vital roles the liver has to ensuring good health, and ways to tell if your liver is under par. This final part in the series includes important do’s and don’ts to keep your liver in tip top form.

If you want to keep your liver on your side read the following tips carefully! First are several things best minimised or avoided all together because of their negative impact on the largest organ in your body, your liver.

1.  Read food labels on all processed food i.e. those foods not in the outside perimeter of the supermarket – look out for:

• Sugar (it may have different names such as corn syrup, evaporated cane juice, high fructose corn syrup and others).
• Fructose, found in many foods either present naturally or as an additive, is metabolised in the liver.  Like alcohol, fructose can cause fatty liver if eaten to excess.
• Additives – artificial flavours, colours and sweeteners as well as others. For a comprehensive pocket guide to the different numbers used for additives on food labels we recommend ‘The Chemical Maze; shopping Companion’ by Bill Statham.
• Damaged fats such as vegetable oil (which can mean any kind of low quality oil depending on what is most available at the time i.e. soybean, canola or sunflower oil) and trans fats.  Both of these can be found in deep-fried foods, margarine and table spreads. We recommend using extra virgin cold-pressed olive, coconut oil and avocado oil, and butter (organic if possible).
• Foods which say ‘Low in calories’, ‘Low fat’ or ‘99% fat free’ as these foods usually have the fat removed and sugar added instead to make them palatable – however this only makes things worse for the liver.

2. Alcohol – even small quantities of alcohol if consumed regularly can burden your liver. The liver is responsible for detoxifying alcohol so having complete breaks regularly from alcoholic drinks helps your liver.
3. Refined and processed carbohydrates such as foods made from white flour i.e. white bread, pasta, pastries, muffins and cakes etc. are best avoided.

• Avoid foods which you are allergic or sensitive to, as these weaken liver function and stress the immune system.
• Avoid eating when you feel stressed; at these times the body’s resources are focused on other areas, not the liver and digestion and we when you feel strung out you also tend to make the wrong food choices.
• Avoid over-eating, only eat when you’re hungry and find other ways to occupy your time when you’re just bored.

Now here are 12 useful tips on things you can do as part of your week to make your liver’s job easier and make your liver your best pal.

7. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to a glass of filtered water and drink first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything else. This primes your liver and digestion for the day ahead.
8. Drink at least 8 glasses or 2 litres of filtered waterdaily (spread throughout the day – not all in one go!). This helps to flush toxins out through the bladder and bowels preventing them from being recirculated in the bloodstream.
9. Eat organic foods where possible, especially fresh produce, meats and dairy products.  Non-organic foods can be laden with pesticides, herbicides, hormones and antibiotics all of which are toxins the liver must tackle.
10. Strive for a healthy digestive system. As the body’s filtration system, the liver filters out and destroys bacteria and viruses that enter the body with food. So a healthy digestive tract with a good balance of friendly bacteria protects the body from intruders and lessens the liver’s load.
11. Liver supportive herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion root, globe artichoke, greater celandine, turmeric and schisandra are some of the many herbs have many beneficial properties for optimal liver health and function. They are protective and restorative to liver cells, they provide protection from free-radical damage, they help to stimulate liver bile production for healthy fat digestion and they target inflammation in the liver.
12. Minerals – a broad spectrum of both macro- and trace minerals are required for all enzymatic processes in the body including the livers important detoxifying role.

• Vitamins, especially the B complex vitamins and Vitamin C aid liver function and cleansing. Antioxidants such asAstaxanthin and Resveratrol are also very good for supporting the liver.
• Amino acids from high quality dietary protein and protein/amino acid supplements helps in one of the livers main detoxification pathways. Of the amino acids taurine is particularly important as it is the main amino acid used by the liver for removing toxins from the body.
• Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids help the cells to transfer toxins from within the cell to the outside of the cell. Omega-3 is also important for a healthy immune system and a healthy inflammatory response.
• 
  Use chemical-free body care products to minimize the chemical load the liver has to deal with.  The skin is extremely absorptive so everything that is applied to the skin and hair ends up in the blood stream and must be cleared out by the liver. E.g. choose chemical-free, liver-friendly products like natural shampoo/conditioner to support your liver as well as healthy hair and scalp.
• Use chemical-free household cleaning products like detergents, all-purpose cleaners, and laundry powder as these may find their way into your body through the skin, by inhalation or through our food.

• Foods that aid liver detoxification that can be regularly included in your diet:

• Sulphur containing foods: garlic, onion, leek, spring onion and eggs.
• Brassica family vegetables: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cavalo nero, bok choy and mustard greens.
• Green Foods: Barley Grass, alfalfa andSpirulina

Although there are many tips here, with a little effort they can easily be incorporated into your daily life, and if you’re looking at this list thinking how the heck…..? Simply choose 2-3 options you know you can achieve and implement these first.  Then tackle another 2 – 3 options and so on.  In no time you’ll start to feel the difference…with more energy and a new lease on life.

And if it all feels too hard, just look back to our last 2 articles (Part I and Part II) to remember how vital the liver is to your wellbeing.  For those who want extra reading we recommend the book “The Liver Cleansing Diet” by Dr Sandra Cabot.

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