Love Your Liver Awareness Month
By Joanie in Health Tips, Lifestyle Tips on 14 January 2023
Its National Love Your Liver Awareness Month! Our liver is an absolute powerhouse of an organ and is responsible for over 500 functions of the body. Amongst its many important roles, the liver filters, cleanses and breakdowns everything that passes through our body. Quite simply, it is our body’s natural detoxifier. When the liver becomes overwhelmed with toxins, its natural working cycle slows down. This happens when our body becomes overloaded with things such as alcohol, drugs, processed and fatty foods and chemicals (such as pesticides left on produce).⠀⠀
The good news is, there are lifestyle habits you can make that will keep your liver healthy and help stimulate its natural ability to expel toxins from the body. ⠀⠀
Here are 2 simple steps to improve your liver health:⠀⠀
⚡Drink less than 14 units of alcohol ⠀⠀
⚡Eat a healthy diet & exercise more. ⠀⠀
Here are 8 powerful foods to eat to keep your liver healthy:⠀⠀
1. Citrus Fruits: Fruits like grapefruit, oranges & lemons all boost the liver’s cleansing ability as citrus fruits help the liver to produce the detoxifying enzymes that flush out pollutants.⠀⠀
2. Cruciferous Vegetables: Such as broccoli, cauliflower & kale as they contain glucosinolate, which helps the liver to produce detoxifying enzymes. They also contain sulfur compounds that aid with liver health. ⠀⠀
3. Beetroot: Beets assist with increasing oxygen by cleansing the blood, & can break down toxic wastes to help them be excreted quicker. ⠀⠀
4. Turmeric: The compounds in Turmeric have been found to improve liver function & reduce the levels of toxicity in the body by stimulating the lymphatic system & removing toxins efficiently. ⠀⠀
5. Walnuts: Walnuts are high in the amino acid arginine & assist the liver in detoxifying ammonia.⠀⠀
6. Garlic: Garlic is packed with sulphur, which activates liver enzymes that help your body flush out toxins. ⠀⠀
7. Avocado: Avocado’s are rich in glutathione. It’s function is to protect cells against oxidation & to help the liver rid itself of toxins. ⠀⠀
8. Apples: Apples have high levels of pectin, which helps the body facilitate the process of cleansing and releasing toxins from the liver.