QUEZON City, Philippines (Eagle News Service, June 16) – We can call it as the “superhero” of our body’s organs – after all the liver is the one responsible for taking care and protecting our body by fighting off toxins, viruses and infections. The liver also regulates many of our body’s important functions like our energy and cholesterol levels and our vitamin and mineral supplies. And that’s just a few of its more than 500 functions!
So, it is very easy to overwork our livers. Unfortunately, in the modern society that we live in, we are surrounded by many ways and substances that cause harm to our liver, like eating too much processed or fried food, as well as being exposed to pollutants and stress.
It’s a good thing that we can ease the burden on our poor liver by adding these simple food items which can aid the liver in removing the toxic waste inside our body:
1. Garlic. It holds large amounts of allicin and selenium, natural compounds that aid in liver cleansing.
2. Grapefruit. A small glass of freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice, rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, which boost the production of liver enzymes that aid in detoxification.
3. Beets and carrots. Rich in plant-flavonoids and beta-carotene, eating beets and carrots help stimulate overall liver functions.
4. Green tea. Full of catechin, a kind of plant antioxidant, drinking green tea helps assist liver functions.
5. Leafy green vegetables. Rich in chlorophyll, leafy greens help in removing toxins from our body.
6. Avocado. It helps the body produce glutathione, which is necessary for the liver to clear away harmful substances.
7. Apples. It provides pectin which helps in disposing toxins from the digestive tract.
8. Olive oil. It helps the body by creating a lipid base which can suck up harmful toxins away from the body.
9. Gluten-free grains. The liver helps filter toxins in our body and grains that have gluten are full of said toxins.
10. Broccoli and cauliflower. Eating these vegetables will increase the amount of glucosinolate in our body, aiding our liver in producing needed enzymes.
11. Lemons and limes. Containing high amounts of vitamin C, these citrus fruits aid in synthesizing toxins that can be flushed out by the body.
12. Walnuts. Chewing these nuts well produces amino acid arginine which aids the liver in detoxifying ammonia.
13. Cabbage. Eating cabbage helps in stimulating production of much-needed enzymes.
14. Tumeric. It helps boost the effects of liver detox, by assisting enzymes that actively flush out carcinogens.
Aside from the above-mentioned food items, you can also try these simple steps to make your liver stronger:
1. Don’t overburden your liver. The liver already has too much in its plate so don’t add to its workload by drinking alcohol.
2. Drink plenty of lemon water. Water is one of the natural ways used by our body to detoxify while lemon is rich in citric acid that helps the liver produce bile.
3. Take liver-support supplements.
4. Get enough minerals. Essential for the liver’s detoxification process, so make sure to eat mineral-rich food or take a mineral-rich supplement.
By making simple and easy adjustments to our lifestyle, we can be sure that we have a healthy liver.
(ENS, written by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research of Khryss Leanne Omnes)