10 Ways to Improve Your Liver Function
The liver is one of the overburdened organs in the human body, performing over 5,000 functions. Unfortunately, our modern sedentary lifestyle and poor diet choices further weaken our liver health and expose us to life-threatening diseases.
Well, the best thing about our live is its ability to regenerate itself. When it is given the critical nutrients, a healthy whole foods diet, and herbs to help it function, it can be restored to health most of the time.
Here are several ways to restore your liver function and improve its function.
Detoxify. Take vitamins and minerals. A diet high in fruits and vegetables is a pro-liver diet. Reduce your intake of processed foods, artificial food additives, colours, and preservatives from your diet to give your liver a break.
Eat smartly. Eat plenty of fresh carrots and beets, both of which are powerful liver cleansing and rebuilding foods. In addition, eat plenty of green foods. The chlorophyll, which gives plants their green colour, helps cleanse the liver.
Ditch saturated fats. Reduce your intake of heavy, fatty foods since they just create more work for the liver. Avoid margarine, shortening or commercial oils or any foods made with them.
Eat early. Avoid eating at least three hours before bedtime to allow the liver adequate time during the night to perform its many functions, unimpeded by other bodily processes like digestion.
Spice your food with garlic. Garlic doesn’t just make most dishes delicious and flavourful. It also helps your liver activate enzymes that can flush out toxins. It also has a high amount of allicin and selenium, two natural compounds that aid in liver cleansing.
Sip grapefruit juice. Eating or drinking grapefruit juice can help your liver flush out carcinogens and toxins. This fruit is also high in both vitamin C and antioxidant properties.
Go greens. Leafy greens like spinach and lettuce have the ability to neutralize metals, chemicals and pesticides that may be in our foods, and act as a protective mechanism for the liver.
Drink alcohol in moderation. Alcohol can destroy liver cells and lead to liver damage that causes fatty liver health, inflammation, alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis. If you already have liver health disease, drinking even a small amount of alcohol can make it worse.
Work out. Exercise is one straightforward way to lower your risk of fatty liver health disease, not only by helping you to maintain a healthy body weight (obesity increases your risk of fatty liver disease) but also by leading to liver health improvements independent of weight loss.
Get tested for and vaccinated against hepatitis. Because hepatitis often doesn’t cause symptoms, you can have it for years without knowing it. If you think you’ve been exposed, talk to your doctor about being tested.
Most liver diseases are really serious so make sure you take care of yours. By living an active, healthy lifestyle, you can significantly protect yourself from liver problems.