‘Detoxing’ is technically a myth ……. But you should still love your liver!
January '18
‘Detoxing’ has been a buzz word for a number of years….We detoxify potentially harmful substances that we that we ingest, such as environment chemicals, pollution, medications, even foods such as caffeine and alcohol, as well as endogenous substances that we produce as metabolic by-products by a number of processes and avenues. In truth our bodies are busy de-toxing all the time…. If we didn’t we would last long.
Detoxification processes happen in kidneys, liver, bowel and even via the skin. Your liver especially is a power house of detoxification. Going on ‘detox’ generally means that you lighten the liver load, removing things from your diet that you need to detoxify, at the same time increase the nutrients that your body needs to do its job. Ideally to the benefit long term, adjusting your life style as much as you can on a daily basis is the best way to increase your feeling of wellbeing and help protect against future disease.
5 Fantastic Liver Supporting Foods
1. Green Tea - Scientific researches suggest that green tea offers a two-fold benefit to the liver. First, green tea protects the liver’s cells and at the same time, boosts the immune system1. The antioxidants in green tea have been proven protect the liver from the damaging effects of alcohol, cigarette smoking and other toxins. Moreover, one research reported that green tea may help prevent the growth of cancer cells in the liver and in many other organs of the body
2.Red berries – Super high in plant antioxidants. A Finnish trial in 2010 found that regular consumption could help prevent liver disease2. Try to choose organic varieties because while these little nutritional gems pack an antioxidant punch they often come high in the ‘dirty food lists’ (high in pesticides/herbicides) 3.
3. Green Leafy Vegetables – Contain plant (phyto) nutrients called glucosinolates that your liver loves to use to detoxify 4. As a result plenty of spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale rocket etc etc. are essential to this list. Best eaten raw or lightly steamed.
4. Onions and garlic – Are what are known as sulphur containing vegetables. Sulphur is a key ingredient for some of the main liver enzymes, as a result these store cupboard basics help your liver no end 5.
5. Turmeric – This Indian spice both protects the liver by being an anti-inflammatory7 and helps it do its job by enhancing liver enzyme production6 and being a powerful antioxidant7. It’s absorption in to the body is greatly increased by consuming with black pepper and fats.
So if you are thinking about ‘detoxing’, maybe avoid faddy fasts….. instead love your liver by cooking yourself up a warming veggie curry with lots of turmeric, onions, garlic and green veggies?!
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855614/
2. http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v64/n6/full/ejcn201027a.html
3. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty_dozen_list.php
4. https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-0033-1352132
6. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01635589209514174
7. http://www.eprints.iicb.res.in/1061/1/25_CS_2004.pdf
