We used to think that the liver was the seat of strong emotions. Even if your liver isn’t responsible for your courage, it is the first step to detoxify everything you eat.
Your liver isn’t the only thing in your body getting rid of toxins, but for most people it needs more support than the others. Alcohol, acetaminophen, artificial sweeteners, and a salt heavy diet are all common ways people stress their liver.
Your blood passes through the liver, and with each pass, the liver removes toxins. For example, you have a couple of glasses of wine. Your liver neutralizes as much of the alcohol as possible, but can’t get it all at once. As blood passes through the liver, it detoxes as much alcohol as it can. On average, a healthy liver can manage one drink per hour—more if you’re a man or bigger, less if you’re a woman or smaller.
You can imagine how hard a less than healthy liver has to work, or a liver combatting both alcohol and a heavy load of salt and fried foods (beer and onion rings, maybe?). It’s important to support your liver so that it can function it’s best!
-You can change your diet to make life easier for your liver—while treats are ok sometimes, eating healthy means less work for you liver.
-Eat foods that naturally detox, like apples (pectin helps remove heavy metals).
-Eat foods that support the liver, like artichoke, which naturally increases bile production. Antioxidant rich foods can also help support the liver.
-Try supplements to detox your body, like zeolite.
-Or, try supplements that detox your liver, like Liver DTX. It’s rich in antioxidants, and has nutrients that the liver needs.
Supporting the health of your liver doesn’t just mean that your body can detoxify itself more easily, it also means better digestion, a healthier metabolism, and support for a wide range of other functions including hormone production.
What are your guilty pleasures, and what do you do to counteract them?