Hi love,
Today I wanted to talk about 5 foods you can start incorporating right now to help support your liver. Spring is almost here and this is the perfect time to detox or cleanse. Our liver is our main detoxifying and fat burning organ so it is important we support it. We have other organs that help us detox but the liver is the work horse of them. Everything we eat once broken down gets filtered through the liver. Our blood, hormones and anything we breathe in or ingest as gets filtered through the liver. This makes it more important to support this amazing organ!
If the liver is overburdened (which is most likely the case due to our eating and living habits) this will lead to ill health.
Ok, let’s get to the foods to help support this organ and reduce any strain.
Foods to Support the Liver
- The first food is arugula – Arugula is a bitter, astringent green. It is available in the spring (and most of the year) and are great as salad bases. Arugula helps to stimulate bile flow due to it’s bitter properties. Bile binds to toxins and is dumped into the colon. It is important to note here that we are having bowel movements daily (really good ones I might add). If we are not the colon and constipation would need to be the first focus.
***I have an upcoming cleanse that will address this specifically. If the colon is backed up and the liver is detoxing this can lead to the toxins being reabsorbed 🙁 ***
2. The next food are going to be lemons, my favourite! I hope you already have warm water with lemon in the mornings. You can increase the amount of lemon daily by adding it into salads and throughout the day into your water. Lemons contain enzymes that are similar in structure to liver enzymes. This helps the liver replenish itself and function better. Lemons contain vitamin C. Vitamin C is great at stimulating bowel movements (see note above), helps with immunity and makes your skin glow 🙂 Lemons also contain alkalinizing minerals (even though they taste acidic) which helps to counteract acidity in the body. This allows the body to release more toxicity.
3. Beets are the third food. The beautiful red colour of beets is a result of a compound called betacyanin. This compound helps to stimulate bile flow in the liver. Bile binds to toxins to be escorted into the colon. Beets are also amazing blood cleansers as it contains iron and soluble fibre to help cleanse the colon. So beets go hand in hand with the liver and colon.
4. The 4th food are dandelion greens. Much like arugula they are bitter, astringent and cleansing greens that help to stimulate bile flow. They also act as a diuretic. Personally, I cannot eat dandelion greens as they are super bitter so I prefer to juice them to gain their benefits. You can also have dandelion as a root or leaf tea or even as Dandy-blend which is a coffee substitute. The raw juice will be more potent as it will contain enzymes and certain vitamins.
5. The last food/herb is milk thistle. This herb is very special as it helps to regenerate and rejuvenate the liver due to the compound silymarin. I prefer to take this as a tincture rather than a supplement. I have been using THIS tincture which also contains a blend of herbs to support liver function and support a gentle detox. My aim is to use it for 1 month every season or so.
I hope this helps you support your liver, it is such a powerful organ. Please let me know if you use any of the foods in the comments below! If you have another liver supporting food you love let me know as well 🙂
To liver health,
Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist
