Hopefully you checked out last week's post all about detoxing! If not, now's your chance!
As promised, here are list of things you should be reducing + adding to your diet to help support your liver daily.
Reduce/remove highly sensitive foods - these include most packaged, processed and fast food restaurants. Make sure to read labels and if there are non-food ingredients, like preservatives, natural flavors, colors, etc. it's best to avoid it.
White foods (sugar, flour, breads, rice, milk)
Caffeine and sugars (coffee, soda, sports drinks, alcohol)
Gluten grains (wheat, rye, barley, malt)
GMO foods (corn and soy)
Commercial dairy (milk, cheese, butter, even eggs)
Commercial meat (beef, pork, lamb, sandwich meats, farmed fish)
Tap Water (more info below on why filtered water is so important!)
*If there are foods and drinks you are extremely attached to try and cut it down by 50%.
Add/Increase SOUL food - seasonal, organic, unprocessed, local foods:
Fresh vegetables* (raw, steamed, baked, or sautéed)
Fresh in-season fruits full of antioxidants* (blueberries, acai, grapefruit, lemon, beets)
Non-gluten grains (brown rice, quinoa, millet)
Grass-fed meat and wild fish (turkey, chicken, beef, lamb, salmon)
Grass-fed dairy (organic sheep, goat milk, pasture raised eggs) if tolerated
*Choose high water-content and colorful fruits and vegetables, and eat them both cooked and raw
Bitter foods/herbs! The taste of bitter in the mouth is stimulating to the liver. There is a direct feedback loop from the tongue to the liver. Every time you taste something bitter, your liver gets a positive jolt that stimulates it to put out more bile and forces out accumulated toxic waste.
Bitter Foods (arugula, dandelion greens, artichokes, kale)
Bitter Herbs* (milk thistle seeds, dandelion root, yellow dock, and gentian root)
*You can find these in teas or in supplement format
Garlic and onions are renowned antibiotics, anti-fungals, and chemical detoxifiers - would recommend adding these to multiple meals!
Cruciferous vegetables: These are my fav! :) They contain liver supporting phytochemicals that are released when chopped, chewed, fermented, cooked or digested and are especially rich in dindolylmethane (DIM), which is effective in detoxifying excess estrogen.
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Turnip
Kale
Watercress
Booster Foods! (Foods that boost your metabolism) They also neutralize and detoxify environmental chemicals by enhancing the healing of tissue damage and improve your liver gut and kidney functions.
Spirulina/chlorella/algae
Protein powders (whey, hemp, rice, pea)
Sea vegetables (nori, natto, seaweed)
Seeds* (flax, chia, hemp, sunflower, pumpkin)
Nuts* (almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts)
Nutritional Yeast
Herbs and spices (anise, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, etc)
*Eat them raw OR soak them overnight and dehydrate at a low temperature (110° F) until crispy OR lightly toast them at no more than 250° F
Filtered Water! The type of water you drink does matter -- tap water can contain lead, pathogens, toxic chemicals, acrylamide, residues of pharmaceuticals and body care products, and much more! EWG has confirmed that more than 260 contaminants have been detected in tens of thousands of samples of tap water (many of them petrochemicals and their by-products) and more than half (141) are unregulated.
Additional drinks:
Bone Broth (rich in the amino acid glycine, which plays a key role in your liver detoxification pathway)
Fresh vegetable juice (rich in vitamins that protect your liver from oxidative damage)
Green Tea (it's antioxidant-rich properties increase the production of detoxification and boost your immune system protecting your liver from the damaging effects of toxic substances such as alcohol)
White Tea (did you know white tea has more antioxidants than green?!)
Herbal tea (milk thistle, chicory root, dandelion root, turmeric, peppermint, yellow dock root, are all herbs that enhance liver detoxification)
Matcha (the chlorophyll in matcha can help improve liver function, which can help increase your body’s ability to flush out toxins)
Coconut Water (the electrolytes help with hydration, inflammation and detoxification of the liver)
Takeaways!
1. It's possible to help our liver detox daily through food and drink sources.
2. Limit your processed foods. They contain food toxins that disrupt your hormones and liver functions.
3. Go for organic - when possible! I know it can be expensive so check out the Environmental Working Group's 2019 list of the dirty dozen and clean fifteen below!
4. Swap the tap water for filtered but make sure to stay away from plastics as well.
5. Cruciferous veggies are your best friend when it comes to helping your liver detox.
*For the full list of EWG's shopper guide click here.
Comments