Love Your Liver
Love your liver, solfully!
Our liver is the largest solid internal organ, and it is fascinating how many jobs it has – and how hard it works for you 24/7.
Your liver is a powerhouse of detoxification, removes harmful toxins and makes several essential nutrients for your body. Whilst you can’t control every aspect of what’s going into your body from the outside world, there are some very simple things you can do to help keep your liver happy and healthy.
What does your liver do for you?
Energy
It’s the bodies chemical factory. This means it regulates your energy stores and balances your blood sugars. When you need energy, it converts glycogen (stored glucose) into glucose and releases it into your bloodstream for energy. When you have excess glucose, your liver stores it as glycogen for later use. When our blood sugar is out of balance you may experience symptoms like sugar cravings, fatigue, and brain fog.
Digestion and absorption
It also produces bile that has an important role in digesting fats, nutrient absorption, and eliminating excess waste and toxins.
Detoxification
It is also a major organ for detoxification. This helps to protect us from potentially harmful chemicals. It uses enzymes to disassemble unwanted waste and filters our blood to remove large toxins. We get these from alcohol and drugs, as well as other chemicals found in our beauty or other products. It also helps to break down ammonia which is one of the by-produces of digesting proteins.
When our liver is toxic is may lead to inflammatory diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, autoimmune diseases as well as hormonal imbalances that would leave you with symptoms like headaches, mood swings, and depression.
The liver has so, so many more functions! Actually more than 500.
How can we show our liver some love?
1. Try to avoid toxic exposure.
This can be things like purchasing organic fruits and vegetables and it could be avoiding certain substances like parabens in our personal products. A good website to check your products that you currently use is ww.ewg.org. They also have a Clean 15 Dirty Dozen list that illustrates what fruits and vegetables you should purchase organic and which are okay to eat conventional.
2. Get adequate sleep.
Our bodies repair themselves while we are sleeping. This gives our liver a chance to filter and clean up the mess from the day. Aim for that 8 hours of sleep daily.
3. Drink enough filtered water. Aim for 6-8 glasses of filtered water daily.
4. Limit your consumption of saturated fats* and added sugars. Example: If you purchase yogurts choose the unsweetened plain one and add your own fruit.
5. Get outside for a walk to soak up that natural vitamin D from the beautiful sunshine. Exercise and vitamin D. Such a good combo to show your liver some love!
6. My top 3 liver loving foods:
a. Cruciferous vegetables – these contain sulforaphane that enhances the detoxification process of the liver. My favourite is broccoli sprouts since I can grow them in my kitchen and eat them whenever I need.
b. Green Tea – these contain catechins that have been shown to improve liver function. They are full of antioxidants that neutralize free-radicals and help reduce oxidative stress and inflammation.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24065295/
c. Beetroot – loaded with fibre and packed with antioxidants while giving you a boost in energy since they are rich in nitrates that support heart health. Now that’s some love all while assisting the liver excrete toxins.
The liver is a vital organ which can support your body if you take care of it correctly.
Let’s show our liver some love this month!
Solfully yours,
Kari-Lynn
*Note: Some plant based saturated fats like coconut oil is acceptable except in the case of liver disease or fatty liver. In these instances, saturated fats need to be limited. Consume monounsaturated fats instead like olive oil and avocados.