Love Your Liver

No, I’m not referring to eating liver and onions, although if you’re looking to up your iron intake, it’s not a bad way to go. I’m talking about loving YOUR liver. Cleanse it, nourish it, LOVE it! Here’s why your liver so important that it deserves your undivided attention.

Your liver performs a number of vital functions in your body. Not only does it process almost everything you ingest, breathe and absorb through your skin, but it also produces enzymes and hormones, and is critical to your immune system health. Your liver is the final filter in your body’s detoxification system. Like the oil filter in your car, it cleans out toxins that could be harmful to your health in any number of ways.

While you can change the oil filter on your car, you can’t swap out your liver every 3,000 miles, can you? What you can do is make sure you keep your liver clean and functioning well by supporting it with the foods you eat and supplementing with liver cleansing herbs.

Make sure you’re eating lots of raw veggies especially those of the cruciferous variety. This includes artichokes, brussels sprouts, cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, kale, and kohlrabi, along with horseradish, wasabi and a handful of others. Beets are not cruciferous but are loaded with antioxidants that will support the liver and help with detoxification. Juicing these veggies packs a powerful liver-cleansing punch as it ups the concentration of antioxidants and phytochemicals and makes them super easy to digest and absorb.

The chlorophyll found in green veggies, including wheat grass, is said to be cleansing for the blood and might just give your liver a much needed rest. You can also supplement by adding liquid chlorophyll to your water.

Milk-thistle extract is the liver supporting herb of choice. It has strong anti-oxidant properties and may help regenerate liver cells. Of course, avoiding fats, sugar and processed foods will minimize the toxins your liver has to work to eliminate.

While it’s important to support the health of your liver day-to-day, it can also be beneficial to do an intensive liver cleansing once or twice per year to keep things working smoothly. When was the last time you cleaned your liver?