According to Chinese Medicine, if your liver isn’t healthy, you’re not healthy. The liver performs over 400 functions in the body. It rules metabolism, which affects weight loss, digestive health, the immune system and eye and skin health. The liver helps digest fats, regulate hormones, store essential vitamins and minerals and break down drugs and alcohol.
The liver is your body’s primary filter, cleaning toxins from your blood and the foods you ingest. The more polluted the world is, the more work your liver has to do. When the liver gets backed up, you tend to feel sluggish and can develop a host of seemingly unrelated issues like allergies, weight gain, premenstrual syndrome, skin issues, and eye/eyesight problems.
The liver tends to get sluggish from stress, constant activity, environmental toxins, and dietary assaults like pesticides, sugar, alcohol and processed foods. The liver is a self-regenerating organ. If you relieve its burden with a cleanse it will function much better. Even if you live a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise and organic foods, you can still greatly benefit from a liver cleanse.
What does it mean to have a sluggish liver?
A sluggish liver becomes less efficient in ridding the body of toxins. Instead of leaving the body, toxins are stored in fat tissue and stay there until the liver becomes more efficient and eventually ushers them out. That’s why people with a sluggish liver have a hard time shedding weight regardless of diet and exercise. The extra fat protects the body from being flooded with toxins.
What are the symptoms of a sluggish liver?
Below are some signs your liver is struggling.
Chronic fatigue
Negative emotions (particularly anger)
Brain fog or lethargy
Chronic join or muscle pain
Chronic bad breath
Unexplained weight gain
Chemical sensitivity and allergies
Anxiety and depression
Hormone imbalances
Digestive issues like gas, bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea/constipation
Trouble digesting fats
Acne or skin conditions
Excessive perspiration
Chronic dull headaches or migraines behind the eyes
Negative emotions (particularly anger)
Brain fog or lethargy
Chronic join or muscle pain
Chronic bad breath
Unexplained weight gain
Chemical sensitivity and allergies
Anxiety and depression
Hormone imbalances
Digestive issues like gas, bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea/constipation
Trouble digesting fats
Acne or skin conditions
Excessive perspiration
Chronic dull headaches or migraines behind the eyes
If you experience several of these issue, a liver cleanse can likely change how you feel.
How to relieve your symptoms by taking better care of your liver:
Cleaning up your diet can help. Instead of eating processed, convenience foods, cook from scratch at home with high quality whole foods. Make healthy treats using alternative flours like nut or sweet potato flour instead of processed, white flour. Swap coconut sugar for white sugar. Eliminating processed foods, white flour and white sugar will take lots of pressure off your liver. Restricting fructose consumption from fruit juice will also help.
What foods to add and eliminate for a healthier liver
Increase leafy green consumption. Bitter food like leafy greens and lemon help cleanse the liver and support bile flow. Apple cider vinegar is also a great salad dressing choice for the liver. Your liver loves sulfur rich foods like broccoli, brussels sprouts, garlic, onions, asparagus and kale.
Fiber is also extremely supportive so try for a minimum of 35 grams. Chia seeds or flax seeds are a great source of fiber and can be mixed into smoothies or sprinkled over food.
Eliminate inflammatory oils like canola, corn, soybean, cottonseed, safflower and sunflower oils. Instead, use olive oil for dressing salads or ghee/coconut oil for cooking.
Buying organic reduces pesticides and drinking plenty of water flushes your liver. Protein and amino acids from quality sources like bone broth, collagen, grass fed meats or pastured eggs help strengthen the liver.
There are two superstar foods to include in any liver loving diet or cleanse, globe artichoke and turmeric. And milk thistle is a superstar liver supplement.
The benefits of globe artichoke include reducing LDL cholesterol, increasing bile production and flushing out old bile.
Tumeric is well known for it’s anti-inflammatory properties but also flushes dietary carcinogens and boosts and regenerates damaged liver cells. Tumeric is best paired with healthy fats and black pepper for maximum absorption.
Milk thistle protects liver cells from damage caused by viruses, toxins, alcohol and over-the-counter pain relieving drugs like acetaminophen.
The 21-Day Body Makeover is the perfect cleanse for supporting liver detoxification. This cleanse includes turmeric and other herbs formulated specifically to cleanse the liver and improve bile flow.
