Whatever food you eat and sip you drink, they go straight to your liver. For a healthy liver, add these seven liver-friendly foods to your diet.
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Being shaped like a boomerang, being the largest internal organ in our body and weighing approximately 3 pounds are some interesting facts about our liver. It’s responsible for a variety of inner chemical actions, and it works hard every moment to keep things going the right way.
Additionally, our liver has to solve the toxic from what we eat, what we drink and even the air we breathe. As a result, it is easily vulnerable and can be attacked by cancer, fatty liver and other dangerous diseases. If you want to keep your liver healthy, let consume these seven liver-friendly foods!
#1. Beet
Leading firstly in this rank is beet. With its red and purplish hues, beet is beautiful and bright. In terms of health benefits, beet naturally cleans and purifies our blood, which stimulates liver functions effectively. Also, it flushes toxins from our bodies instead of storing them in the liver, so our bloodstream will no longer absorb them.
Besides, beet is rich in antioxidants and essential nutrients such as beta-carotene, plant-flavonoids, iron and soluble fiber in pectin - which is well-known for its cleansing feature as well as the capability of keeping you full.
Other benefits of beet include devoting in the liver healing process, decreasing homocysteine, boosting acid production in our stomach and preventing other organs from cancers.
Try your best to eat regularly these purplish hue gems. Your overall liver function will be improved amazingly!
#2. Green Tea
Green tea is abundant in plant-based antioxidants, known as catechins. One of the most active catechins – EGCG – is believed to:
- Lessen the risk of many kinds of cancers, especially liver cancer.
- Limit the liver fat accumulation.
- Increase elevated liver enzymes.
- Eliminate sugar level in our blood, as well as preventing Type 2 diabetes.
- Stimulate healthy gut flora.
- Prevent obesity.
These antioxidants also attack free radicals and molecules that are produced by environmental toxins or normal body functions, protect cells against DNA damage and neutralize cell destruction that results in aging or being caught by diseases like cancer or heart diseases.
Daily absorption of green tea will block fat production in our liver and improve liver function. It is good for our skin, too. However, bear in mind that only fresh green tea brings us benefits. Green tea extract just has a bad effect on our liver health.
#3. Turmeric
Turmeric – a common spice that adds color and tastes to your food – is another good friend of the liver. By producing the enzymes that minimize the carcinogens, it assists enthusiastically in killing liver cancer.
Additionally, this golden spice gets rid of cholesterol from the liver. When fat accumulates exceedingly 5% to 10% the weight, fatty liver happens. This also causes other serious complications. Turmeric solves this by controlling the assimilation of cholesterol.
Not only this, curcumin – one of the major ingredients in turmeric – contact to liver cells to create extra LDL receptors. Thanks to the numerous receptors, more and more cholesterol is expelled from our body.
To people who are alcoholic, turmeric helps them cope with the excess alcohol. They support liver to fight with a large amount of alcohol and solve its consequences.
Adding about 5gr of turmeric with milk every morning and evening in a month will give you a positive improvement.
#4. Avocado
This superfood supplies a variety of chemicals: about 20 minerals, tons of nutrients and vitamins that are good for the liver. Some prominent vitamins found in avocados are vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin B6 and vitamin B9 (also known as folate).
Vitamin B9 and vitamin B6 improve the overall help of liver, join break down fats and prevent liver cancer. Vitamin E and other vitamins are good at reducing liver inflammations as well as preventing fatty liver, whereas vitamin C can help us prevent cirrhosis.
On average, an avocado contains about 22.5g of good fats, in which most of them are monounsaturated fats which effectively assist in going down LDL (Bad Cholesterol) while going up high-density lipoproteins (HDL or Good Cholesterol). HDL then cleanses the blood by delivering LDL to the liver. Then, the liver will carry its duty.
To gain benefits from avocado, eat 1-2 avocados weekly for a healthier liver.
#5. Grapefruit
Abundant in antioxidants as well as vitamin C, grapefruits hinder the function of CYP3A4 - one of the most important enzymes in the liver. By blocking this enzyme’s action, they reduce the metabolism of various drugs to allow others to be easily absorbed. In this case, if grapefruits aren’t consumed, more and more harmful pharmaceutical drugs will penetrate into the bloodstream. This really strains your liver during the detoxing time.
Moreover, grapefruits contain naringenin – a flavonoid compound promotes fat burning instead of storing it. Also, they encourage the digestive system, release heartburn or bloating, while their juice is a great solution for oily skin when applied outside.
Let have a glass of fresh grapefruit juice each day to increase the number of liver detoxification enzymes and flush out other toxins.
#6. Garlic
Garlic is full of sulfur. This chemical element activates the liver enzymes that support our bodies impulse overall digestion and evacuate toxins.
Moreover, garlic contains other numerous healthy components:
- Selenium: a mineral that encourages antioxidant process and liver detoxification.
- Arginine: an essential amino acid that helps to relax the blood vessels and ease liver blood pressure.
- Vitamin B6: decreases homocysteine level, exists as an important anti-inflammatory substance, strongly has an effect on the liver inhibits inflammation.
- Vitamin C: an antioxidant that forces of our body, prevents cellular oxidation from damaging liver cells.
In addition to saving our liver free of toxins and cancer viruses, garlic reduces fat accumulation. It can diminish total cholesterol as well as low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is the cause of fatty liver disease. Thus, regular garlic consumption will rid your liver of peril!
#7. Apples
Apples are full of pectin and other essential chemicals that are useful for our liver. These not only diminish toxic buildup efficiently but also cleanse and release toxins from digestion.
Like berries, apples supply many powerful phenolic compounds, especially flavonoids. They prevent liver inflammatory disease and decrease the risk of getting pancreatic cancer up to 23%.
That’s not all. Apples help our liver big time because of their valuable source of pectin. Moreover, malic acid, which is a natural cleaning nutrient, exists popularly in an apple to erase carcinogens and toxins in the blood.
Though every apple is great for our liver, remember to pick up organic apples as they’re free pesticide and poisonous chemicals. Eating an apple per day is one of the easiest ways to detoxify our liver. Don’t peel off their skins for the best effect!
Now it’s time to say goodbye. I hope my list helpful for you. Try your best to add these liver-friendly foods to your daily diet! I’m sure you will improve your liver a lot. If you have extra food that you want to add in our post, please share them with us! We always appreciate your support!