Your largest internal organ is also one of the most important. The liver metabolizes everything that enters your body, so if you keep it in good health, you can stay disease-free and happy.
Here are some gentle reminders on how to help your liver do its job better.
- Sip a cup or two of green tea every day. The catechins in green tea cleanse and tone the liver.
- Drink a tall glass of warm lemon water in the morning. It flushes out toxins from the liver and helps the digestive system work better.
- Snack on fresh fruit instead of drinking fructose-laden fruit juice, which is known to cause fatty liver. Sweet, juicy berries and citrus fruits are beneficial in particular, thanks to their high antioxidant content.
- A pinch of turmeric in your soups and stews can help heal liver infections—turmeric is a time-honored anti-inflammatory spice.
- Eat Chinese stir-fried veggies more often. They are not only delicious, but help to detoxify your liver from the toxins in the environment.
- Include some bitter foods in your daily diet—endives, rocket, dandelions, bitter gourd, fenugreek—these stimulate the production of bile and help the liver perform its job better.
- Bring on the garlic! An amino acid called methionine in garlic helps the liver work more efficiently and protects it from damage. Add a few sesame seeds to the proceedings, and you have even more methionine, not to mention great flavor.