Liver Detox

Boosting Liver Health

The liver is a crucial organ when it comes to health, as it is responsible for over 500 functions.

For instance, your liver filters everything you eat and drink. It regulates blood sugar levels and helps expunge toxins from your body.

Every day, your liver:

• cleanses the blood from microbes
• performs detoxification by metabolizing drugs, toxins, and alcohol
• performs bile production and secretion
• is responsible for metabolizing old red blood cells
• performs hormone homeostasis (balancing out hormones)
• metabolizes glucose, fat, and protein
• supports heat production

and much more.

The liver is the second largest organ in the body, and performing over 500 functions daily means it needs to be in tip-top health.

Despite how remarkable the liver is, it cannot be protected from toxicants and chronic stress and is susceptible to becoming overtaxed.

An overtaxed liver can express itself through an array of symptoms. Here is a list of the signs of a toxic liver:

• Feeling sluggish
• Hormonal symptoms (PMS, perimenopause, mid-cycle pain, etc.)
• Skin issues: pigmentation, acne, rashes
• Struggling to lose weight
• Brain fog
• Headaches
• Water retention
• Cravings
• Poor digestion
• Feeling nauseous after eating fatty foods

The great news is that the liver can regenerate itself. Its capacity for repair is immense, but it needs to be paid attention to and nurtured into optimum health.

So many people see incredible results when following the Eat Burn Sleep lifestyle because it is aimed at detoxifying the liver.

Our hormones start working beautifully when gut and liver health are supported. We reap many benefits: clarity of mind, happier mood, better body composition, clear and youthful skin, better hair, higher energy levels, and overall decreased levels of chronic inflammation.

This section is to help educate you on the foods that support our liver and give you a chance to take some extra steps and boost your detox.

We like to do a liver detox around spring and autumn every year, focusing on the foods below and avoiding some. A change of season is a perfect time for a boost, so you enter the next season feeling strong and refreshed from the inside out.

Watch this video: MONDAY MOTIVATION: LIVER DETOXIFICATION

DETOX

So, it is crucial to have good liver function for overall health. The detoxification pathways need to be well supported for the liver to function well.

Phase I, II, and III of detoxification:

Before Phase, I, or during phase zero, toxins enter our cells (generally our liver cells), or toxins can also exit a storage cell in our body (generally an adipocyte or fat cell). Indeed, our adipose tissues store toxins.

Phase I: Once toxins have entered our system (phase 0), phase I is triggered. Our body needs to “deal with” those toxins, which is done thanks to enzymes belonging to the P450 cytochrome family during phase I. These enzymes carry out a few functions, such as oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis, hydration, and dehalogenation, in order to prepare the toxins for phase II.

Phase II: Once the toxins are converted into water-soluble metabolites, the liver conjugates them during phase II to take them out of our body.

Phase III: This phase is about the excretion and transportation of toxins. The toxins can be taken to the kidney for further filtration before being excreted via urine. Toxins are also excreted via sweat and stools. Hydration is absolutely vital for phase III to be performed adequately.

Foods to limit:

• Caffeine intake, including decaf coffee. If you miss the taste of coffee, a good alternative is dandelion coffee. You can buy it as ground dandelion and use it in your cafetiere or french press, as you would with ground coffee.
• Black tea
• Sugar intake (stick to low-sugar fruit and avoid orange list sweet foods)
• Alcohol (try to cut out alcohol for 3 weeks for a complete detox)
• All the red list foods
• Excess fat (stick to the fat advice in the meal planning advice section)

Detox foods to focus on:

• Egg yolks
• Cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, Brussel sprouts, broccolini, cauliflower
• Garlic, onion, scallions, shallots, chives
• Green leafy vegetables
• Parsley to support kidney function
• Chicory, endives
• Radishes, mooli, daikon
• Dandelion root tea to support kidney function
• Asparagus
• Beetroot
• Apples
• Lemons
• Rosemary
• Turmeric
• Berries
• Parsley, coriander, seaweed, and spirulina contain chelating agents that are great for detoxifying heavy metals (mercury and lead).
• Protein in moderation (following the portion size advice in the meal planning advice section): packed with methionine and taurine, which are needed for phase 2 liver detoxification
• Bone broth
• Fiber helps the excretion of hormones from the gastrointestinal tract (soluble and insoluble fiber)
• Water: hydrate according to the advice on the platform; this is essential for liver detoxification and kidney function

Green tea and all non-caffeinated teas are fine (as long as no fruit or sugar is added to them).

Your 7-day liver detox meal plan (NEW)

This new 7-day liver detox meal plan is the prefect tool for you to maximize your results and support your liver detoxification pathways. You can follow it for 7, 14 or 21 days on repeat. It also is a great guideline to create a different menu for yourself if you wish to tweak it to your own preferences. Click on the image below to access it and download it.

Activities to support your liver detoxification

• Regular movement supports detoxification.
• Sauna, hammam, and infrared sauna support mitochondrial biogenesis
• Epsom salts baths: soak for 20 minutes in a warm (not too hot) bath with a cup of Epsom salts. Epsom salt baths promote methylation and detoxification pathways
• Dry body brushing to stimulate lymphatic drainage of toxins
• Optional: lymphatic drainage massage, Acupuncture focused on liver detoxification and supporting the detoxification pathways
• Sleep: aim for 8-9 hours between 10 pm and 7 am for optimal rest.

Supplements:

• Vitamin B complex (do a cure for a month)
• Milk thistle: This aids phase 1 liver detoxification which is basically when toxins, hormones, etc., are synthesized, but can slow down phase 3, which is when they are excreted. Take milk thistle daily for one week only.
• Vitamin D is essential for liver detoxification, so you can supplement if you have an insufficiency or if you’d rather be on the safe side.
• Vitamin C is important, but you get plenty of it from all the vegetables and fruits on the food lists, so that should be fine. Also, we can not store vitamin C, so it is essential you keep to this healthy lifestyle in the long run!
• Psyllium husks (milled) to aid excretion and promote regular bowel movements. Take 1 teaspoon with a bit of water after lunch and one after dinner, followed by two glasses each time.
• Activated charcoal or chitosan helps bind toxins in the gut. Start it from week 2 and have it daily for a couple of weeks.

How long shall you do this?

We suggest you increase your intake of liver-loving foods and detox for one week twice a year, but you can do it for longer if you wish. If you feel your toxic load is high, you can do this for 14 or 21 days and revert to the 80/20 lifestyle afterward. You can also do 7 days of focusing on the liver 4 times a year before each new season.

This is a fantastic way of boosting your system and increasing the results you are seeing from the Eat Burn Sleep lifestyle.