7 Amazing Foods That Cleanse Your Liver Naturally


Today’s blog is republished from my friends at PaleoHacks, a leading publisher of daily health tips that I personally read every day… Here is the link back to the original article

By Samantha Gladish, PaleoHacks.com

Do you need a liver detox? Here are the best natural foods that will cleanse your liver naturally!

Have you been slugging through your day, extremely exhausted? Are you struggling with your digestive and gut health? What about extra sensitivity to perfumes and smells? If you checked yes to any of these questions, this could be a sign that your liver is on overload.

As your main detoxifying organ, your liver is impacted by everything you come in contact with. It works hard to detoxify toxic chemicals and carcinogens naturally, but did you know common detox kits aren’t enough to maintain your liver’s productivity?

Heading out to your local health food store and buying a 10-day detox kit just won’t gonna cut it! As much as those kits can be effective in “cleaning you out,” they really don’t address the biggest and most important issue, which is food! So, how do you cleanse your liver?

Tweet – “When it comes to detoxification, it’s all about the food, or more specifically, the nutrients needed to support detoxification on a daily basis.”

It’s true, we detoxify daily, which is why only 10 days won’t cut it. Toxins can be found in the food we eat, our environment, household cleaning products, and even our furniture! Our bodies are in a constant state of toxic overloaded.

There are numerous ways to gently and safely detoxify our bodies. For example, eating more herbs, consuming more supplements, and choosing clean organic whole foods are all things we can incorporate into our daily lives.

But before we dive into what to eat, let’s first understand what detoxification is all about.

What is Detoxification?

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Detoxification is about resting, cleaning, and nourishing the body from the inside out. By eliminating toxins and nourishing your body, detoxification can help protect you from disease and renew your ability to maintain optimal health.

In other words, we’ve got to eliminate toxins and feed our bodies natural foods to help us feel at our best. The foods you choose to eat play a vital role in eliminating toxins from your body, as well as supporting different organ systems.

Your Liver

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As your main detoxifying organ, your liver has over 500 functions in the body. Consequently, your liver is constantly ridding your body of waste, metabolizing hormones, and assisting in digestion.

Tweet – “Combining vitamins A, B, and C with minerals such as zinc, magnesium, calcium and selenium are all important for supporting detoxification and the liver.”

Several amino aids are also important for improving detoxification and eliminating chemicals from your body. Cysteine and methionine in particular help to prevent oxidation and bind to heavy metals such as mercury to help flush them from your system.

An incredibly powerful and important antioxidant needed for detoxification is glutathione. This antioxidant works to decrease toxins accumulated from smoke, radiation, auto exhaust, chemicals, drugs, and many other carcinogens.

Since your liver is your main detoxifying powerhouse, it is important to eat foods that optimize the health of the liver and supply you with many of the vitamins and minerals mentioned above.

7 Foods That Cleanse Your Liver:

Garlic

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Contains sulfur compounds that are essential for supporting the liver and activating liver enzymes that are responsible for flushing out toxins and waste from the body. Garlic also contains selenium, an important mineral and nutrient that assists in detoxification and supports the thyroid gland.

Citrus Fruits

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Lemons, limes and grapefruits are all natural sources of vitamin C and contain many potent antioxidants. Like garlic, citrus fruits have the ability to boost the production of liver detoxification enzymes.

Broccoli

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Along with other brassica vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower, broccoli contains sulfur compounds, just like garlic, that help to support the detoxification process and the health of the liver. In fact, these fibrous veggies can help flush out toxins from your gut, and they contain compounds that help support the liver in metabolizing hormones.

Avocado

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This incredible fruit contains glutathione, which is a powerful antioxidant that helps to protect the liver from incoming waste and toxins. It also assists the liver in eliminating these chemicals from your body and protects against cellular damage.

Leafy Vegetables

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The bitterer, the better! Your liver loves bitter, so load up on dandelion, rapini, arugula, mustard greens and chicory. These leafy greens contain numerous cleansing compounds that neutralize heavy metals, which can slow down the liver’s ability to detoxify. Plus, they help to stimulate bile flow.

Turmeric

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This incredible herb contains a boatload of antioxidants that help to repair the liver cells, protect against cellular damage and assist in detoxification. Turmeric is particularly good at helping the liver detox from heavy metals and assist in hormone metabolism. Turmeric also boosts the production of bile and improves the health of the gallbladder.

You can make an array of yummy eats using turmeric, ranging from pumpkin and turmeric soup to “golden ice.”

Walnuts

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These oddly-shaped nuts contain high levels of l-arginine, glutathione, and omega-3 fatty acids, all of which help to detoxify the liver and support toxin elimination. Plus, they are great for fighting inflammation and supporting the health of the brain.

A simple and delicious way to include many of the above liver-loving foods is to juice them. If you don’t have a juicer, you can make the recipe below using a blender.

Here is a potent detoxifying juice you can make at home to cleanse your liver and overall health.

Total Time:
2 MINS
Cook Time:
1 min
Prep Time:
1 min
Serves:
1 jar

Mean Green Detox Juice

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Detoxification is a daily process. It is essential that we support our liver and all elimination organs with high-quality foods and specific nutrients. This will increase our body’s ability to eliminate the toxins and chemicals it comes in contact with, and will help to support our health and overall longevity.

Tools

Juicer or blender

Ingredients

4 large dandelion leaves
4 cups arugula
3 celery stalks
2 large broccoli stalks
2 carrots
1 lemon (with peel on)
½ a grapefruit

Instructions

Process all ingredients through a juicer. Alternatively, if you have a high-speed blender, you can make this into a smoothie.

Be sure to add enough water to blend your ingredients, and feel free to pour the mix through a sieve to strain out the fiber.

About The Watchdog

Mike Geary has been a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer for over 15 years now. He has been studying nutrition and exercise for almost 25 years, ever since being a young teenager. Mike is originally from Pennsylvania, but has fallen in love with mountain life and now resides in the picturesque mountains of Utah. Mike is an avid adventurist and when he’s not spending his time skiing, mountain biking, hiking, or paddleboarding on the lake, he has enjoyed skydiving, whitewater rafting, piloting an Italian fighter plane (seriously), scuba diving, heli-skiing, and traveling all around the world, enjoying learning about different cultures. At the age of 40, Mike now feels healthier, stronger, and more energetic than when he was 20... All because of a healthy lifestyle and great nutrition!

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53 comments

  1. Hi Mike –
    I noticed that raw broccoli is in the above juice recipe. I have read in a few places that raw broccoli and cauliflower are hard to digest, and I have found that to be true in my experience. The same with raw carrot. Cooking releases the nutrition is these foods.
    Thanks.
    Greg

  2. I should have qualified the cooking reference above. Steaming is best.

  3. This ignores the most potent liver help: BLACK RADISH. Herbal medication Raphacholin is based on Black Radish.

    • Hi Mike! I just read the article article about oregano oil. My niece has a rash that doesn’t want to seem to go away. Would that be helpful for that. What is the recommended does. Do you recommend taking it in oil form or capsule. Is there a certain brand that is better than another.

  4. Have to try tumeric and belly fat reduction recipes. Im disabled and the excercises i can do are not really enough to burn calories.

    • Mike Geary can be trusted!! I employed some of his ideas. Just a guy who has your back. He is no puppet by Big Food industry. And above all he just cares and that’s what we need in this world of confusion

      • Andrew my granddaughter is twenty years old and has been diagnosed with a fatty liver non drinker. If there is anyway you could contact mike to find out if this diagnosis can be reversed by eating a more nutritious diet. And if this drink could help

        • YES IT CAN BE REVERSED. I used to have fatty liver disease. After just one year of removing foods that are toxic for me, there were no signs of a fatty liver.

        • I also HAD a fatty liver, called Cirrhosis. I used Black Radish, milk thistle, and a small amount of wormwood and now everything is normal.

  5. Since my husband is on a lot of medications and can’t eat grapefruit, what is an equally good alternative?

    • Just don’t use grapefruit. Just the lemon or lime will be ok… I feel lemon is stronger and is what my doctor recommended to me. Also you could steam vegies mentioned above and still blend them up… make soup 🙂 the point is to be aware and thinking about “how hard is my liver working today?”

      YI detox everyday! I’m 23yrs breast cancer survivor. I had my son after going thru it he is 16 now…. lost my immune system having him – got it back after a very long battle.
      Then Was exposed to black mold, inwhich I now fight Candida which I’m told is chronic. I won’t believe it so I fight with diet and being active… not always fun! But I’m alive! That’s what matter… so for life extension and happy body, mind and soul… keeping the all life giving organ “The Liver!” Happy is #1. Keep that baby Flushed! Keep it happy and you will be happy! Happy Liver to all! 🙂

  6. I am taking a cholesterol med, is it safe to use the grapefruit in this detox smoothie?

    • Get off the cholesterol drug, too many side effects. Our body needs cholesterol. Read some books on how statins are a scam.

    • Aged garlic in pill form and policosanol are natural products to fight cholesterol. Find the book : Miracles From the Vault” from HSI Health Science Institue, I lists every disease and treatment with baturalnproducts; also the sources for the products. I have PAD peripheral arterial disease and stopped the Statin, replaced with the two mentioned above. I feel a difference and am curious to find out the result after another sonography

  7. Thank you for not making me watch a 30 minute video on the seven foods to detox my liver and then try to sell me something

  8. Where do you get dandelion leaves from

  9. Wonderful excellent information!!!
    I will definitely begin to follow these recommendations!
    Thank you so much.

  10. Why do most of your posts seem to cater to women (with pictures, etc..)
    Maybe you’re not fully aware of it, but men also have livers, and other organs just like women do.

  11. WHAOOOOH

    Very informative,direct and candid.
    COUNT ME IN

  12. How often can you drink the detox drink/smoothie? Daily ok?

  13. The VA Doctor Told Me I Had Cancer On My Liver What Can I Do To Get Rid Of It ?
    Thank You
    Wayne Leggett

  14. Thanks so much I have appreciated what I have read about the 7 foods.
    my province produces the foods all year around but due to such information is not available we tend to eat a lot of starch then this important fruits,nuts galic and others for the good of our health.

    I appreciate the information and will pass on to the others who will need it.

    thanks

  15. Appreciate that the article was straight to the point and concise.
    Wrote down the “LiverCleansers”, and will work on adding a few more
    to my diet (already use citrus fruits and Walnuts).

  16. I’m interested n food supplemens tor liver detoxificatio and boosting immune systems.thank you.

  17. RAW GARLIC IS BEST BUT NOT REALLY SUITABLE FOR ONES LOVE LIFE OTHERWISE TAKE AGED GARLIC ONE OR OR TWO A DAY 500/1000MG ODOURLESS, BEST ARE 2 CLOVES OVER THE DAY.DANDELIONS GROW IN ABUN A DANCE IN FIELDS OR AT SIDE OF LANES PICK THEM WELL WASH THEM.TURMERIC A TEASPOONFUL WITH A DASH OF BLACK PEPPER IN MILK OR WATER WILL DETOXIFY THE BODY.REMEMBER NEARLY ALL THE PROBLEMS WITH ANY DISEASE STARTS WITH INFLAMMATION,TURMERIC SPIKED WITH BLACK PEPPER REDUCES INFLAMMATION AND WILL KEEP THE TOXINS PURGED OUT OF THE BODY THE CHEAPEST WAY TO STAY HEALTHY IS TO TAKE THIS MIX QNCE OR TWICE A DAY

  18. Some very good advice. However, if we always eat and drink only true nourishment( realtrue pure clean food) we will never have any need to detoxify.Eat no fake or phony “foods” and drink no sodas. Real food and drink are cheaper and more delicious. i eat lts of home grown and or organice beets with greens, turnips with greens, zuchinni, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peas, pinto beas, whole eggs, whole milk, butter, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, home baked yeast bread, corn tortillas, chile peppers, cominos, oregano, and other delicious healthy things.I will never need to detox.

  19. Sorry, but I had to laugh on seeing the question, “Where do you get dandelion leaves from?”

    • Lol…me too.

      • Hi is a broccoli stalk the same as a head of broccoli? So would that be 2 heads of broccoli and how much does this make? Can you make it ahead of time and add a apple to it to cut the sharp taste? I just don’t want to stop doing it because it’s something I can’t get down me. I have a fatty liver and really need to start doing something to heal it! Thx

    • Google for a picture of a dandelion plant. Ask Lowes or home depot in the live plant department.

    • I would imagine if you live in an apartment building in the middle of downtown LA or NYC or somewhere like that, dandelions might not be quite so easy to come by.

  20. Thankyou for clear interesting information. Saved an hour of my life not watching some long winded video with no information. Ive got to the stage I just delete them!

  21. Richard LaBombard

    Hi my wife and i drink celery juice every day 8 oz glass good for the liver i , letmre know thanks

  22. all this sounds very good

  23. I heard a certain type of mushroom can reverse liver damage ( I think Reishi mushroom) is this true?

  24. I had more fun reading these responses than I have had since the pandemic started. Thank you to all of you!

  25. It sounds good to me I’ll be trying this

  26. I appreciated the information shared, keep doing the required.

  27. After a liver transplant would this advise be consider ok to use to save my new liver?

  28. I’ve been drinking heavily for 61 years. Will my liver continue to function well or should I cut back to a pint of
    whisky per day?

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