Did you know that the liver affects nearly every physiological process of the body and performs over 500 different chemical functions? And that the liver filters over a liter of blood each minute?
The liver is amazing organ that we take for granted. I'm sharing a great piece called, "50 Ways to Love Your Liver," by raw foodist Shazzie.
1) Never get jealous. If someone has something you want, then visualize you have either it or something better. You’ll very often get it and then your liver will be happier.
2) Eat your food raw whenever possible, and at least 50% of the time. Max Gerson claims all the C word diseases are a disease of the liver. His answer? Massive raw food abundance, of course.
3) Do castor oil packs. It’s a simple and very effective way to give love to your liver. All you need is castor oil, some old rags and a hottie bottie. You can find detailed instructions on the web.
4) Laugh. It’s a high vibrational technique that changes you on a cellular level, for the better.
5) Juice cleavers (also known as goosegrass or sticky willy). It’s great to resolve liver damage. It’s free in your hedgerows, and is perfect for picking right now. You could even use it as a wild pesto ingredient.
6) Do a gall bladder/liver cleanse. It takes a few days and isn’t recommended by everyone. I’ve done them and benefited greatly, though. I felt like a shiny new person afterwards. Find comprehensive directions on the Internet.
7) Eat garlic and onions. Their sulphur helps detox the liver.
8) Make a weak lemon drink when you wake up. Squeeze one lemon into a litre of warm water. Drink over fifteen minutes, then wait about thirty minutes before eating.
9) Eat beetroot or drink its juice. It helps your liver purify itself and makes your bile thinner. Just don’t freak out when you next go to the toilet. You are not dying, it’s beetroot!
10) Eat cruciferous veggies. They help your liver detox by stimulating enzyme production.
11) Cut down on cooked saturated fats. They don’t help your liver or the rest of your body. 25-30% of westerners have a fatty liver. Yum.
12) Cut down alcohol consumption. Try to drink no more than two days a week, and then be moderate. That means no binge drinking, but you wouldn’t do that would you?
13) Take milk thistle. It’s a great liver supplement, protecting it from damage as well as helping with detox.
14) Less caffeine, please. Check out the herbal coffees that are around. My next door neighbour uses herbal coffee (barley), adds some raw chocolate and a couple of fresh mint leaves from the garden, and then brings me a cup of it, as I’ve got no kitchen at the moment. That’s what friends are for.
15) Take zeolite. One of the most remarkable products ever.
16) Cut down on sugar consumption. If you want to eat something sweet, make sure it’s bound up in a whole food form or have refined sugar very very occasionally. Please don’t give your children sweets, that really is spoiling them.
17) Eat artichokes. They can double your bile production which removes toxins.
18) Eat bitter leaves at or after every meal. They help stimulate bile flow.
19) Eat apples. Their pectin binds onto heavy metals and helps them be excreted. This puts less load on your liver.
20) Eat walnuts. They contain the amino acid arginine, which helps rid the liver of ammonia.
21) Juice the spring thistles that are around at the moment. They’ll do the same job as artichokes and milk thistle.
22) Drink green tea, if it doesn’t make your teeth feel like nails on a blackboard. It contains antioxidants called catechins which prevent build up of liver fat and do something interesting regarding the C word.
23) Stay away from fried foods. Seems obvious but I wanted to write it.
24) Season your food with lemon, apple cider vinegar, onion, garlic etc. Never use table salt, especially if you’re a slug or snail.
25) Stay at a healthy weight. If you are overweight, your liver will be suffering. It can only do so much.
26) Eat more fresh ripe and raw wild or organic foods that haven’t been processed in any way. A high fibre diet keeps the liver healthier.
27) Don’t take paracetamol. If you need a painkiller, there are safer ones around than this liver destroyer. Never give it to a child, either.
28) Take MSM. Half a teaspoon a day for a month, then double it for the rest of your life. It’s liver love at its best.
29) Take enzymes with every meal to help digest your food. Take a break every few weeks, though.
30) Make sure you get all your vitamins and minerals, as a deficiency in some of them can inhibit your liver from detoxing. Take care with your B vitamins, iron, magnesium and sulphate.
31) Stand in a forward bend for a while. It will massage your liver.
32) Dandelion root and leaves are great for the liver. Current spring ones are great in salads or juiced.
33) Try dandelion coffee. It’s good on your liver and tasty, too!
34) Get on your trampoline or rebounder and move your body! Help that liver squeeze toxins out. Play with a child on a trampoline, it makes you laugh and get fit all at once. Now that’s health multi-tasking at its best. Regular aerobic exercise reduces fatty liver of the non-alcoholic variety.
35) If you have any type of hepatitis, look at vitamin C megadosing. Reports state you can cure it before the week’s out. You can find the protocols on the Internet.
36) If you don’t have hepatitis, you can still benefit from taking lots of vitamin C. 5g (5000mg) a day can help flush fat from your liver.
37) Resolve all your emotional issues. If you don’t, your liver will not be at peace. If you want to say something to someone, say it. Or write a letter, read it out loud to yourself and then burn it. Anything left unsaid, or unexpressed will eat you up.
38) Eat lecithin. I recommend about a dessertspoon a day, sprinkled on food or in a smoothie for normal health. Times that by 3-5 if you are using it to emulsify cholesterol (treat gallstones).
39) Avoid all high GI and GL foods, they cause fatty liver and insulin resistance, type two diabetes. No, that’s not what you want, is it? Out with the white rice, potatoes, bread and pasta. In with wholefoods. Well, I’ve only been saying that for 26 years…
40) The liver is our second largest organ, next to the skin. If you don’t keep it squeaky clean your skin will start to show symptoms. Clean out your liver and get special glowy skin as a great side effect.
41) Poo properly so the liver doesn’t get poisoned by a colon that’s not emptied out. Get your feet on a stool so you’re in a good squatting position and stay there until you’ve done the best poo ever.
42) Drink about five litres of water a day, but never more than half a litre in one go.
43) If you are angry, check out liver therapy. It could stop you exploding.
44) If you have arthritis, then your liver is too full. Alkalise yourself, do enemas and forgive everyone. Let it go. Go on, Doxtor’s orders.
45) Do a coffee enema. It smells great, you get a thrill and your bile gets dumped. What a clean out.
46) Love ayurveda. They say that the liver is the seat of the fire in the body. It easily heats up and causes inflammation. Look for special ayurvedic herbs to bring you back into balance.
47) If you eat meat, make it organic. You don’t want all those non-organic toxins being stored and processed in your precious liver.
48) Massage your liver by touching your feet. With reflexology, you have your whole body map at your fingertips. Find the liver reflex points on the outer edge of the right sole. Give it a good old rub whenever you have a minute.
49) Eat coconut oil instead of other fat, where possible. It doesn’t digest in the liver and reduces the strain on it.
50) Make love. If you have someone to make love with. Sometimes the Universe doesn’t give you the partner you want to play with so you just have to ask harder. It will listen and respond in the end. It always does, especially when you really know what you want. Get a clear mind and a clear liver will follow.
