In the hierarchy of human organs, the brain and the heart occupy the first positions. The liver? Not that much.
But your liver deserves your love. Everything you eat or drink, including secondhand cigarette smoke carried into your bloodstream by your lungs, passes through your liver to be processed and detox.
Your liver is a workhorse organ, which is why keeping it healthy is so important. When it can’t function properly, toxins and other harmful substances can damage cells elsewhere in you and increase your risk of diseases like diabetes, heart disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and cancer.
Knowing that everything that enters your bloodstream makes a stop at your liver should encourage you to want to protect it like an offensive line protects a quarterback from getting caught. What you may not know is how easily seemingly harmless foods and drinks you swallow can affect your liver function. Keep your body’s unsung hero healthy by doing the following. Read on and for more information on how to eat healthy, don’t miss 7 healthiest foods to eat right now.
That goes for everything from hard liquor to light beers to chardonnay. “There is no such alcoholic beverage that is easier for the liver to metabolize because the main ingredient that affects the liver is ethanol, which is present in all types of alcoholic beverages,” he says. Susan Kelly, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist with the laboratory Pacific Analysis.
“None alcohol It affects the liver, but heavy drinking overloads the organ and starts to damage the liver cells.”
You don’t have to be an alcoholic to drink heavily, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as eight or more drinks per week for women or 15 or more per week for men. Binge drinking is 4 or more during a single occasion for women and 5 for men.
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Let’s say you don’t drink any alcohol or just drink a little wine with dinner from time to time; your liver is still not safe if you drink a lot soda. “People aren’t connecting the dots,” he says. Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RDN, best-selling book author, skinny liver. “Sure, alcohol has a big impact on the liver, but it also sugar. I consider it to be one of the most poisonous substances in our food system.”
The worst sugar for your liver is probably fructose—not the fructose you get from eating whole fruit that comes with beneficial fiber, but the fructose added to foods and beverages, namely high-fructose corn syrup.
Studies suggest that high-fructose corn syrup used to sweeten soft drinks, candy, baked goods, cereals and other foods may increase the risk of NAFLD, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Several studies suggest that drinking coffee can protect your liver from damage. The effect doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the caffeine. Instead, the researchers believe that the antioxidants and other anti-inflammatory compounds in coffee reduce the risk of cirrhosis. Clinical Evidence also shows that regular coffee consumption offers a protective effect against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
If you don’t drink coffee, here’s another option for your morning cup: tea. A small study in International Journal of Molecular Medicine found that people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease who drank green tea rich in powerful antioxidants called catechins reduced fatty deposits in the liver and improved liver enzyme test results.
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Researchers aren’t sure why, but eating lots of walnuts is associated with a lower risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, according to a BMJ Open study. Some scientists speculate that the antioxidants, fiber, protein, and phytosterols in walnuts may play a role in protecting against fatty liver.
“Fiber from nuts, beans, whole grainsFruits and vegetables help the liver function properly, including its role in detoxification,” says the private practice dietitian. Laura PoeMathes, DR.
Need another reason to include more fish in your weekly diet? Keep this in mind: A meta-analysis of 10 randomized controlled studies reported in Gastroenterology in Research and Practice suggests that the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in omega-3s found in fatty fish may be a new treatment option for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The research noted deficiencies in PUFAs in people with the liver condition and found that adding omega-3 fatty acids to the diet not only reduced the accumulation of fat in the liver in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, but also helped those with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the most serious disease. NAFLD type.
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