Is A Post Holiday Liver Detox Diet Necessary?

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The holidays are a time when it’s easy to over eat and drink. It puts a lot of stress the liver. But, is it really necessary to engage in a liver detox diet after the holidays or can your body naturally detox without a special diet?

Your Liver Can Only Handle So Much
 
It is important to understand how vital your liver is to your health. It is the one organ that cleans and filters our blood around the clock. It also removes and processes nutrients, manufactures materials for export to other parts of the body, and destroys toxins or stores them so that they don’t circulate throughout the body.  It never gets a break, and it can only handle so much work.

Once you eat or drink too much, your liver can have a hard time handling the amount of work it has to do and become stressed. At a certain point toxins can start to back up in the body, and when that happens, a ton of health issues can occur. Physical issues can include constipation, fatigue, and even cardiovascular disease. Mental issues can include irritability, anxiety, and depression.

What To Eat (And Not Eat) To Support Liver Health
 
Some people will recommend going on a juice diet for a period of time in order to detox the liver. This is not a bad idea because it forces you to incorporate vegetables and fruits that support liver health.

However, if you have a demanding job or don’t have time to go on a liquid diet, a liver detox diet can be as simple as avoiding foods that are hard on the liver, such as foods that contain saturated fats, chemicals, preservatives, and sodium, and eating foods that support good liver health instead.

A good eating plan would include the following liver detox foods: garlic, grapefruit, turmeric, cabbage, artichoke, asparagus, kale, beets, carrots, olive oil, whole grains, cauliflower, lemons, limes, and walnuts. All of these foods are known to support liver health in some way and will supercharge your liver as it gets a break from foods that are hard on it.

As you can see there are no meat or dairy products in the list. This is because a damaged liver cannot metabolize proteins properly and break down the amino acids that are produced after eating meat, or any foods that come from animals. In other words, meat and dairy can be hard on the liver, and if you are engaging in a liver detox diet, they should be avoided.

Other Things To Consider

While you are on the diet, eat only when hungry. Even though you are consuming foods that support liver health, eating causes the liver to work harder, and eating when you are not hungry is taking away from the healing process.

Throughout the day, drink plenty of water. Water moves everything through the body and helps to flush out stored toxins that have accumulated from the holidays. Moreover, water is in your blood, and because your liver filters blood, the viscosity of the blood has an influence over the liver’s ability to detoxify it; therefore, the more water in your blood, the easier job your liver has.

In the end, is a liver detox diet necessary after the holidays? If you feel as though you ate or drank too much, then yes, it is a good idea to give your liver a break and let it catch back up to its normal routine. The detox will help flush out any stored toxins and encourage your liver to work at its optimal level.

Learn more about detox in the Secrets of Detox Free Report that includes a 3 Day Detox Diet Plan.

Sandy Halliday