If you have allergies, digestive issues, skin issues, kidney or bladder symptoms or any reproductive health issues, you should pay close attention to supporting your liver so that it can function optimally. Your liver is one of your largest organs and it has so many important metabolic functions! Helping you eliminate toxins from your body and digesting foods are just a couple of it's important functions.
I did my Herbal Apprenticeship at Seven Arrows Farm and part of our curriculum was Rosemary Gladstar's "The Science and Art of Herbology" which includes a great section that focuses on the liver, since it is such an important organ! She writes about this great liver cleanse, and a supportive diet which I will outline below. It felt really amazing to do this liver cleanse and I am preparing to do another one for the New Year! I followed the weekly cleanse with a liver support tincture for 3 months, as well as alterative teas daily.
Please check with your physician before you start any type of cleanse or herbal remedy.
an alkalizing diet
Focus on consuming all vegetables (especially dark green leafy veggies), fresh sprouts (especially fenugreek, alfalfa and clover), beets and beet greens, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, beans, whole grains, seeds (especially sesame) and raw almonds. Remember to include fruits that are alkalizing such as lemons, grapefruits, cherries and apples. Also include bananas, as they are high in potassium. Drinking raw vegetable juice (with some fruits for flavor) is a convenient way to add alkalizing power to your diet.
Avoid dairy foods except cultured products like kefir, yogurt and buttermilk. Lifeway Kefir is the brand I use to make smoothies with and it has lots of great probiotics - and you can buy it at most supermarkets. Sadly, cheese with the exception of cottage cheese and some low fat varieties should be avoided.
There are many excellent herbs that provide benefits to the liver including milk thistle, dandelion root, turmeric, parsley, watercress, nettle, mustard greens, amaranth greens, lambs quarters, clover blossoms, alfalfa, chickweed and cleavers. Also check out the alteratives listed below.
foods to avoid
These are foods that are more difficult to digest and if your liver shows sings of imbalance, you should avoid them:
- Alcohol
- Fried, fatty, oily foods and hydrogenated oils (trans fats)
- Full fat cheese
- Butter, cream and rich fatty foods
- Chocolate and sugars
- All food preservatives and food additives. This means all fast foods. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store! Read label carefully it if it comes in a box.
rosemary gladstar's one week liver cleanse
Take the following recipe everyday for 1 week as part of your liver cleanse:
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- ¾ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 cloves of raw garlic (or as little or much as you can handle)
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until creamy. Drink 1 cup daily. I found this was much more pleasant if you also blend ice with it.
About ½ hour after drinking the liver cleanse, follow with a warm cup of this tea. Follow directions to make an infusion:
- 1 part Fenugreek
- 1 part Alfalfa*
- 1 part Peppermint
*Rosemary's original recipe calls for Comfrey, but due to concerns over pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) and mixed evidence, I chose to be cautious and substitute with alfalfa.
other alteratives to support the liver
Alteratives are herbs that have many functions, one of which is to help activate the liver. They are useful with skin ailments, digestive problems, immunological disorders, immune deficiency disorders, chronic debilitating diseases, hormone imbalances, nervous system and kidney related disorders.
- Yellow dock root
- Burdock root
- Dandelion root and leaf
- Echinacea root
- Chaparral leaf
- Red clover flower
- Oregon grape root
- Goldenseal root
- Plantain leaf
- Nettles
You can easily include in your diet some of these herbs as teas made with the decoction method for roots or an infusion for leaves/flowers.
a delicious, liver-supportive coffee substitute!
Read this blog post to see how I saved money and quit my addiction to Dunkin Donuts and Mary Lou's News with this healthy herbal coffee substitute! It includes some great liver-nourishing herbs as well!
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