The liver processes everything you put into your body, such as the foods you eat and the medicines you take. Eating a certain way can help your liver function at its optimal level. Liver detox programs and supplements abound---some with sound guidance and theory behind them and some unfortunately lacking this. Luckily, a liver-detoxifying diet does not have to include complicated treatment regimens, extensive fasting or large amounts of supplements, just some good old-fashioned healthy eating habits.
Short-Term vs. Long-Term Eating Habits
Many liver-cleansing programs that focus on diet usually offer a specific eating plan for a set amount of time. These plans might help jump-start cleansing of your liver and benefit overall health. You do not necessarily need to follow a plan like this to detoxify your liver. Adopting generally healthy eating habits that include foods rich in nutrients that specifically benefit the liver for the long term will also help. If you choose the former, you cannot just go back to old habits once you have completed the program. Maintaining the health of your liver and any other part of your body requires a lifetime commitment to nutrition and other healthy lifestyle choices.
Considerations for Fasting
Detoxification fasts typically restrict nutrition severely; sometimes they involve consuming nothing but water or special liquids. While a lot of hype surrounds fasts, they can offer some benefits when done properly. Naturopathic physician Wendy Hodson, writing about liver detoxification for TheDietChannel.com, notes that fasts can quickly facilitate the elimination of waste and the progress of your healing process. She advises, however, to only undergo these treatments under the supervision of a qualified health care professional.
Professional Guidance
Regardless of the nature of your detoxification program, consider working with a qualified health care professional, such as a naturopathic physician, for guidance in designing a regimen for you. She can offer advice on designing an eating plan, possibly beneficial supplements and how long to follow this plan. While many of these programs encourage some healthy dietary choices, they can lead to health risks when done improperly or for too long.
General Guidelines for Short-Term Diets
If you plan on following a diet to jump-start detoxification, you will typically need to eliminate certain types of foods, such as meat, dairy, seafood, sugar, refined white-flour foods and basically anything that comes in any sort of packaging. Naturopathic physician Ronald Steriti, writing for his website NaturalDoctor.com, advises that you avoid these foods for at least five days as part of a liver-cleansing program.
Liver-detox diets often focus heavily on natural plant foods. As part of Steriti's five-day plan, for example, he recommends eating only raw, fresh vegetables for lunch and dinner and in-season fruits in the morning. He particularly recommends such vegetables as asparagus, beets, broccoli, spinach, greens, cauliflower, peppers, cucumbers and other non-starchy vegetables. Recommended fruit includes pineapples, papayas, bananas, grapes, nectarines and pears. He also advises that you drink plenty of fluids, such as water, fresh fruit juices and herbal teas.
Long-Term Dietary Strategies
While the aforementioned dietary guidelines might offer faster, therapeutic benefits, you also need to adopt long-term dietary choices to aid in liver health. Eating lots of fiber-rich foods will reduce the amount of toxins your liver needs to process by absorbing them in the gut.
Eating a wide range of fruits and vegetables will ensure you get all the important nutrients you need---the most important being vitamin C, vitamin E, choline, B vitamins, cysteine and methionine, explains Hodson. You will find vitamin C in potatoes, peppers, broccoli, strawberries and citrus fruits, while you can get vitamin E in almonds, filberts, walnuts, whole grains and sunflower seeds. Brown rice, almonds, sesame seeds and whole grains have rich stores of B vitamins. You can find methionine and cysteine in egg yolks, red peppers, garlic, onions and beans, while chickpeas, lentils, fish and cauliflower contain choline.
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