Your liver removes toxins from your body, acting as its filter. However, many people have overworked livers due to caffeine, alcohol, sugar and sweeteners, trans fats, drugs, hormones, environmental pollution and other factors. When it's stressed the liver cannot metabolize fat properly. In fact, keeping your liver in tip-top shape is your No. 1 secret to revving up metabolism, says Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., nationally known nutritionist and author of the book "Fat Flush For Life," Press, 2010.
Step 1
Drink cranberry juice because it's absorbed quickly and helps to keep your liver's detoxification pathways open. Use 1 cup of 100 percent cranberry juice each day. Make sure you get an unsweetened variety. You can mix it with water.
Step 2
Use apple cider vinegar. Its main ingredient--0acetic acid--stimulates metabolism. Use up to 2 tsp. daily mixed in water or salad dressing. Organic is best.
Step 3
Drink dandelion tea for a gentle, daily detox. For even better results, add 200 mg each of milk thistle and the Oregon grape root in supplement form. Barberry and "liver tonic" are other names for Oregon grape root.
Step 4
Drink lemon juice in hot water every day. Lemons and limes both invigorate the liver and help to liquefy fat, which aids in flushing it from your system more quickly.
Step 5
Don't forget good old water. Even mild dehydration is damaging because the kidneys need to call on the liver for help in functioning. This, in turn, reduces the liver's ability to burn fat and leads to fat deposits in the body, often around the belly.
Step 6
Choose your proteins carefully. For beef, seek low-fat, grass-fed varieties. Use omega-3 enriched eggs. Add lamb to your diet. Eat two servings of salmon each week. Give whey protein, the most easily absorbed and utilized protein in the body, a try.
Step 7
Boost consumption of fruits and vegetables that detoxify. Veggies include asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, watercress and zucchini. Fruits that detoxify are apples, berries and peaches.
Step 8
Use detoxifying herbs and spices. Cumin, cilantro, garlic and ginger are all good detoxifiers. Add in thermogenic spices to boost metabolism. Top three are ginger, cinnamon and dry mustard. Turmeric helps to thin and decongest bile. That, in turn, helps your body emulsify fat better.
Step 9
Use extra-virgin olive oil in cooking, up to 1 tbsp. per day. Also make sure you get your omega-3s, found in flaxseed and chia, and omega-6s. These can be found in conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, and taken as a supplement.
Step 10
Try a choline supplement. Take 300 to 350 mg per day. When you are deficient in choline--or vitamin B4--for even a couple of weeks, your liver function is affected. If you'd prefer to get choline through diet, eat nuts, eggs and fish.
Step 11
Make sure you have enough L- Methionine, found in meat, eggs, onions, yogurt, lentils and beans. It protects cells from airborne toxins. If you supplement, try 100 mg a day.
Step 12
Cut out things that stress your liver and lower your metabolism. These include all forms of sugar, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, trans fats, soda, processed foods and too many carbohydrates in general.
References
- Fat Flush For Life, Ann Louise Gittleman, 2010
- The Fat Flush Fitness Plan, Ann Louise Gittleman, 2004
- Fat Flush Foods, Ann Louise Gittleman, 2004
Member Comments