Spring is not just a time to clean and refresh your home, but also a great opportunity to rejuvenate and cleanse your body. According to traditional Chinese medicine, spring is the time of year to focus on the liver. The liver absorbs everything our body takes in and ingests. By eating some of these foods we can help detoxify our hard working liver and remove toxins.
Did you know that the beauty of your skin, hair, nails, and body depends on the health of your liver? When your liver isn’t healthy, your appearance can suffer. However, you can “eat yourself beautiful” by taking care of your liver and eating fresh, seasonal foods.
To help you, I put together
a list of my top liver-loving beauty foods:
Lemons: Lemon, an alkaline fruit, is rich in vitamin C and is your ultimate liver detoxifier. Add it to your water daily to encourage healthy bile flow. Here is a great tip from Jamie Oliver on how to juice your lemons.
Tip: As healthy as lemons are please note they can wreak havoc with the enamel on your teeth. Please take a look at this article and short video to learn how to prevent any damage to your teeth.
Artichokes: Artichokes are the perfect vegetable for the liver and gallbladder because they increase bile production and elimination, and lower blood pressure.
Asparagus: High in glutathione, a vital antioxidant needed for detox, and folate, asparagus is another perfect detox vegetable. Asparagus is tasty when eaten cooked or raw. You can also juice it, as well as add it to a stir-fry or soup.
Dandelions: This bitter green stimulates digestion. You can drink dandelion tea, and add them to a salad or sauté them in coconut oil.
Garlic: Garlic, a well-known superfood and one of nature’s best antioxidants, is antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal. It promotes detoxification and helps prevent cancer.
Nettle: Nettle, a super herb loaded with natural iron, antioxidants, and minerals, helps strengthen the liver, kidneys, and adrenals. If you are feeling tired or having trouble sleeping, this is your powerhouse herb. You can consume dried nettle such as in tea or find fresh nettle from a local farm.
Peas: Rich in vegan protein and packed with essential nutrients, peas are an ideal food to substitute for heavier protein sources.
Sea Vegetables: Sea veggies, including dulse, nori, kelp, arame, and kombu, are amazing supplements for a healthy lifestyle. Add one teaspoon to your meals to boost your intake of minerals and jumpstart your thyroid. The brand Maine Coast Sea Vegetables makes my favourite sea veggies. You can buy them on Amazon or at Whole Foods.
Leafy Greens: Leafy greens such kale, Swiss chard, spinach, bok choy, mustard greens, and watercress are wonderful for liver detoxification as they also increase bile production and elimination. You can sauté them, add them to a stir-fry or a smoothie, or make a salad with them.
Fresh Herbs: Garnish your salad, top a sweet potato, or freshen up a smoothie with fresh herbs known for removing heavy metals from the body. Heavy metals can lead to candida, hormonal imbalances, and poor sleep.
Superfoods: You cannot go wrong by adding a teaspoon of superfoods to your smoothie or green juice. These superfoods diminish heavy metals and amplify energy. Chlorella, spirulina, wheatgrass, chlorophyll, barley grass, and wild blue algae are the top superfoods for your liver.
Integrating the above-mentioned foods into your diet will go a long way towards a healthy liver. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that the health of your liver doesn’t only depend on your physical well-being; it also depends on your emotional well-being.
A toxic mind that’s filled with hatred, anger, and other negative emotions will clog your liver and prevent it from functioning as it’s meant to. When this happens, you may experience hormonal imbalances, constipation, acne, weak nails, grey hair, and sleep issues. Therefore, it’s important to make sure both the food in your body, and the thoughts in your mind, are serving you well.
Thanks for reading and keep well.
