Liver Cleansing Diet

A liver cleansing diet improves health, the body’s immune function, and also helps to establish a healthy body weight. For individuals fighting chronic illness who lose weight unintentionally, improved liver function brought about by a liver cleansing diet can lead to a better appetite and return to a healthy weight. For those wanting to lose weight, the same diet can help to eliminate food cravings and restore better overall health while aiding in weight loss.

Liver Cleansing Diet Journal

Keeping a diet journal while following a liver cleansing diet helps track not only what we eat but how we feel.

Cleansing the liver may help correct conditions such as acne and other skin conditions. Why would cleansing the liver affect your skin? Everything ingested passes through the liver via the bloodstream. Many toxic substances end up stored in the liver because it is designed to remove natural toxins from the blood. However, many of the unnatural toxins we ingest daily lead to a sluggish, congested liver and can affect energy levels and develop into serious health problems.

Unnatural toxins include (but are not limited to):

• Antibiotics
• Carcinogens
• Food preservatives and additives (including MSG)
• Hormone treatments
• Junk food
• Pesticides
• Prescription antibiotics
• Sugar (and artificial sweeteners like Aspartame and Nutra Sweet)

Where to Start

Before starting the liver cleansing diet, document symptoms you currently experience. Then revisit the information once a month and note the differences as your body returns to optimum health. A food diary or journal is an interesting way to watch your health change for the better from the inside out and gives you something tangible to hold onto on days when you feel like straying from what’s best for your body. An unhealthy liver can be the root of an assortment of problems.

How a Liver Cleansing Diet Works

When toxic congestion limits the liver’s ability to eliminate wastes and digest food, it leads to toxin buildup in other organs and tissues. A liver cleansing diet provides nutrients to cleanse the liver and support healing which restores its important functions.

Light Fasting

On the first couple of days of the diet, take in plenty of fresh water, fresh fruit and vegetable juices (not cooked), and if you must eat, choose living foods such as salads. This provides rest for the digestion process and gives the liver time to focus on clearing toxins.

After the first couple of days, increase your food intake, but avoid:

• Red meats
• Processed foods
• Sugar (and substitutes)
• Salty food
• Alcohol
• Lunchmeats
• Soft drinks
• Fried foods
• Caffeine

What to Eat and Drink

The Liver Cleansing Diet requires you to concentrate on healthy whole foods, including whole grains and legumes, and drink plenty of bottled water to help flush toxins from your system. Choose foods high in fiber, low in saturated fat, and low in refined sugars (including high fructose corn syrup). If sugar or high fructose corn syrup is listed within the first four ingredients, don’t eat it.

Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Choosing raw fruits and vegetables provides your body with living enzymes to help build healthy cells. Drinking freshly made fruit or vegetable juices provides these vitamins and enzymes without taxing the liver in the digestion process. Add fish to your diet twice per week as a low fat source of protein. When selecting salad ingredients, include dark leafy greens and a salad dressing that does not include trans fat, sugar, or preservatives.

The Hallelujah Diet is a vegetarian diet that works to cleanse the liver. It employs the 85/15 plan. Eighty-five percent raw foods and fifteen percent cooked, allowing for one cooked meal a day, which they recommend eating in the evening. The rest of the diet subsists of raw foods and provides a variety of interesting recipes, including vegetable drinks to raw soups.

Benefits and Cautions

The low fat nature of the Liver Cleansing Diet helps individuals lose unwanted weight. Cleansing poisonous substances from the liver can re-open bile ducts, restore energy and heal the body.

However, as a word of caution, the effects of detoxification can be unpleasant and can last a few days to a few weeks. Detox symptoms include headache, lack of appetite, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, diarrhea and others. Don’t let these inconveniences stop you from overhauling your liver’s health. The benefits of a clean liver far outweigh the discomfort of breaking food additions and eliminating toxins from your body. As with any new dietary regime, seek the guidance of a trained certified professional.