Video

Transcript

today we’re going to talk about the best

foods to clean out your liver your liver

is not

necessarily dirty okay it doesn’t

accumulate toxins in fact its main

function is to detoxify toxins and

poisons and chemicals but it’s not a

storage facility for

poisons and chemicals unless you have a

fatty liver because these toxins are

stored in your fat cells now when your

liver gets inflamed it heals with scar

tissue

and you can develop cirrhosis and you

can lose function and create all sorts

of issues but

the liver itself is not a reservoir for

toxins so i want to shift my talk into

the best foods to

reestablish

the full function of your liver to get

your liver able to detoxify

at the highest level and you can totally

do this with foods so we’re going to

cover all those but i want to first talk

about the different functions of the

liver okay it has the ability to

detoxify

it makes bile

bile is a detergent to help you break

down fats and extract certain nutrients

from fat your liver is a main producer

of hormones that’s right

one being igf-1 insulin-like growth

factor number one now what is that that

is a very similar hormone to growth

hormone growth hormone is made by your

pituitary gland it’s sent to the liver

it works through the liver and you can

kind of consider igf number one as an

extension of growth hormone

it performs very similar functions so it

has everything to do with helping you

burn fat

it’s a anabolic hormone so it helps you

build muscle it has everything to do

with building proteins and it also can

help tap into your fat reserves and your

stored sugar reserves for fuel now your

liver also makes steroid hormones okay

like estrogen progesterone

testosterone vitamin d3 which by the way

acts like a hormone in the body in fact

it probably is a hormone but we

classified it as a vitamin and the other

sex hormone is cortisol the main

anti-inflammatory hormone in the body

the main hormone that helps you adapt to

stress so without cortisol your body

can’t adapt to stress and you’re going

to get really stressed out in fact 80

percent of the cortisol floating through

your bloodstream originates from your

liver so all these steroid hormones

come from

this one thing

cholesterol

and so the liver is part of the building

block of not just cholesterol but a real

key part in the creation of those

hormones and what’s interesting is that

people take certain drugs to block

cholesterol like statins

well guess what’s going to happen to

these hormones you’re not going to be

able to make them efficiently you’re

going to have all sorts of issues and

your liver makes a good portion of the

cholesterol in your body and take a

while guess

what material it makes cholesterol from

if you guess dietary sugars you are

correct so cholesterol is made from

carbs and cholesterol also makes certain

proteins

certain proteins that transport things

in the body like cholesterol like

estrogen like testosterone

different hormones because these

hormones made from cholesterol can’t

travel that well through the blood your

liver packages them in protein so they

can be transported so your liver has a

post office function in that it is able

to package certain things and send them

throughout the body now these proteins

just don’t transport certain things they

also

buffer or regulate certain hormones

so if there’s too much estrogen for

example or too much cortisol

your liver will buffer that with these

proteins to make sure that things are in

balance all right so those are just some

of the many functions of the liver your

liver actually has 500 different

functions now before i get to the food i

just want to briefly mention the

different symptoms that occur when you

have damage to the liver

one would be itchiness in the body

another one would be that your skin in

the whites of the eyes turn yellow it’s

called jaundice the next one is lethargy

and then you have achy joints

so many people who are stiff and have

inflammation in the joints

really have a

liver problem

feeling nauseous is a big symptom of the

liver having a lowered cognitive

function could be liver related and if

you have gallstones there’s definitely a

problem with the liver simply because

the liver makes bile and it’s a

deficiency of bile and a high level of

cholesterol

that makes you end up with gallstones

all right so now let’s dive into the

best foods for your liver okay number

one

cruciferous vegetables okay talking

about kale broccoli brussels sprouts

radish

arugula

wasabi

mustard mustard greens they are all

cruciferous vegetables they are very

high in a natural phytonutrient called

sulforaphane and sulforaphane helps to

detoxify the liver it helps the liver to

get rid of inflammation and inflammation

leads to insulin resistance it leads to

high insulin it leads to diabetes and it

can even lead to cancer so sulfurophane

is a really important

liver protective compound and it can

also help if there’s fat in the liver

and with enough sulforaphane

let’s say for example if you drank too

much coffee

sulforaphane helps to quickly detoxify

things like caffeine

drugs chemicals and even poisons eating

cruciferous vegetables with sulforaphane

can even enhance the liver to the point

of having an enhanced

function of the liver even two weeks

after where you stopped eating

cruciferous vegetables so some of the

effects from eating cruciferous

vegetables

extend into the future even if you don’t

eat them that’s pretty cool now if you

consume cruciferous sprouts okay

you get a major enhancement in

sulforaphane especially when we’re

talking about broccoli sprouts radish

sprouts and even mustard seed sprouts so

sprouting is a very very smart thing to

do because all you need is just a little

bit of those sprouts on your salad to

create a huge effect you see one of the

key enzymes to

activate sulforaphane is destroyed with

heat so if you overcook broccoli or

especially

cauliflower you’re not going to be able

to get this full magnitude of

sulfurophane

unless you at the same time add a little

sprouts to your salad or a little bit of

raw cruciferous or

if you added a little bit of mustard to

your meal because mustard has a lot of

that enzyme because it’s a cruciferous

that will help activate sulforaphane in

the food that is cooked so this is just

another reason why when you have a salad

um you want to add different things to

it like

sprouts and there’s many other

phytonutrients in cruciferous vegetables

that support the liver function which

also have a lot to do with decreasing um

complications from diabetes and free

radical damage and improving sensitivity

to insulin and improving insulin

resistance and just supporting your

blood sugars personally i consume a lot

of arugula in my salads so that is just

loaded with those enzymes to activate

sulforaphane i also do a lot of raw

cabbage like coleslaw for example and

sauerkraut which is just loaded with the

enzymes to activate sulforaphane so out

of all the things you can eat

cruciferous is at the top of the list

now the number two item is garlic now

garlic is something that is loaded with

sulfur and sulfur is a wonderful thing

to detoxify the liver and also act as a

natural antibiotic so it’s very very

anti-bacterial anti-fungal

anti-viral

and garlic is really good for stripping

off fat from your liver

and garlic also has a lot of vitamin b1

as well i mean garlic is just one of

those superfoods it’s anti-inflammatory

it’s a very powerful antioxidant and it

has huge anti-cancer properties all

right the next one for the liver is

turmeric okay now the active

phytonutrient in turmeric is curcumin

curcumin is just a powerhouse in

reducing inflammation there is someone

recently who

had

lifelong headaches okay and they had to

take copious amounts of

tylenol for years and years and years

and their liver has been going downhill

and so one of the key things that she

did is started taking turmeric on a

daily basis and so not only did her

headaches go away but now going in the

future not having to take tylenol her

liver is going to do much much better

now one thing i want to say about the

liver is that the liver is rugged it’s

tough it can bounce back

unless it’s completely destroyed it only

needs a little bit of itself to function

and a lot of people have destroyed a

good portion of the livers and they’re

able to

exist and survive which is quite amazing

but out of all the organs the liver is

the most

robust it can take a beating and it can

bounce back now turmeric can also

detoxify heavy metals like lead

mercury

cadmium and even arsenic turmeric helps

to repair and regenerate liver function

tumeric helps stabilize the mitochondria

which is why it’s very anti-cancer

because the origin of cancer happens

with damaged mitochondria

tumeric is very heavily studied

especially in its ability to

decrease fat on your liver so if you

combine a ketogenic diet low carb with

intermittent fasting and turmeric and

some of these other

compounds you’re going to be in really

good shape as far as having a healthy

liver now the next one on the list is

beets

beets have always been known to help

detox the liver they can help reduce

liver enzymes if the liver enzymes are

high they can help reduce them

the phytonutrients in the pigments and

beets can help activate the release of

bile salts and that can help

decrease the fat in your liver but beets

are hepatoprotective which means they

protect the liver cells and they can

significantly reduce inflammation in the

liver and if they can reduce

inflammation in liver they can slow down

the process of fibrosis and scar tissue

and cirrhosis now a question that people

might have is what about beets

and being keto friendly is it going to

spike my blood sugars well if you don’t

juice beets and you have them steamed

there is some carbohydrates in there but

if you add the fiber in there that will

buffer the insulin response and so in a

half a cup of beets you’re looking at

about only 6.7 grams of carbs

not terribly high now the next food i

want to talk about is mushrooms now

what’s so important about mushrooms with

the liver well mushrooms are the food

that has some of the highest amount of

glutathione

and glutathione is the main antioxidant

for the liver especially if you do

turkey tail mushroom and oyster

mushrooms and other mushrooms as well

mushrooms are hepatoprotective that

means they protect the cells of the

liver all right now we get to avocados

avocados

are a great thing to consume to help

repair and stabilize the liver avocados

too are high in glutathione that support

the liver and but the main thing about

avocados is all you have to do is

consume

one avocado a week to see significant

improvements in your liver function

avocados are very very anti-inflammatory

and

inflammation in the liver leads to so

many issues including hepatitis

including fatty liver as well as

cirrhosis so anything that can lower

inflammation would be very good for the

liver and the last thing i’m going to

recommend for the liver is extra virgin

olive oil just a very small amount in

fact just one little teaspoon in your

salad dressing can create significant

improvements in liver enzymes extra

virgin olive oil decreases fat on your

liver it improves insulin sensitivity it

reduces insulin resistance

and it’s a very powerful

anti-inflammatory so there you have it

the best foods to help support a healthy

liver and if you haven’t seen some of my

other videos on the liver i created a

playlist for you right here

check it out