Liver Cleansing Diet: Do I Really Have To?
Let’s face it, life is busy these days, and it’s highly unlikely that you spend much time worrying about the benefits of a liver cleansing diet. Unless it is giving you trouble, chances are your liver is not high on your list of priorities.
That may be because the liver is a rather obscure organ, though just as vital as the heart. Few really understand what its role is in the human body or the implications of having a less than optimal liver function.
But knowing that your liver performs over 200 metabolic tasks for your body may bring the value of your liver into better perspective. Just like the heart is central to blood circulation, the liver functions like a processing plant to ensure healthy metabolism. The liver has a role to play in just about every process inside the human body.
Your Liver Without a Liver Cleansing Diet
The liver is responsible for storing some vitamins and minerals, synthesizing amino acids, storing and converting sugar, producing enzymes and hormones, secreting bile detoxifying food additives, pollutants and pesticides, and the list goes on and on.
One of its primary functions is to help regulate cholesterol levels. If the liver is overburdened, it is unable to manufacture good cholesterol in quantities large enough to control the bad cholesterol in the blood. This increases your chances of heart disease.
Other ailments that might result from impaired liver functions include digestive problems, food sensitivities, allergies, chronic fatigue, headaches and migraines, poor concentration, mood swings, depression, fat accumulation, gallstones, poor nutrient utilization, water retention, hyperthyroidism, toxicity… just to name a few.
Benefits of a Liver Cleansing Diet
People who have what is called a “fatty liver” will find themselves unable to shed fat. Their liver has turned from a fat burning machine into a fat storage warehouse. A liver cleansing diet will help detoxify the liver so that it can return to processing fat efficiently.
Let’s face it, enjoying basic good health makes it far easier to breeze through life with rose-tinted glasses. Liver detoxification gets you started on the right foot to do just that, as it helps support your liver for a more efficient immune system, regulated blood sugar and balanced cholesterol, restored energy, better digestion and nutrient absorption, improved sleep, greater emotional balance, and much more.
The Cons of a Liver Detox Diet
As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain”. Now you don’t expect to be able to abuse your liver for years and get away with it without paying a price, do you? Well, I’m afraid that a liver detox diet has its own costs associated with it: for the few days you spend detoxing, you may suffer from minor discomfort caused by sinus congestion, headaches, some symptoms normally associated with colds or flus like chills or even fever, and difficulty sleeping.
Other symptoms may include greater muscle or joint pain, skin eruptions such as acne or boils, nausea or diarrhea. But those are mere signals that your body is sending that it is in the process of getting rid of all the toxins it had been storing for years.
Just keep in mind that a liver cleansing diet lasts only a few days, and if you stick with it, you will feel like a new person. Well worth a little temporary inconvenience, wouldn’t you say? An added benefit is that most people who undergo detoxing feel so good that they continue with better eating habits, which helps their liver do what it was meant to do in the first place: help keep them healthy.