Tag: liver health

detox

Toxin and You 1: How to love your liver so it keeps on loving you!

I am diving into a new series on nourishing those detox pathways and reducing our exposure to toxins. Today I’m starting off strong by getting right into it and talking about the liver because it is the powerhouse of our detox pathways. Our liver daily deals with all those toxins we put into our body like sugar, pesticides, and alcohol and those toxins our bodies create, such as ammonia and estrogen.

This powerhouse takes care of this onslaught of toxins through this really cool two-step process.  First, it takes the toxins and makes them water soluble. At this point, when the toxins are water soluble, they are actually free radical which makes them really dangerous and why step 2 is so important.

The critical second step is when the liver takes all those new free radicals binds them up and sends them out via our kidneys or our gallbladder. Toxins leave the body!

Maybe I’m the only one that geeks out about this stuff but isn’t that so cool!

To do the awesome 2-step process, our liver relies on the vitamins and nutrients we take in through food or vitamins. This means out liver needs B vitamins which come primarily from animal products, i.e. eggs or salmon.  Next, it needs FOLATE  from leafy greens. (note: folic acid is a man-made form of folate and doesn’t work for all of us). The liver also needs glutathione and flavonoids found in a diverse range of plant food.

When our liver isn’t supported it can’t do that two-step process which puts us at risk for health problems like skin issues, fatigue, brain fog and other problems. More seriously, when our estrogen isn’t dealt with properly we are at risk of cancer.

Our liver health is so important which means we need to show it some massive daily love so it can do its massive daily job of keeping us toxin free. Here is how you do that.

  1. Eat a diet full of all sorts of vegetables, especially those of the leafy green variety.  Aim to have vegetables at each meal. Spinach and eggs make a perfect combo!
  2.  Eat good quality protein from happy animals that weren’t shot up with loads of antibiotics. The extra cost is worth it!
  3.  Reduce those things that gunk up your liver. Reduce sugar (it turns to fat in your liver).
  4. Reduce pesticide exposure by making the right choice at the grocery store. Check out the clean and dirty lists from the Environmental Working Group to find out which vegetables and fruits have the most and least amount of pesticides.
  5. Cut back on alcohol (no more than 7 drinks a week and no more than 3 at a time). Too much alcohol depletes us of B vitamins.
  6. Stop smoking and don’t be around those that smoke. Do I even need to say this? Smoking is the worst, says this ex-smoker! 🙂

So let’s get going and start loving up our livers!

detox

Detox 6: Toxins and your skin

cholleyhurt

skin

We all want beautiful skin, but we spend loads of money making sure we won’t have it.  You see, your skin is a reflection of your liver. If your liver is gunked up and unable to get the toxins out of your body, then your skin will tell you about it through premature aging, acne, rosacea, etc.

But we don’t usually consider that our skin as something that is reflecting our insides. Rather, we see our skin problems and seek to fix it with external applications of soaps, creams, and all sorts of other products. These are supposed to keep us looking younger, feeling softer, and free from spots, but here’s the catch: Those youth/clear skin potions we use are often toxic, and not only do they harm our skin by way of overloading our liver, but they also put us at greater risk of cancer and other diseases.

In the 2010 President’s Cancer Panel report, the panel stated, “With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are un- or understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread. ” That’s cancer people! Your quest to look better might be making you look worse and putting you at serious risk. It’s time to rethink what we put on our bodies!

Thankfully, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has done a lot to help us understand what we are putting in our body. They have found that women are typically exposed to 168 unique ingredients daily from the products they use, 85 for men. In their evaluation of the common 60,000 products listed on the back of labels, the EWG found that 34% of products have chemicals associated with cancer, 45% have chemicals associated with reproductive or developmental toxins, 60% have estrogenic chemicals that will mess with your hormones and cause everything from aggressive puberty in little girls to breast cancer.

The good news is that consumers are getting better informed and asking Congress to update policies regulating these chemicals. In the meantime here are some things you can do to reduce the toxins you are pouring into your skin.

Tips

  1. First, check out those things that you put on your body like shampoo, soap, makeup, laundry detergent, and sunscreen.  Do they have any of these chemicals? Anything that goes on your body that has an added fragrance is highly suspect.
  2. Second, download the Environmental Working Group app  so you can make better choices when buying new products by scanning in the item or searching by the name.  I geeked out when I downloaded the app and ran around scanning all my products. It’s a good time!

As always, I hope this series has helped you feel empowered to reduce your toxic load so that you can feel and look your best!