What does your body do with the toxins that enter it? It hands them off to your liver for processing, that’s what. Your liver is essential to your existence. So treat it with extra care! Try to avoid the following 10 liver-unfriendly habits whenever possible.
1. Alcoholism
You already know it, but excessive consumption of alcohol (1) is your liver’s worst enemy.
Drinking too much alcohol can lead to alcoholic liver disease. This is often the precursor to more severe stages of alcohol-induced liver disease.
In fact, alcoholic hepatitis can be diagnosed based on the presence of fat in liver cells combined with mild scarring and inflammation.
Even more serious is alcoholic cirrhosis, in which the liver becomes severely scarred and deformed.
2. Eating Too Much
As you might imagine, the excess fat (2) that you store in your abdomen when you’re overweight also creeps into your liver.
That’s why obesity can contribute to fatty liver disease. Often times, there are no perceptible symptoms until it’s too late. When symptoms do manifest, your liver is already so badly damaged that it is barely functioning.
As time goes on, often years or even decades, you can get problems like:
- Feeling tired
- Weakness
- Nausea
- Confusion or trouble concentrating
3. Avoiding Protein-Rich Foods
Eating a balanced diet will let your liver rejuvenate itself. Focus on getting enough calories, carbs, fats and proteins (3) to provide as much support to your liver as possible.
Cirrhosis patients need a diet particularly rich in protein and calories to help their livers repair themselves.
One particular amino acid called cysteine helps the body make glutathione, a key antioxidant that helps protect the liver from damage.
4. Binging on Processed Foods
The fat buildup in the liver induced by a sugar overload(4) can lead to the formation of scar tissue, one of the causes of cirrhosis.
The natural sugars in fruits and vegetables are fine because they usually come with dietary fiber and therefore metabolize slowly.
Unnaturally sweetened and processed foods, however, are full of sugar and almost no dietary fiber, which is not good for your liver (or any part of your body) and should be avoided as often as possible.
5. Sleeplessness
Research has suggested that sleeping poorly is associated with increased fatty liver disease risk(5).
Inadequate time spent asleep can lead to plethora of health problems. If you have trouble sleeping at night, try this natural syrup.