Golden Glow Sunday #16
Liver Love This Holiday Season
The holiday season is a time for joy, celebration, and, unfortunately, a lot of potential liver stress. With rich foods and festive drinks, our livers can become overwhelmed and yes, somewhat depressed.
But fear not!
With a few simple tweaks to your routine, you can enjoy the celebrations without compromising your liver health.
Let's dive into some holiday hacks to love your liver.
1. Sip Smart
Opt for festive mocktails. Alcohol is a toxin that damages your liver and increases fat storage via lipogenesis. It also depletes thiamin (vitamin B1), which is crucial for liver energy production and carbohydrate metabolism. Consider using a binder like Biopure ZeoBind to help your body detoxify acetaldehyde, ethanol, and other toxins if you decide to imbibe in the festivities.
2. Fiber Up
Load your plate with soluble fiber-rich foods like flaxseed, beans, Brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, and gluten-free oats. Fiber is one of the four pillars of Nourishing Lab's Golden Goddess Plate. Soluble fiber helps bind toxins and bile acids in the gut, which then signals your liver to increase production of bile and boost detoxification. Bile is critical for fat digestion and to eliminate toxins.
Balance Your Blood Sugar
Prioritize protein at every meal, another one of the four pillars of Nourishing Lab's Golden Goddess Plate, and take a post-meal 10 minute walk (that’s all that is needed but you can always walk longer) to stabilize blood sugar levels. This reduces the demand on your liver's glycogen stores and keeps your drainage pathways running optimally.
Taste the Bitter
Incorporate bitter foods like dandelion greens, arugula, and artichokes to stimulate bile production and aid digestion. This improves your liver's ability to process fats and eliminate toxins.
Sweat It Out
Use an infrared sauna or break a sweat through exercise to help your body eliminate toxins naturally. This reduces the workload on your liver.
According to Dr. Gudrun Snyder, a Doctor of East Asian Acupuncture who specializes in a root-cause resolution approach to treatment and founder of Moon Rabbit Acupuncture,"Sweating serves to help detox and protect the body. Salts, urea, and heavy metals are released through sweating." In fact, a 2012 study found that sweating plays an important role in expelling heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic from the body because they dissolve readily in water.1
Small changes can make a big difference.. so let’s love your liver this holiday season.
What I Am Loving:
I am loving my Queen of the Thrones castor oil packs to support liver detoxification. When applied directly to the liver, castor oil packs not only stimulate the lymphatic system but also improve liver function and facilitate the removal of toxins.
Benefits of castor oil packs include:
Improves immune function
Boosts circulation
Moisturizes skin and boosts wound healing
Improves digestion and elimination
Reduces inflammation and pain
Reduces and supports stiffness associated with arthritis
Stimulates the liver's natural detoxification pathways
Discover the Golden Goddess within you!
