How To Detox Your Liver
How To Detox Your Liver
Video Transcript:
Hi everybody and welcome back to our blog, which is all about nutrition and gut health information. And today we're talking about what nutrients are needed to support the liver's detoxification system. And I know some of you are going to be thinking, but wait, Ashley, I heard that our body detoxes itself, that I don't need to do anything.
Like I don't need to do crazy juice cleanses or etc, and that's partly true. But I also want to add that our body has natural detoxification systems BUT there are certain nutrients needed to make sure they're working properly.
So our liver is the number one organ to support detoxification, but it works with some other organs, including our intestines, our kidneys, our lymphatic system, and even our sweat glands to help make sure that we're constantly detoxing. Right? So if you know of anybody, that's gone more than a day without having a bowel movement, that's concerning for detox because they're going to be reabsorbing some of those things back into their body. And that's just one really simple example.
Again, today we're honing into what nutrients are needed to support the liver. I'm going to show you an image (please watch the video below for reference). So by the end of this topic, you're going to have a really good understanding of how that works and what nutrients are needed.
It's estimated that human adult has 700 toxins in their body. And a newborn has about 200. We're living in an environment where we're exposed to more of these toxins and our body has to work maybe harder if that's the right word, to make sure that it's detoxing it and/or we need to make sure that we're supporting, we're sweating, we're getting the right nutrients so that these systems are working properly.
In the human adipose tissue, which is the fancy word for fat tissue, in a hundred percent of human fat tissue styrene was found and styrene is what's used to make plastic. It's used to make polystyrene containers, and so it's just another piece of research that we have to show, that is burdening our bodies.
What can we do to make sure we don't have long-term health outcomes from this?
And another simple example would be eating too much fish that have a high chance of having too much mercury.
So like albacore tuna, and there are cases of people who have eaten tuna sandwiches a few times a week, they get mercury toxicity in their body and they start to have memory and brain issues. And then upon cutting out that, albacore tuna, their body starts to recover. So that's a simple example of what I mean by much burden coming in from something from the outside that our systems are not able to keep up with it.
And so what we really want to do is it's two parts
number one, we want to work really hard to decrease our environmental exposure. So that might be better researching the products that you're using. Like cleaning products can be a huge source of bad toxin exposure to the human body. And you can go to the environmental working group to get some ideas for cleaner and safer products.
Also, skincare like women's makeup is a really high risk of getting exposure to chemicals that you probably don't want to be absorbed into your body because we don't have great research on some of these things to really show that they're safe over the long-term and it's not well regulated.
And then on the flip side, we want to be supporting our detox pathways, the best that we can. So for doing these two things, decreasing our environmental exposure, as best as possible, supporting our detoxification pathways our natural detox pathways, as much as able, then we're going to be in a much healthier spot.
So as you can see here, we have our phase one intermediate metabolites and phase two. (please watch the video for reference. Timestamp 4:14). So what you're looking at in the liver is we have these fat-soluble toxins that the body then is going to convert into these intermediate metabolites, which can be actually more harmful than it was a phase one in the first place.
It can actually damage DNA and protein. So we want to be moving these toxins through these intermediate metabolites quicker into phase two, where they become water-soluble and then can be excreted through the urine and through stool.
So as you can see in phase one, you're going to need a variety of B vitamins, which if you're eating a real whole food eating plan, like a lot of foods that you would find at the farmer's market, you're going to be getting a variety of these B vitamins. Something that's interesting to note here is if you've ever taken a B complex or a multivitamin, you felt really sick.
I've heard of this, a couple of cases of this happening in the medical field. As during my time as a dietitian, it could be that somebody's ramping up phase one detox in the liver, but they don't have the support for phase two.
So it's possible that these toxins can be getting converted to intermediate metabolites, but then they don't have the nutrients needed to support phase two. And so then they just feel worse because again, it's going from fat-soluble toxins to the intermediate metabolites that can be more damaging to the body like damaging the DNA and the proteins before it gets turned and converted to being water-soluble. So it can leave via the urine and feces.
So that phase two, ramping that up first, it's going to be the second most important thing honestly, to do, because number one, it's going to be making sure somebody is producing enough urine and having one to three bowel movements a day and sweating regularly so that when we're converting these to getting them to be water soluble, all the other pathways are working well. The person's making enough bile to support, as you can see on this side of the picture.
So let's go back and focus on phase two. So what you can see here is a lot of amino acids, which come from protein. So protein gets broken down to amino acids. That's gonna support phase two detox, which then again, toxins water-soluble leaves via urine and stool.
So certainly animal products are a great source of protein. There are vegetarian and vegan protein options as well. It's not only what you eat, but what you absorb. So it might be if you're having a lot of gut issues, maybe you're not absorbing protein properly, and that could be contributing to the issues here, and not only protein, but you're going to want to get some nutrients with sulfur. So onions, garlic, and eggs are really great sources of sulfur.
Eggs are actually one of the most nutrient-dense foods that you can eat. I always look for certified humane, and then pasture-raised they're going to be slightly higher in healthy omega-three fats. And then you'll also want to get some foods from the cabbage family to support phase two.
And that includes broccoli and cauliflower and cabbage, like sauerkraut, would be great while you can get some probiotics in with the sauerkraut too, and like kale, you can make some kale chips, which kiddos tend to really enjoy.
And then lastly WATER. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Don't drink too much. It could water down your sodium in the blood. You might get faint and dizzy, but make sure that your urine is a light yellow color.
If it's clear, you're probably getting into too much, but light yellow. So you can support that part of the detoxification system. Make sure you're having one to three bowel movements a day, if not call our clinic.
Honestly, that's super important and try to sweat as much as you possibly can. I personally like hot yoga if it's somewhere where you are, which a lot of places are now in summer, get out, get out for a bike ride. Bask in the sun and just sweat.
Also gonna link a quality nutrient powder that has the nutrients needed to support these detoxification systems. Make sure to check with your main health care provider, but that link will be in the description below.
Detox Powder: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/...
I also wanted to share with you our FREE GUIDE: 5 Ways to improve your gut health, which you can download.
So I want to thank you so much for spending your time on this topic.
I hope you all have a great rest of your day and I will see you the next one!
If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.
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