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The liver is a powerful filter. All harmful elements that enter our body are deposited in the liver without entering the bloodstream. Polluted air, chlorinated water, alcohol, junk food, medicines, viruses – if it were not for the hard worker-liver, a person could not survive for several hours, would die from poisoning.
Any filter can get dirty and needs to be cleaned. “Clogging” of the liver and a malfunction in its work is fraught with a whole list of troubles. Among them are failures in amino acid, carbohydrate, vitamin and lipid metabolism, hormonal failures, and jumps in cholesterol levels.
But nature ordered that the liver can self-cleanse and regenerate: it regenerates even with serious damage – 70 percent or more of the tissue. A similar process occurs due to the work of special cells – hepatocytes. But to maintain liver health or treat it, a person needs to eat right.
“Nutrition is at the heart of liver treatment,” confirms therapist, gastroenterologist Aleksandra Myznikova. – Any drugs used to restore the liver do not treat it, but help to recover. Everything in nutrition should be complete. Meat, fish, caviar, butter – if it is a healthy food, and not something out of the ordinary – with preservatives and carcinogens – then it is good for the liver.
Liver products
| Meat | Low fat varieties. We prefer beef, rabbit and poultry to lamb and pork. If there are no liver diseases, a healthy menu should include offal (particularly beef and chicken) |
| Fish | Fish varieties rich in unsaturated fats. Important: not smoked or fried fish. If the liver is “sick”, then you need to abandon fatty fish in favor of “dietary” ones: pike, perch, cod. |
| Dairy produce | We choose fermented milk products, cottage cheese is especially useful for the liver. A little low-fat milk wouldn’t hurt either. |
| Vegetables and fruits | The liver loves avocados. Also, berries such as raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and some fruits (for example, grapefruit) will benefit. |
| Other | Add nuts and legumes to your diet. Cereals are also helpful. Eggs can be even during the treatment of liver diseases, they often replace meat. |
Useful Foods for Liver Recovery
To restore the liver, “good fats” are needed, which contain special lipids – the builders of cell membranes. But overeating foods containing such, way and healthy, fats is not worth it. Even in proper and therapeutic nutrition, a measure is needed. Also useful are cereals, fresh fruits and vegetables, protein foods.
Fatty fish varieties
These include, for example, mackerel, silver carp, herring, halibut. In order for the fish to turn into a remedy that restores the liver, you need to eat it two or three, or even four times a week.
Useful “fish fats”, which are also abundant in keto caviar, prevent bad fat from accumulating in the liver and maintain the desired level of enzymes in it. Those who do not like fish can replace it with fish oil capsules. You need to take it daily, and for how long – the doctor should determine.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal is useful for liver recovery due to beta-glucans – special compounds, natural polysaccharides. They are found in almost all cereals, but in oats they are the most. Since beta-glucans are highly permeable, they act on tissues from the inside. The ability of this type of polysaccharides to restore the liver is confirmed by a study by foreign scientists published in 2017 in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Beta-glucans modulate the immune system and fight inflammation, according to this paper. (one)
Avocado
The “trick” of avocados is monounsaturated fats, which slow down liver damage and help it recover. This exotic fruit is also high in fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. In the human body, which includes the avocado menu, glutathione begins to be intensively produced – a substance that, among other things, is responsible for filtering harmful substances that accumulate in the liver. Glutathione also protects cells from the effects of free radicals, helping it recover faster.
Vegetable oil
In the menu of a person who wants to restore the normal functioning of the liver, there should be unrefined (that is, unrefined) oils of the first pressing. They contain all useful trace elements, vitamins and minerals. Tocopherol is especially useful – it is an antioxidant that “reasons” free radicals and cleanses our “filter” of toxins.
The choice of oils in stores is huge, but doctors especially recommend sunflower, soy, linseed and olive. Due to the high content of unsaturated fatty acids, the latter inhibits oxidative stress well and improves liver function. (2)
Nuts
Liver loves nuts for vitamin E, zinc, iron, selenium, magnesium, manganese and unsaturated fatty acids involved in intercellular metabolic processes and reduce the load on it. (2)
Walnuts
They become a liver-restoring drug in their fresh form. Dry nuts are also useful, but when they dry out, they still lose some useful amino acids. In general, walnut nucleoli prevent the destruction of liver cells. But in no case should you overeat them: if you eat more than 80 grams of walnut every day, instead of helping the liver, it will provoke an inflammatory process.
Almonds
Due to the fact that there is a lot of vitamin E in almonds, eating these nuts does not allow hepatosis to develop in the liver tissue.
Almonds help cleanse the blood, and this also helps the weakened “filter” to recover, because it does not need to work with overloads.
At the same time, almonds contain a lot of calories – 650 kcal per 100 grams. Therefore, you can eat it a few pieces a day, no more. And best of all – as an additive to desserts and salads.
Pine nuts and hazelnuts
The elements contained in these nuts are involved in the process of regeneration of liver cells and prevent cirrhosis from developing. Pine nuts are high in potassium, while hazelnuts are high in phosphorus. Minus – again, the calorie content. 100 grams of roasted pine nuts – 800 kcal. Therefore, for those who care about the restoration of the liver, it is better to eat them raw and as an addition to dishes. And hazelnuts are recommended to be eaten dried – no more than 75 grams per day.
Berries
In the menu that restores the functioning of the liver, it is worth finding a place for sweet berries. It’s sweet. But sour ones will not cheer her up. And even vice versa – harm.
The most useful for the liver are strawberries, raspberries and strawberries. The microelements contained in them perfectly “drive” bile and help the liver cleanse itself. A clean filter is easier to recover.
In order for the berries to start “working”, they need to be included in the menu of the week for 3-4. But, if you have an exacerbated stomach ulcer or gastritis, neither raspberries, nor strawberries, nor strawberries should be abused.
Blueberries are also good for the liver. It enhances the immune cellular response and generously shares its antioxidant enzymes.
Useful foods during liver disease
If you have developed liver disease, the first thing to do is to reduce the calorie content of the menu. The main rule of clinical nutrition is that food should not be fatty and contain a lot of carbohydrates. The liver diet should make up for the protein deficiency.
“By the way, in the Soviet Union, the diet for liver diseases was super-caloric, oversaturated with fats and proteins,” says Alexandra Myznikova. – It was believed that this type of power provides the “filter” with the resources to work. Now this diet has been revised in favor of reducing calories so that nutrition does not cause fatty liver. Because a large amount of fat, which the liver cannot process, will soak it. And ordinary liver cells will be replaced by fatty ones. And this is a non-functional fabric and it is completely unnecessary. Therefore, too fatty food harms the liver, but at the same time it is included in the diet for liver diseases. Only this fatty food is of the right quality – rich in phospholipids and high-density fats.
Meat and poultry
Meat, as a source of animal protein, should be mandatory in clinical nutrition, but not any. The treatment menu includes poultry (turkey, chicken), rabbit and lean beef or veal. Meat and poultry can be boiled, baked and stewed. You can make cutlets, or you can cook in slices. But no frying – this is important. And one more ban – by-products. Those who are trying to cure the liver should forget about liver pies and chicken hearts for a while.
Milk and dairy products
Milk, low-fat kefir, yogurt, a little sour cream and mild cheese (except for hard varieties), yogurt, a little condensed milk, and most importantly – low-fat cottage cheese: such a diet will benefit the diseased liver. The “sour milk” contains methionine – a useful amino acid, especially cottage cheese is rich in it.
Plain low-fat milk is also not contraindicated. It is even part of therapeutic diets and is valuable for lecithin and methionine, essential amino acids that the body does not produce on its own. They do not allow fat to be deposited in the liver.
However, do not forget that a special approach is needed for a diseased organ. Before including milk in your diet, you should consult your doctor.
Fish and Seafood
Low-fat varieties of fish (cod, pike perch, perch, navaga, carp, pike) are suitable for the treatment menu. The fish can be boiled or baked. The liver will also say “thank you” for the fish broth. Some shrimp and squid, rich in protein, will also not be superfluous. But in moderation.
Vegetables
Vegetables should be one of the main parts of the treatment menu. Potatoes, carrots, zucchini, green peas, young beans, pumpkin, cauliflower – dishes and side dishes from these vegetables must be in the diet. They can simply be boiled or baked. Raw vegetables are also not contraindicated for people suffering from liver diseases. Tomatoes and tomato juice are well perceived.
Coffee
Doctors came to the conclusion that if you regularly drink a little coffee – no more than one cup a day – you can prevent the development of liver cancer, as well as fibrosis (scarring of tissue), cirrhosis and other diseases. (3)
The effect is achieved due to paraxanthine, which is produced in the body during the digestion of caffeine. This chemical just heals the liver tissue. And the very mechanism of healing the liver is based on the effect of coffee components on liver enzymes. (four)
In addition, thanks to the acids it contains, coffee can help fight the hepatitis B virus. By the way, we are not only talking about freshly brewed coffee: instant coffee also has medicinal properties. (5)
Healthy Foods to Protect Your Liver
To protect the liver, foods that contain a lot of choline are best suited. This is another name for vitamin B4, the “superpower” of which is in the breakdown of fats. There is not much choline in vegetables, so they do not play a major role in a protective diet. However, they still won’t be redundant.
Offal
A special place in the protective menu is given to beef liver, as a source of iron and copper, necessary for hematopoiesis. But other by-products are useful to include in the diet. Including birds – chicken ventricles, turkey hearts, etc. The most valuable and useful, in addition to beef liver, are beef tongue, kidneys and heart. They have even more protein and useful trace elements than meat.
pulse
Rich in choline, zinc, iron, fiber, and lecithin, chickpeas, peas, and beans can be used as liver-healthy side dishes. They are recommended to be added to the menu up to three times a week. Lentils make a healthy and tasty soup. According to the content of easily digestible proteins, legumes have no competitors in the plant world.
grapefruit
Packed with antioxidants like naringin and naringenin, grapefruit is one of the best liver protectors. Thanks to its rich chemical composition, citrus protects our “filter” from injury, strengthens liver cells and reduces internal inflammation. In addition, the trace elements contained in grapefruit, as well as the high content of vitamin C, activate the chemicals responsible for the breakdown of fatty acids. This triggers a mechanism that prevents fatty liver disease.
It must be remembered that grapefruit can also enhance or, conversely, reduce the effect of certain drugs. For those who, for example, take antidepressants, anticonvulsants and statins, it is better to refuse this fruit. The consequences can be unpredictable. No wonder the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) requires all new drugs to be tested for compatibility with grapefruit juice.
Turmeric
The power of this seasoning is in the curcumin that gave it its name, a bioactive agent with excellent hepatoprotective properties. Curcumin protects the liver from diseases, makes its tissue more resistant to injury and inflammation. In addition, this chemical element reduces the oxidative stress of our “filter”, cleaning it from harmful free radicals. (6)
Popular questions and answers
The most common questions of our readers about the menu for the liver are answered therapist, gastroenterologist of the clinic “Crede Experto” Alexandra Myznikova.
What foods does the human liver dislike?
Fatty foods, an abundance of oil are also harmful to the liver. With an excess of fat, it is impregnated with it, healthy cells begin to be replaced by fat cells, cells become inflamed, fibrosis forms, and cirrhosis in place of fibrosis. This is such a “chain mechanism”, which is better not to run.
And “no” definitely needs to be said to fried food, fast food. These foods harm the liver.
What is the best thing to eat for breakfast for the liver?
How quickly does the liver recover with the right diet?
As for recovery through nutrition, everything, of course, depends on the state of the organ. On average, if we are not talking about serious illnesses and a neglected state, the liver will begin to recover in a couple of weeks. If the “filter” is acting up badly, as, say, with drunken alcoholism, you can wait for results from six months to several years.
Sources of
- Clinical and Physiological Perspectives of β-Glucans: The Past, Present, and Future. Khawaja Muhammad, Imran Bashir, Jae-Suk Choi. /J. Mol. Sci. 2017, 18(9)/ URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/18/9/1906
- Comparative evaluation of the hepatoprotective properties of the pharmaceutical preparation “Phosphogliv”, linseed oil and oils from the fruits of walnut and black nuts / Esaulenko EE / Modern problems of science and education. – 2014. – No. 2. URL: https://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=12311&
- Coffee consumption and oncological diseases – literature review / I. Karomatov, A. Bobozhonov / Biology and Integrative Medicine, 2019 URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/upotreblenie-kofe-i-onkologicheskie-zabolevaniya-obzor – literature?
- Coffee and liver health / Filomena Morisco, Vincenzo Lembo, Giovanna Mazzone, Silvia Camera, Nicola Caporaso / J Clin Gastroenterol Nov-Dec 2014; 48. URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25291138/
- Coffee consumption and the liver – the potential health benefits/ Professor Graeme Alexander President, British Association for the Study of the Liver Consultant Hepatologist at Cambridge University Hospitals and The Royal Free Hospital, London/ A British Liver Trust report, June 2016. URL: https://britishlivertrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/The-health-benefits-of-coffee-BLT-report-June-2016.pdf
- Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory properties of turmeric. I.Karomatov, Sh.Ptamuradova / Biology and Integrative Medicine, 2018