There’s such a thing as being too forgiving, especially when it comes to major body parts. The liver is considered the second most important organ in the body. it is right below your rib cage on the right side of your body. it is the largest solid organ in the body. The liver is about the size of a football and performs a multitude of functions; it is the only organ which can regenerate itself as long as it’s not beyond repair. it is an organ that is tasked with removing toxins from the body and acts as a natural filter. as one of the largest and most important organs in the body, the liver’s efficiency is vital to overall health. However, with today’s poor, overly processed dietary habits and overindulgence, it is easy for your liver to become overwhelmed and "clogged". People can have chronic liver conditions for years without realising it, even patients with cirrhosis often have no symptoms at all.The liver makes proteins that regulate blood clotting, filters the toxins from the bloodstream, chemically changing them into harmless substances that can be excreted easily. it produces immune agents to fight infection, generates bile to help digest fats and stores glucose for when you need energy. it is a metabolic factory of the entire body. A number of integrative practitioners believe that a polluted environment is a main cause of liver disease, and that it’s important to assist the liver’s functions by decreasing the toxins you put into your body. if the liver is unable to remove all of the harmful substances from the bloodstream, the toxins build up in our tissues and cause numerous health problems, including elevated cholesterol (and all of the problems related to high cholesterol), digestive problems including constipation, nausea and irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, depression and disruption of sugar levels within the bloodstream. Chronic fatigue and pain are often signs of a liver that is not functioning efficiently.

The liver and food processingEverything that enters the body must pass through the liver to be processed. The liver converts everything you eat, breathe and absorb through the skin into life-sustaining substances. it works like a sophisticated laboratory right in the middle of your body. it stores and stockpiles glucose and other nutrients that have been absorbed through the intestinal wall, releasing them to your cells when necessary through the hepatic vein. It’s easy to see why you feel tired with no energy if your liver is not well. it filters out toxins from your blood at the amazing rate of a quart per minute. it sorts out the good from the bad, keeping anything useful and tossing out the junk. as the world becomes more and more toxic, a liver working at optimal capacity plays a bigger role in health and well-being than ever before. The liver makes bile to digest fat and prevent constipation. your life improves in lots of ways with a healthy liver. it also secretes hormones and enzymes for hundreds of physiological functions, and maintains hormone balance.That’s why it is advisable for people to eat foods with an eye towards promoting liver health. this is especially true when the liver is damaged. Understanding the basics of nutrition is necessary in order to make intelligent food choices that will benefit the liver. A person with liver disease should always read these labels carefully. also, most people with liver disease need to restrict some foods from their diets. this should not be viewed as a punishment, but rather as a step in the direction of a healthier liver. most medications are metabolised or eliminated by the liver, and some of them may cause liver injury in susceptible individuals. Avoid taking aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, especially the common pain reliever in Tylenol and numerous cold remedies with alcohol. Muscle relaxants, antidepressants, cholesterol drugs and oral antibiotics may lead to abnormal liver-function tests, as can the herbs chaparral, coltsfoot, comfrey and kava. even vitamin A can stress your liver’s capabilities if you dramatically exceed the recommended daily value.

Effects of pesticides on the liver:if you eat organic foods you may be in a position to save or prolong the lifespan of your liver. In that way you will avoid pesticides and herbicides on vegetables and fruit, along with the hormones, steroids and antibiotics that come with various animal products.Certain foods apparently contain nutrients that support liver detoxification properties, these are foods like blueberries (emagungumence), cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, watercress, walnuts, and almonds to your diet, along with ginger, rosemary and garlic. Researchers claim that the best foods for the liver tend to be bitter, such as dandelion greens, chard and spinach.  People with liver problems must eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains to get the proper vitamins and minerals, while reducing saturated fats and proteins from animal sources. also, omega-3 fatty acids, found in oily fish, legumes and wheat germ, may help the liver process fats and reduce the production of triglycerides.An injured liver stops manufacturing important proteins, such as those that prevent excessive bleeding, and it no longer metabolises bilirubin, which builds up and leads to jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes. With long-term damage, liver cells stop regenerating and are replaced by scarring and fat deposits (liver cirrhosis). it is an end stage of liver disease, but it’s not necessarily a death sentence. yet as the condition worsens, the liver is deprived of blood, leading to liver failure and, potentially, liver cancer.Alcoholism is the main cause of cirrhosis, but hepatitis B is the most common cause worldwide, with hepatitis C doing the most harm. both these viral diseases can become chronic, quietly wearing down the liver for 20 or 30 years after they’re contracted. The vast majority of people affected with hepatitis B and particularly hepatitis C have no symptoms at all, such that many of them don’t know they have the disease. There are less-common conditions as well, such as autoimmune hepatitis and inherited problems. Research studies reveal that liver disease, particularly the development of cirrhosis, is a dramatically increasing problem in markedly overweight persons. An annual blood test may tell you if your liver is healthy.

Symptoms of an unhealthy liver include: Abnormalities in the level of fats in the blood stream. Arteries become blocked with fat, leading to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. There may be a build-up of fat in other body organs. at times you may have lump of fat in the skin. Some people experience excessive weight gain, which may lead to obesity and may suffer from an inability to lose weight even while dieting. Some people may have a sluggish metabolism, a pot belly, cellulite, fatty liver and a roll of fat around the upper abdomen.

Eating for a healthy liver:since people typically eat a wide variety of foods, the liver must constantly be engaged in an intricate balancing act to ensure that the right nutrients get to the right parts of the body in the right amounts. In a healthy person, this balancing act occurs automatically. But when the liver has been weakened or damaged, it has trouble juggling the various nutrients. this is where the diet of a person with a liver problem comes into play. if she eats the right balance of foods, her already burdened liver won’t have to work as hard. Nutrition is one aspect of disease control where a person has some degree of control and can actively participate in speeding recovery and minimising the likelihood of additional injury. it is not possible for anyone to walk into the doctor’s office and request for a diet for liver disease because it does not exist.  Factors that influence the unavailability of a standard liver disease include the variations among the different types of liver disease and the stage of the liver disease. One’s other medical disorders even if unrelated to their liver disease, such as diabetes or heart disease, must also be factored into any diet. each person has own individual nutritional requirements, and these requirements may change over time.most people with liver disease find that eating multiple small meals throughout the day is the best approach, as it maximises energy levels and the ability to digest and absorb food. However, if one insists on eating three meals per day, try to follow the saying that goes “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like prince and dinner like a pauper”.it is important to keep in mind the difference in calorie content among different food groups. while protein and carbohydrate each supply four calories per gram, fat supplies nine calories per gram. it is also important to know that 1 gram of alcohol is equivalent to seven calories. so alcohol actually supplies more energy in the form of calories to the body than protein and carbohydrates, and just slightly less than that supplied by fat.However, while alcohol may provide a person with some degree of energy, it has absolutely no nutritional value. Therefore, alcohol has been said to provide “empty calories.”