Best Herbs and Superfoods for Liver Health (and beautiful skin!)

Best herbs and superfoods for optimal liver health, including how to support all three phases of liver function, which is the foundation for beautiful skin.

There is more to improving digestion than just healing the gut and optimizing metabolism.

The digestive system includes the gallbladder, liver, and pancreas in addition to your actual stomach and intestines.

These organs, therefore, also need TLC to function optimally.

If not, they become congested and overwhelmed, leading to health issues and skin problems.

The Liver Lowdown

The liver is our second-largest and most important detoxifying organ in our body.

Can you guess the first?

Yes, it’s the skin, which is why if the liver is sluggish, skin problems can develop.

In essence, the liver supports the health of the skin. Every toxin in our body is taken to the liver to be cleaned and transformed (fat-soluble into water-soluble forms), which can then be excreted from the body.

In essence, the liver is responsible for removing harmful bacteria, chemicals, toxins, and even excess hormones.

Beyond cleaning duties, the liver also stores vitamins A, D, B-12, iron, copper, and is even a site for glucose storage.  

The Role of Bile

Bile production plays an especially important role in the liver when it comes to the skin.

Bile is stored in the gallbladder, which contracts every time we consume fat.  It breaks down lipids into smaller particles so that we can absorb and utilize them; otherwise, we don’t get the benefits of eating good fats.

The other important role of bile is to stimulate peristaltic action, which is the muscle contraction that happens in the digestive tract to move food and waste through the intestines.

If bile doesn’t get released, it can become difficult to produce a bowel movement.

So what does this have to do with the skin? It’s all about toxins.

The more toxins, the more stress the liver endures 24/7, and this shows like a mirror via skin health.

An overworked liver means that it’s not functioning optimally, and therefore can’t keep a clean home.

One of the first signs that the liver is congested are bowel problems.

If constipation is an issue, or you’re going less than twice a day, this can keep extra toxins hanging around.

This happens because the colon reabsorbs toxins if transit time is slowed and bowel waste is sitting there longer than it should be. Think of each bowel movement as the waste products from one meal.

Typically, we’re eating three meals a day, which means we should be moving our bowels nearly as often!

Symptoms of a Sluggish Liver

Besides bowel problems, a sluggish liver can manifest in one or more of the following symptoms.

• Headaches/Migraines
• Acne/skin rashes
• Poor tolerance to coffee, alcohol, smoke, or fragrances
• Brain fog
• Indigestion after eating
• Constipation, diarrhea, or light/dark colored stools
• Difficulty losing weight even with diet efforts
• Pain in the lower right rib
• Waking at night between 2 am and 4 am

A large part of maintaining healthy skin is making sure you take good care of your liver and gall bladder, as well as healing the stomach if needed.

In some cases, a gall bladder flush and/or liver cleanse may be worth considering.

The good news is that the liver can and does regenerate every 5 months, relatively quickly and effectively compared to other organs.

The liver responds extremely well to foods, but especially herbs.

Below are the best liver-loving herbs and foods you can introduce into your diet to make sure you are supporting this critical organ properly.

Helpful Herbs for the Liver

The following list of herbs includes the best ones to consider for optimal liver maintenance and support.

Superfoods

Besides the short list of liver-supporting herbs above, the following superfoods assist the liver in performing its critical detoxification duties.

• Chlorella/Spirulina: Helps clear toxins from the body, boosts immunity, and increases oxygen uptake.
• Nutritional Yeast: High in nucleic acid, which is an important component of cell development. Also a rich source of B vitamins, folate, potassium, and chromium.
• Garlic: Raw, crushed cloves are high in allicin and selenium, which can aid in cleansing the liver.
• Lemons, limes, and Grapefruit: Eating or drinking the juices of these fruits, or warm lemon water first thing in the morning, can help your liver flush out toxins and assist in cleansing.
• Beets: high in flavanoids, which your liver loves! Eat them raw, juiced, or as homemade beet kvass.
• Leafy Greens: the abundant chlorophyll and minerals contained here are super supportive in the detoxification process.
• Raw whey: Adding raw whey to your diet can help your body produce glutathione, which is needed for phase I and II of detoxification. More on this below.
• Eat Liver! Think of the term “like cures like”. Liver has all the nutrition your own liver needs to stay healthy, just make sure you get the highest quality from pasture-raised animals!
• Burdock Root- A published study found that burdock helps heal and protect against liver damage. likely due to its powerful antioxidant properties.

Tips for Getting Liver Superfoods into the Diet

Here are some easy tips for incorporating liver superfoods into your menu plan and daily routine.

• Start your morning off with some lemon water upon rising.
• Make a protein shake with whey, berries or grapefruit, spirulina, and coconut milk for a quick breakfast or snack. Be sure to SKIP the toxic protein powder (there are NO good brands!).
• Drink herbal liver detox teas daily instead of coffee.
• Make a large raw salad with beets, leafy greens, and garlic (great in dressings). Skip the high anti-nutrient greens, which stress digestion.
• Sprinkle Brewer’s (nutritional) yeast onto veggies, salads, or onto any dehydrated veggie chips (my favorite)!
• Make a stir fry, curry, or soup with turmeric (great for the fall and winter months approaching)
• Learn to love liver! Pate is my favorite, but you can cook it up or add it to main meats as well if you prefer not to eat it as a spread. Hiding a bit of liver in ground beef when making chili, meatloaf, or burgers is a tried and true method for sneaky Moms.

Supporting All Phases of Liver Function

Many times I find that people respond wonderfully to simple support and restoration of methylation and glutathione levels to help properly detox the liver.

This process involves a total of three phases.

Phase I

Common support to address liver health usually focuses on phase I only, which is to convert fat-soluble toxins to a water-soluble form to be excreted.

This can be extremely harmful when free radicals are being formed but not exiting the body quickly, because an accumulation can rapidly happen if all phases are not working properly. 

Phase II

Phase II goes further to make toxins less harmful to the body by pairing them with a glutathione molecule and making them more water soluble.

This is why many people’s glutathione levels are depleted…they are too toxic and the body is using mass amounts to deal with the congestion.

Phase III

Phase III is the elimination phase. Toxins are now carried to the bloodstream to be expelled from the body.

Methylation and glutathione are both extremely important to make sure these phases all happen.

For our bodies to produce glutathione, we need nutrients such as N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), alpha lipoic acid, selenium, B12, folate (not synthetic folic acid), B6, and glycine.

Raw dairy is one of the best food sources of glutathione, as it is not absorbed well in supplement form via the digestive tract.

Focus on all the food sources above, as well as relieving liver stress by using the skin to release toxins: via sweat, exercise, near infrared sauna, and Epsom salt baths.

In summary, the more ways you support your liver, the healthier it will be, which will correspondingly show in how you feel and the vibrancy of your skin!