Help your liver to detox

Smell fruits before you buy; the strongest-smelling will be the ripest ones.

Sulphur-rich foods, such as garlic, onions, eggs and red peppers, help the liver to eliminate toxins in a process called sulphation. In Asian restaurants, you may be served a long, white radish called a Daikon after eating particularly fatty foods, because its high sulphur content helps the body to metabolize and digest fats. Certain other foods, some of which are listed below, are powerful liver healers because they contain key ingredients, and these should all be part of your detox programme. There are also a number of herbal supplements that boost liver function and will aid an effective detox.

Artichoke Hearts

These aid the secretion of bile, and they contain antioxidants known as flavonoids which protect the liver cells. Artichokes are a useful food for those people who have alcohol-related liver problems, and are a fantastic detox aid.

Asparagus

This is a good source of vitamin A and potassium, which the liver needs to detox, as well as being rich in folate, vitamin E and fibre.

Dandelion Roots

Dandelion roots contain inulin, which nourishes beneficial gut bacteria, stimulates liver function, and helps to lower blood sugar. You can buy dandelion tea and coffee in health food shops.

B Vitamins

Contained in whole grains and pulses, such as oats, millet, chickpeas and brown rice, the B vitamins are essential in a liver detox. Vitamin B1 helps to deal with the effects of alcohol, smoking and heavy metals. B2 is used to produce glutathione. Vitamin B3 is needed for the breakdown of several toxins, while B4 detoxifies the acetaldehyde byproduct of alcohol breakdown.

Magnesium

This essential mineral is found in dark green, leafy foods and is one of the key nutrients that your liver needs to manufacture enzymes for toxin breakdown. Choose bitter green leaves, such as watercress, rocket, chard, dandelion greens or mustard greens, to help your digestive enzymes and to provide the chlorophyll which purifies the blood.

Oranges, Lemons & Limes

Theses stimulate the production of glutathione and help the process by which the body eliminates sulpha drugs. Start finding some new ways to use them; for example, adding some lemon juice to a cup of hot water to start the day; or mixing it with olive oil as a salad dressing; or squeezing some fresh orange and lime juice over a variety of crisp, wok-fried vegetables.

Make a fresh juice for breakfast, so you start the day with a burst of valuable vitamins.

Turmeric

The key spice found in curries, giving them their distinctive yellow colour as well as flavour, turmeric slows down the first stage of detoxification in the liver but speeds up the second, so that you are less prone to damage from the intermediate toxic chemicals and their associated free radicals.

Live yoghurt is a superfood that contains probiotics: beneficial bacteria that displace harmful toxins in your intestine. However, you must be sure that you get the right kind which has a high lactobacilli content. It should always say 'made with live and active cultures' on the label. If it has been frozen, or has artificial colours and fruit flavours added, you are on the wrong track.     Choose non-fat or low-fat yoghurt rather than whole milk if weight loss is one of your goals.

Probiotic Bacteria

These are fragile, and those that are found in 'bio' yoghurt which has been standing around on a supermarket shelf or in your fridge for a week or more will contain fewer live bacteria than freshly made cultures. If in doubt, you can buy probiotic supplement in health food shops - select on that supplies at least 1-2 billion colony-forming units (CFU) of acidophilus per dose.