I used a hashtag #jendetoxes in my latest Instagram post and I’m on a conscious quest to eating well, eating nutritious wholefoods but first to detox the liver to optimise its functionality. Here’s why.
I went to the book launch earlier in the week of nutritionist Michele Chevalley Hedge’s book called The Australian Healthy Hormone Diet. It was an education process for me attending the talk about what hormonal imbalance does to your body and listening to outcomes of live cases of people who paid attention to a healthy hormone diet. I read parts of the book when I got home of what hormone imbalances mean and how it can be affected by things like what you eat, lifestyle factors affecting stress levels and how much sleep you get. Hormones include cortisol (the stress hormone); insulin (the fat storage controller); serotonin (the feel good hormone); thyroid hormone (the queen of metabolism); leptin (the hormone of hunger); testosterone (the hormone of vitality); and oestrogen (the protective hormone). When hormones are imbalanced, it affects your weight, energy and mood.
In women, if oestrogen is too low this causes insomnia, low libido, mood swings and dry skin. If too high, it can cause weight gain, menstrual issues, PMS, cystic breasts, fibroids and some cancers. The causes of excess includes various environmental causes such as xenoestrogens, oestrogen mimicking chemicals found in pesticides, dry cleaning chemicals, gut flora imbalance (excess antibiotics and sugar) and toxins aren’t cleared and are reabsorbed into the blood stream, liver overload where you liver is not working optimally to detoxify and remove fat soluble toxins and eliminate excess oestrogen to name a few. Ways to rebalance oestrogen include avoid coffee, diet, alcohol drinks, take care of your liver, eating more fibre and “crowding in” or packing your plate with liver cleansing vegetables. For example, cruciferous veggies like broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, turnip; cut out fried food; cut down red meat or choose high quality grass fed meat; exercise more. Because it happens on the inside it might not be immediately noticeable but if you thrash it out in your early 20s and 30s, you’ll start to see the effects later in life.
 |
| Fresh fruit and veggies from @mdprovodores |
So I’ve been on a liver detox diet and have been creating recipes to clean up and detox my liver for better body balance and wellness and to generally feel better. When you go on a liver detox diet the first thing you notice is it shows through your skin. You’ll notice a little more pimples on your skin a week or two after the detox diet as toxins are released through the skin and then it clears up and the texture improves. The other thing I noticed is I don’t feel bloated after eating but still full as I’m crowding in more fruit and veggies more regularly and still exercising too and drinking lots of water and herbal tea (dandelion root and milk thistle in particular). Also you don’t feel as bloated pre-your menstrual cycle. With better acid-alkaline balance in your body through liver detox process, your skin condition is noticeably a lot better which hopefully also means your insides are too. Yes, there a few sacrifices, I’ve cut out my soy lattes (since the beginning of this year – big achievement for a person who drank 2 cups a day for as long as I can remember)), dairy, sugar, white breads, anything with gluten, conventional meats for a little while opting for grass fed and hormone free instead in moderation. I’ve substituted coffee with green juices every morning and actually really look forward to making them and trying different and quick recipes with some planning before I head off to work.
I’ve read sulfur rich foods such as cabbage are natural liver cleansers, so here is my smoked salmon slaw recipe:
Smoked salmon
1/2 red cabbage, shredded
1/2 green cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup pepitals (green kernels from pumpkin seeds)
Dressing
2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon wasabi
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil.
Combine the cabbage in a bowl. Mix the Dijon mustard, wasabi, apple cider vinegar and olive oil. Drizzle over slaw. Add smoked salmon broken into pieces, sprinkle walnuts and pepitas and toss. The smoked salmon adds a little saltiness to the sourness and savouriness of the dressing. A nice and simple crunchy salad.
