It’s here… the second half of the top 12 foods or food groups that will help your liver and your body detox naturally!

Two weeks ago, I shared the first video in this series, the top 12 foods that will help your liver detox naturally. Since there are more foods that can fit in one video without making you too overwhelmed, I left some for today. But that doesn’t mean that some foods are better than others! They are all equally important and work together in harmony to ensure the liver is neutralizing toxins and that other parts of the body (kidney, skin, digestive tract) are getting rid of the by-products.

If you missed the first video, you can click HERE to watch it first.

In last week’s post, I wanted to show you an example of how to include these detox foods in your meals. I shared this warm chicken salad over sweet potato recipe that had garlic, onion, ginger, Brussels sprouts, kale, chicken, and turmeric.

Top Natural Detox Foods

In this post, I’m sharing the second and last video on the top foods that will help your liver and your body detox naturally. Foods #1 and #3 are some of my favorites.

What I would love to hear from you is…

What’s the ONE or TWO things that you can do to help YOUR liver detox naturally so that YOU feel energized, focused, get better skin, and get rid of headaches and other pains?

If you like this video, share with your family and friends. And, make sure you subscribe here so you get the latest videos, tips, resources, recipes, and more!

[magicactionbox id=”5447″]

And in case you like to read instead of watching a video, here’s the content transcribed:

Hi there this is Nour Zibdeh, functional nutritionist. This is part 2 of the series on the top foods that will help your liver detox naturally. If you’ve missed the first video, go watch it first and then come back to this one to finish off the rest.

Today I have six more foods that will help boost the liver’s ability to detox. The first one is turmeric, I hope you guessed that one already. Turmeric is a plant, it’s a root plant, and you can use the root or the powder that will be in the spice section in the grocery store. Turmeric’s active ingredient is called curcumin. What it does it activates enzymes in Phase 2 Detoxification Pathways, and this is very important because it’s going to help the body clear those intermediates that developed as the liver moves from phase 1 to phase 2. These intermediates are more toxic than what you started with. Anything that promotes phase 2 enzymes is very important. Also what it does it helps prevent the activation of carcinogens, and if there are any carcinogens that are active, it helps the body get rid of them.

You can use turmeric in the kitchen in many different ways. The powder, you can add that to scrambled eggs or frittata or roasted vegetables or steamed vegetables. You can even add it as a spice rub mix on chicken and ground meats and grass-fed beef and fish. I especially like it on white-colored vegetables like cauliflower or mushroom. It’s just that bright orange color of turmeric adds a lot more interest to the meal when those vegetables become a little bit colorful. You can also add the powder to coconut milk or almond milk and make a warm soothing milk.
You can use the root and shred it with some ginger root and make warm tea that’s also soothing.

Here’s a trick for you with turmeric. Turmeric is more bio-available if there is black pepper included at the same time. What you need to do is add a dash of black pepper anytime you’re using turmeric. If you tend to forget that or to make things simpler, just mix half-a-teaspoon of black pepper with a quarter cup ground turmeric in a spice jar, and that will be ready for you. Anytime you use turmeric, black pepper is already there.

The second food or food group is green tea. Green tea is full of antioxidants called polyphenols, and the specific ones are called catechins. Green tea is going to activate phase 2 enzymes in the liver which are very important. How many cups of green tea to drink a day? Research finds that 2 to 3 cups will help you get the amount of antioxidants that your body will need, and some studies find even up to 7 cups of green tea will be helpful. If this is overwhelming, just take it easy, maybe choose to do one cup of green tea a day as a starting point, maybe in the morning instead of coffee or in the evening as a calming drink. Just start slowly, enjoy it and take it from there. Green tea has caffeine, so if you’re sensitive to caffeine, just be mindful of that or choose decaf green tea.

The third food or food group is bone broth. That maybe something new or you haven’t thought about. Bone broth is concentrated in amino acids specifically glycine which is important for phase 2 detoxification. What the liver does is that it takes those amino acids and binds them to toxins so they become more neutral and easier to get rid of. How to make bone broth? It’s very easy, you want to start with quality bones that come from grass-fed beef or pastured chicken, put them in a pot with water, add some herbs and spices. Things like rosemary thyme, basil, parsley, onion, garlic, celery, kale, and let that boil for a few hours. That will give you broth that will have the amino acid in it. If you boil it for 24 hours, you even get more nutrients in the broth and that will be even best. You can drink broth soup before your meals as an appetizer, or you can have bone broth in a mug instead of coffee, it can be done. Or you can always add it to sauces whenever you’re making a stew or any saucy type of dish.

The forth food or food group is foods high in fiber. Fiber is important because it helps the body have regular bowel movements that are smooth and easy to just go. It’s very important because after the liver helps the body detox the toxins, we want to be able to get rid of them and not reabsorb them again, so incorporate as many as possible. Foods like asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, okra, sweet potatoes, apples, oranges, berries. These are all excellent sources of fiber. Things like flaxseeds and almond and steel-cut oats are going to have a good amount of fiber as well too. Beans and lentils if you can tolerate them they would be excellent source of fiber. If you tend to have gas and bloating, then maybe choose the other fiber sources first.

The fifth food or food group is probiotic foods. Probiotic stands for live cultures and your gut is going to have a mix of bacteria, so we want to promote the healthy bacteria over unhealthy ones. That’s because healthy bacteria is going to improve your immune system, it’s going to improve your digestive tract health and that will prevent toxins from coming inside your body which include environmental toxins, toxins in the food supply, and even toxins from unhealthy bacteria. Some studies show that specific strains of bacteria are going to degrade pesticides. Other strains of bacteria are going to help the body get rid of BPA which is found in some plastics and even store receipts. Good sources of probiotic foods, the best one would be fermented vegetables, so things like sauerkraut or kimchi or you can even ferment vegetables like carrots and radishes at home.

The most important thing if you’re doing it at home or if you’re buying a store product is that you only ferment with water and salt. Any time vinegar or any other preservative is added, then the bacteria is going to be killed which defeats the purpose of having these products. Read the labels and make sure it’s only water and salt. There is room for probiotic supplements, and I do use those with my patients. It’s always better to work with a professional if you’re going to incorporate any supplements.

The last food or food group is cilantro and parsley. These herbs are going to work on heavy metals, things like lead, mercury, cadmium, aluminum. These heavy metals are neurotoxins which means that they are going to cause headache, brain fog, or depression, or things like pain and cramps. It’s very important to get rid of those neurotoxins, so try to incorporate cilantro or parsley in your dishes. Cilantro works great with salsa and any Mexican-style meals, and parsley works best with Mediterranean type of dishes. So, you can add it to salads, you can add to a smoothie, it will give it a really nice zest. You can use it as a garnish on top of your meals, just make sure you eat that garnish and just try to incorporate a little bit here and there as much as you can.

To repeat all the 6 foods for today, they were; green tea, turmeric, and foods high in fiber, bone broth, and probiotic foods and cilantro and parsley.

Now, what I would love to hear from you is what is the one thing that you could incorporate from today’s video that will help your liver’s ability to detox so that you feel your best?

If you liked this video, subscribe to the You Tube channel and share with your friends. If you want even more updates and tips, including articles and recipes, come to my website at nourzibdeh.com and subscribe over there. Again, this is Nour Zibdeh, functional nutritionist, helping people who value their health feel their best through wholesome foods and specialized nutrition programs. Thank you for watching, and I’ll see you next time.