Nourishing the Liver
Simple Liver Nourishment “Cleanse”
Liver Nourishment is important. We hear much about doing liver cleanses but is the liver really dirty? I am certain I would prefer to think of my liver in a more positive and health giving way. This amazing, large organ does much to filter my blood, digest my food, and contributes to way too many bodily processes to write them all here.
Liver cleansing / nourishing has benefits for your health and longevity. A healthy liver helps to maintain balance in the female reproductive tract and helps to keep female hormones balanced (All body hormones!). Think of it as nourishing your liver, fortifying it with the nutrients it needs to do its blood filtering, digestive, and many other jobs well.
I will share with you a very simple way to nourish the liver as it goes about its non-stop job of filtering your blood. Spending a few days focusing on nourishing this important organ is a good way to prevent disease and heal your body. Love your liver with whole foods, liver specific herbs, and relaxation. While relaxing, visualize your liver as being healthy, clean, vibrant tissue!
Raw food fast for 3 days: Eat local, seasonal berries and fruit in the AM. Add raw nuts and seeds to this fruit to up the fat and protein content of your diet and keep your appetite satiated.
At lunch and your PM meal: eat raw vegetable salads and raw nuts and seeds.
Get motivated and sprout some raw nuts and seeds or whole grains to add to your liver nourishing diet.
Try raw, fermented veggies as a fun, “extra” food while nourishing the liver.
Enjoy raw avocado as healthy fat and satiating food.
Life Stage Consideration: when we move into older years, feel your body out. Are you feeling dry frequently? A harsh “liver cleanse” is not recommended in older years, think menopausal years including the years of transitioning from having periods to not. In these years, our bodies are drying out. We need to nourish and keep things juicy, no harsh detoxes, but learn to sweetly nourish your liver and whole body health. With Love 💕, of course.
Holistic Love Caution for Your Blood Sugar & Beta Cells: If you are pre-diabetic, diabetic, or have any metabolic syndrome – blood sugar issue, keep your intake of fruit at a conservative level and eat more vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
If you have diabetic tendencies, do not do a “juice or herbal tea only” liver cleanse.
Raw root veggie and cabbage slaws are great in fall and winter for the raw, seasonal veggies. Want a recipe? Email me: pyoumell@gmail.com
AM or PM nourishing liver flush: Drink this tasty little beverage before eating any food; just mix together and drink it up! Or you can drink it just before going to bed.
juice of 1 whole lemon, (I know, lemons are not local… work with me here!)
1-2 tsp olive oil
pinch of unrefined sea salt
You can use this simple liver flush in the PM and/or the AM. I have clients who drink it in the AM because they drink their Essiac detox tea at night.
Detox Liver Nourishing Infusion: Purchase an ounce of each of these herbs: cut burdock root, cut dandelion root, nettle leaf, dandelion leaf, red clover blossom.
Every evening heat 1 quart of water. When the water is simmering, turn to very low heat and simmer 1 Tbsp. each of the burdock and dandelion roots for 10 minutes. Be gentle, not a rolling boil, but a very gentle simmer to preserve the nutrients. Always simmer and steep with the cover on the pot.
Have 1 Tbsp. each of the dandelion, nettle, and red clover ready to use. After the ten minutes, shut off the heat and add the herbs to the pot, stir to get the herbs wet, and then cover the pot. Let it sit over night to steep and create a medicinal infusion. In the AM, strain the herbal infusion into a quart canning jar. Press the wet herb mash very well to get all liquid out of the herbs. Drink 3-4 cups over the course of the day. Sip slowly while relaxing and meditating on your liver and vibrant cellular health. (As opposed to standing at the kitchen counter and guzzling down 8 ounces of this medicinal tea infusion.)
Relaxing habits when doing a liver nourishing cleanse: Drink plenty of fluids throughout your day; get much good, restful sleep; always eat in a calm environment (without screens) and chew very slowly and thoroughly; yoga; massage; relaxing by the fire or under a favorite tree (this is a seasonally dependent behavior!) while reading a good book…the point is for you to nurture the whole you and make your liver feel at peace and loved. Get outside and move your body. This increases circulation to your liver and every body cell for better delivery of nutrition and oxygen and better removal of waste products. You get a good dose of fresh air and natural light while outside! And remember, as my son Eli said when he was only 8 years old: “Just lift the corner of the clouds and the sun is always shining." You do get natural light, for better mood and sleep, even on cloudy days!
When to nourish the liver: Ideally, nourish your liver 4 times a year: at or around the spring and fall equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices. I recommend doing the winter liver nourishment after the December holidays, for obvious reasons! (Spring is a good time to start to get a step ahead of seasonal allergies.)
Milk thistle is a good herb to take for liver nourishing and rebuilding. It can be added to the above liver nourishment herb infusion. Using milk thistle in capsules, tinctures, and infusion form are also good options as a single herb or as a combination herbal formula with turmeric and perhaps ginger…
Taking milk thistle for a couple of weeks after a three day nourishing cleanse can help to nourish and rebuild the liver. You can make milk thistle into a medicinal infusion mixing with stinging nettles. Again, simmer the milk thistle seeds, very gently for 10 minutes, shut off heat and add the nettle leaves. Let the infusion “tea” sit over night to brew and steep.
Love your liver; nourish your liver.
Nettles and Red Clover
Dandelion root, flowers, and leaves
Burdock root and plant
Gospel of the Slaw
So, you may be wondering if I have lost my mind, maybe a new chapter has been added to the Bible that you did not hear about yet, or something weird is going on... well, it is none of the above.
I have the best encounters with people I work with, one on one and in group settings. People are truly amazing when we allow them to be at their very best.
I am often encountered with the "I eat nothing but salads and I still cannot lose weight" issue. I try to explain that summer vegetable salads, in the fall and winter, are very cooling to our body. Summer veggies are for summer eating. When we summer cool ourselves, in the winter, we also slow our metabolism.
Want to rev up that metabolism with warming, winter nourishing veggies? Try a root veggie and cabbage slaw. Recipe below.
Now for the title, it goes back to the people I meet thing I mentioned above. An endearing client labeled my slaw recipe as the "Gospel of the Slaw" and paid the good recipe forward to many friends and family members. The slaw is a great way to get yummy, raw veggies into your winter diet and keep it all seasonal.
Be well, eat slaw.
PS Grating a butter nut squash and spicing the salad dressing with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla is another fun way to enjoy raw winter veggies.
Root Veggie & Cabbage Slaw
Assemble enough vegetable to feed the people who will be gracing your dinner table, red and green cabbage and root vegetables: beet, parsnip, rutabaga, celeriac, carrot, purple carrot, turnip, winter storage radishes (bigger than the summer salad radishes), kohlrabi, salsify, burdock, horseradish, etc.
Fine chop red and/or green cabbage
Grate, on a metal cheese grater, root veggies. Pick root veggies you grow or can acquire locally. I use 2-4 root veggies with the chopped cabbage, choosing different root veggies with each meal.
Add a grated apple. My kids eat more, and more willingly, when the juicy sweetness of a grated apple is part of the salad.
Mix together in a bowl with the above dressing
Cover and refrigerate until meal time. I make this dish last and serve immediately with every fall and winter meal.
Optional: add a few raisins, add walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds… just make it yummy for you.
Salad Dressing
1 cup organic extra virgin olive oil
1 cup raw apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. organic prepared mustard; preferably made with apple cider vinegar, not grain vinegar
Dash unrefined sea salt
Dash fresh pepper
Crush clove of garlic
Herbs to taste: rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, parsley
Optional: 1 – 3 tbsp. dark maple syrup or sucanat unrefined sugar
I make this dressing in a Ball, wide mouth, quart canning jar so I always have it available for dinner salads, whatever the season.