With over 500 essential functions, your liver is constantly working behind the scenes—often unnoticed until something goes wrong. While detoxes have been a hot topic in wellness circles for decades, with sceptics questioning their necessity, the truth lies somewhere in between. In today’s world, where the liver is bombarded with heavy metals, pesticides, chemicals, alcohol, and even certain foods, it’s unrealistic to expect it to handle everything on its own. Even this multitasking marvel needs support sometimes.
In this article, we’ll explore the liver’s key functions and how you can keep yours in peak condition with the right nutrients, herbs, and simple dietary tweaks.
The Five Central Functions of the Liver
The liver plays a central role in maintaining overall health. Here are its top functions:
- Detoxification: The liver filters and removes harmful toxins such as alcohol, drugs and toxins from the blood.
- Bile production: It produces a substance called bile which is essential for breaking down fats and supporting the absorption of the fat-soluble nutrients – vitamins A, D, E and K.
- Metabolic regulation: The liver plays a key role in managing blood sugar and cholesterol levels, as well as regulating hormones—activating, inactivating, and metabolising them.
- Nutrient storage: The liver stores important nutrients, including vitamins A, B12, D, E, and K and the minerals copper and iron.
- Immune support: It contributes to immune defences by removing harmful pathogens and toxins from the bloodstream.
Why Detoxification is Essential for Wellbeing
Every day, your body is exposed to toxins—from processed foods and alcohol to environmental pollutants. Recent studies have even linked air pollution and prevalent chemicals such as PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) with liver damage, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).1, 2 While your liver is designed to handle many of these challenges, overloading it can reduce its efficiency, leading to symptoms such as fatigue, skin issues, digestive problems, and eventually more serious complications of liver damage. Supporting your liver ensures it can perform its vital detoxification tasks effectively, ensuring your body functions optimally.
What are the Signs Your Liver Could Use Extra Support?
Your liver is resilient, but it can show signs when it’s time to make a more concerted effort.
Signs of poor liver health:
- Constant fatigue or brain fog
- Bloating or digestive discomfort
- Unexplained weight gain
- Skin issues like acne or dullness
- Jaundice – yellowing of the eyes or skin (in severe cases)
- Frequent headaches.
If you’ve noticed any of these symptoms, it may be time to give your liver some TLC.
What are the Phases of Liver Detoxification?
The liver's detoxification process occurs in three sophisticated phases. Difficulty in even one phase can lead to issues, making it essential to support all three with a combination of herbal, nutritional, and lifestyle interventions.
Phase 1 - Transformation: This phase uses enzymes to convert toxins into less harmful substances. However, this step also produces free radicals that must be neutralised to prevent damage.
Phase 2 - Conjugation: During conjugation, the liver attaches molecules to the toxins from phase 1, converting them to water-soluble substances that are easy to excrete.
Phase 3 - Elimination: As the name suggests, this phase is about flushing out these water-soluble toxins through bile, urine, or stool.
Herbs and Nutrients for Liver Health Support
Supporting your liver can be as simple as incorporating specific nutrients and herbs, while including some diet and lifestyle tweaks.
Liver Support Supplements & Herbs:
Milk Thistle
- Contains the compound silymarin, a potent antioxidant.
- Traditionally used in Western herbal medicine (WHM) to support natural liver cleansing processes.
Turmeric
- Reduces free radicals formed in the liver.
- Traditionally used in WHM to promote bile flow from the gallbladder, an essential process for detoxification.
Globe Artichoke
- Traditionally used in WHM to support natural liver detoxification processes.
- Contains antioxidants to reduce free radical formation.
Dandelion Root
- Traditionally used in WHM to support healthy liver function.
- Traditionally used in WHM to promote bile flow from the gallbladder.
- Traditionally used in WHM to relieve symptoms of indigestion.
Schisandra
- Rich in antioxidants.
- Traditionally used in WHM to protect the liver.
Choline
- Supports fat metabolism.
- Maintains general health and wellbeing.
Tips for a Liver-Friendly Lifestyle
Simple changes can make a big difference in your liver health:
- Reduce Processed and High Sugar Foods: Processed foods are higher in sugar and inflammatory polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). High sugar foods contribute to NAFLD development and obesity, while PUFAs are prone to oxidation which puts pressure on the liver and increases the risk of oxidative damage.3, 4
- Focus on Fibre: Diets high in fibre from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds have been shown to reduce the risk of liver conditions such as NAFLD.5 The recommended daily amount of fibre is 25g for women and 30g for men.6
- Stay Hydrated: Water helps flush out toxins more effectively and eases bowel movements.
- Limit Alcohol: Excessive alcohol adds pressure on the liver’s detoxification resources, particularly as it prioritises the removal of alcohol above other important metabolic processes.
- Exercise Regularly: Physical activity improves overall metabolic function and supports detoxification.
- Manage Stress: Chronic stress can disrupt liver function as fight or flight inactivates repair and regeneration processes undertaken by the liver.
- Get Enough Sleep: Restful sleep allows your body, including your liver, to repair and regenerate.
Eat these foods for liver detox:
- Fruits: Apples, lemons, grapefruits, berries
- Vegetables: Beetroot, artichokes, leafy greens such as bok choy, spinach, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage
- Herbs and spices such as turmeric, garlic, and ginger
- Coffee and green tea
- Deep sea oily fish like sardines, mackerel, and wild-caught salmon
- Lean proteins, including chicken breast, beef, lamb, and kangaroo
- Nuts and seeds, particularly walnuts, hazelnuts, chia seeds and flaxseeds.
Ready to give your liver the support it deserves? Incorporating liver support supplements and foods into your daily life can make all the difference to your health and vitality. With some daily care, your liver will continue to support your health in ways you’re likely to notice and appreciate–more energy, clear skin, happy hormones and a firing metabolism.
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This article was written by Sophia Power, Clinical Nutritionist.
References:
- NIH. Study Links Synthetic Chemicals to Liver Damage. Written May 2022, accessed January 2025 from https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/study-links-synthetic-chemicals-liver-damage
- Melaram R. Environmental Risk Factors Implicated in Liver Disease: A Mini Review. Front. Public Health, 2021; 9:683719
- Henney AE., et al. Ultra-processed food intake is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients, 2023;15(10):2266.
- Chen Z, et al. Role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 2020; 152:116-141.
- Liu X, et al. Higher intake of whole grains and dietary fibre are associated with lower risk of liver cancer and chronic disease mortality. Nature, 2021; 6388.
- NHMRC. Dietary Fibre. Accessed January 2025 from https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/nutrient-reference-values/nutrients/dietary-fibre