Botanical Teas for Liver Detox
Your liver is a vital organ in helping your body metabolize food and eliminate toxins. If you burden your liver with high amounts of proteins, processed foods, medications and preservatives, it may not be able to flush out the toxins, which will then be stored in your fat cells. This can lead to energy loss, poor concentration and frequent illness. A liver detox using botanical teas can help eliminate toxins.
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Botanical Teas
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Green tea has been considered the botanical wonder for centuries with anti-aging and anti-oxidant properties. Consuming a cup of green tea daily will greatly promote liver health. This is not the only botanical tea available. Local Harvest has a Liver Detox Tea that is designed specifically for liver health with milk thistle, dandelion root, licorice root, turmeric, fenugreek and burdock root as some of the ingredients. Teas with juniper root, orange peel or fennel seed are also great to help detox the liver. You may also dry parsley and make your own tea. As with any botanical tea, you can find wonderful teas prepared at your market or health food store, or you can grow your own botanical garden and create your own.
Detox Basics
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When you are detoxing, you are trying to eliminate all the extra "stuff" your body couldn't. The detox merely helps the body do what it normally attempts to do daily through your liver and kidney function. The problem is when you consume high amounts of processed foods filled with preservatives or eat high amounts of fats and proteins, your body has trouble keeping up with the demand. The result is storage of these toxins in the fat cells. In a detox, you generally lower you caloric intake and increase fluids thereby encouraging the release of the toxins that are then flushed out of the system.
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Detox Risks
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The risks of a detox depend on how extreme it is. There are detox diets where all solid food is eliminated for up to ten days and you drink strictly juice or lemonade with herbal teas. Other detox methods require you to alter your daily diet while drinking supplemental teas to help promote liver hormone production, which breaks down the fats. The side effects are feeling sick or more exhausted before you feel great. The reason is it takes time to rid your body of the toxins.
The major risks of a botanical detox occur when food consumption is eliminated. If you are using tea to supplement a juice diet, you may create a problem with electrolyte numbers that can lead to a serious and urgent medical problem. While this is rare, it is possible and you should seek medical attention if you are dizzy or light-headed for any length of time.
Are Botanical Tea Detoxes Better than Other Detox Methods?
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Any detox done properly and safely will help you restore your body to optimal function. While an herbal detox done without any dietary changes will not yield the same results as a detox that fasts from solid foods, it will still help your liver improve metabolic function. Sometimes the little things are what make a difference and if you can increase your energy level by adding green tea to your daily dietary intake then you may find more energy to exercise and further improve your metabolic rate. Botanical teas done as a dietary supplement provide fewer risks than fasting detoxes and are popular because of their organic nature.
Lifestyle
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You will find that doing a detox rarely (less than once per year) will cause you to have an increase of detox side effects. By detoxing more regularly and incorporating healthier eating habits into your routine, you will ease the burden placed on your liver and have fewer toxins to eliminate. Alcohol, nicotine, processed sugars and foods with a lot of preservatives should be on the "rarely eat" list and replaced with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and fiber sources. Eat protein but don't consume too much as this makes digestion difficult. Do a detox monthly for a few days to help restore your body's balance.
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