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Wish You Could Simply Flush Fat Away?

by Dr. Stephen Sinatra

Published 02/04/09

Nurture Your Liver to Lose Weight

One thing I’m really big on is detoxifying the body. At home, I take detox products, obsess about my diet, workout until I sweat, and sit in an infrared sauna to sweat some more. Sometimes, I do colonic irrigations, and I‘ve even been testing a detoxification footbath.

Also, I’ve even written a book, Spa Medicine, which features an entire section devoted to detoxification. However, there’s another book on the subject that I’m particularly impressed with—Ann Louise Gittleman’s The Fat Flush Plan, (McGraw Hill, 2002). Chapter Two describes the five hidden weight gain factors, one of which is your tired, overworked, toxic liver.

Dr. Gittleman discusses the liver’s interaction with various toxic sources in our environment: trans fats, medication, heavy metals, sugar, alcohol, insecticides, pesticides, and caffeine, among others. All these liver stressors can diminish the vital functioning of an organ that acts as the predominant “filter” in your body. If the liver becomes overburdened, tired, and worn out from too many toxins, then it can become congested and “fatty.”

No one really knows how all those fatty streaks get into the liver tissue, but they show up on ultrasound of the abdomen. Should your liver become bogged down and “fatty,” it will lose its effectiveness in breaking down and assimilating fats. With all this undigested fat running interference, other key processes are blocked, such as converting glycogen into glucose and absorbing protein. And the domino effect continues as hormone imbalances occur and impact the efficient utilization of the nutrients you‘re eating. This results in weight gain and a risk to your liver.

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Quick-Start Your Liver Detox Program

The best way to prepare your liver for the start of a detox program, or for the olive oil-lemon flush, is to use this updated version of the 24-hour juice and veggie fast from my book, Optimum Health (pages 216–217, 1997).

24-Hour Juice and Veggie Fast

Begin the fast by drinking the juice of 1/2 lemon in an 8-ounce glass of pure water.

• Breakfast: 1 glass cranberry juice (organic is better, but can be bitter)
• Lunch: 1 glass organic carrot juice or 1 ounce frozen wheat grass and 1 cup clear Miso broth (see recipe below)
• Dinner: 2 bowls clear Miso broth and 1 cup chamomile, ginger, or echinacea tea
• In addition, drink 64 ounces of a pure water (alkaline is best).

Miso Broth
(use as many organic vegetables as possible)

• 3 quarts water
• 5 organic carrots
• 2 potatoes with skins
• 1 onion or 4 scallions
• 6 Shiitake mushrooms
• 2 celery stalks
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 bunch organic parsley
• 1/2 cup cabbage or Brussels sprouts
• 1/2 piece ginger root
• 3 Tbsp. miso

Cut up vegetables, simmer and stir all ingredients except miso for 30 minutes. Discard solids and add miso.

Liver-Lovers Cocktail
(not for touchy gallbladders)

• 5 ounces cranberry juice
• 3 ounces water
• 1 heaping tsp. crushed flaxseed or psyllium   or      4–5 Tbsp. organic extra virgin olive oil
• Juice from one whole, fresh lemon

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