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Liver disease and nutrition are closely linked and the more you understand about this connection the more you can be aware of your own risk for liver disease. The liver refines and detoxifies everything that we eat, breathe, and absorb through the skin. Studies show that by paying particular attention to what we eat in our diet that we can keep the liver healthy and reduce our risk of liver disease. The liver is important for many reasons. Since the liver is the largest organ in our body it is vitally important for many of our body’s more complicated functions that keep us alive and healthy, and therefore it is very important that we reduce our risk of liver disease. Some of the important functions of the liver include: (1) the conversion of food into energy, (2) to filter out toxic and alcoholic substances and chemicals from our bodies, (3) to clean and detoxify the blood, (4) to delegate medications and drugs that we take and then get rid of them by flushing them out of the body, and (5) to produce certain body chemicals that our body needs, such as bile to help in the digestion of fats that we eat.
Liver disease can change the entire way that your body functions. If the liver doesn’t produce the bile that is necessary to digest the fats that we eat we will have to constantly monitor what we eat. If these fats are not digested they are stored in the gallbladder and will eventually end up in the small intestine. Our bodies also need bile so that we can absorb Vitamin A, D, E, and K. If our bodies are unable to absorb these vitamins we can end up with serious vitamin deficiencies that will affect the entire nutritional system of our body.
It is important that we reduce our risk of liver disease in any way that we can so that we can avoid future problems with the liver or with the gallbladder and small intestine.
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