Blog Posts

Artichoke is a Liver Friendly Superfood

3/25/2020

A staple of the Mediterranean diet, the artichoke is a liver supportive powerhouse! The artichoke is easy to miss as you browse the grocery store and it might take some special preparation if you manage to find a fresh one, but it’s worth it!

Artichoke protects the liver from damage by:
- Encouraging the production of bile which carries the waste from detoxification away from the liver and into the digestive tract to be excreted;
- Containing high levels of antioxidants which neutralize free radicals in the intermediary phase of detoxification;
- Reducing the amount of fat that accumulates on the liver;
- Providing fibre which improves gut motility and carries bile out of the body.

Artichoke is a member of the same plant family as milk thistle, which you may have seen in the health food store as a liver supportive supplement. They both contain silymarin, an antioxidant that has shown to be liver protective. The advantage with artichoke is that you get the benefits in food form! It’s not just the silymarin that makes us love artichokes for our liver. They’re also:

- Full of choline, a nutrient that prevents fat depositing on the liver;
- Loaded with folate, a vitamin involved in your body's ability to create and use the liver protective nutrient choline;
- Rich in the B-complex group of vitamins such as vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) -- all needed in the first phase of liver detoxification;
- Loaded with vitamin C, an antioxidant used to neutralize the harmful and inflammatory free radicals of the first phase liver of detoxification;
- Full of further antioxidants such as caffeic acid, ferulic acid, and of course silymarin;
- Rich in the bitter cynarin which stimulates the liver to produce bile, as well as encouraging the liver to transport bile to the gallbladder. When these things don’t happen the liver is at a greater risk of damage.

When we look at artichoke holistically, it’s nutrients lower cholesterol production while also increasing the excretion of cholesterol into bile. This helps lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides while promoting HDL as the liver is able to function more efficiently.

How to eat artichokes
Fresh artichokes aren’t common in the grocery store, but if you’re lucky enough to find one, it can be steamed, boiled, roasted or sautéed. Both the leaves and the hearts can be eaten, but take special preparation. You’re most likely to find shelf stable artichokes pickled in jars, which are a great addition to a salad, pizza or pasta dish.

Reduce Your Stress Levels to Protect Yourself from Covid-19

3/21/2020

As you’re well aware, we’re facing unprecedented times as we face Covid-19, it’s a global pandemic that we must fight locally. You of course already know and are practicing the basics so we won’t go into them in depth, but we’d be remiss to not touch on them!

- Wash your hands regularly
- Avoid touching your face
- Clean regularly, including door knobs and phones
- Maintain social distance, and self isolate

But no matter how hard you work at preventing your exposure, if you’re stressed you’re going to diminish your immunity.

When we’re under chronic or long term stress we spend too much time in “fight or flight” mode, regulated by the sympathetic nervous system. This part of the nervous system prepares you to escape from danger and / or fight, whether that’s against a physical or a mental threat. This chronic stress means we’re not spending enough time in “rest and digest” mode, regulated by the parasympathetic nervous system.

These two nervous systems regulate our immune system! When we’re under chronic stress, and our stress hormone cortisol is always elevated, our immune system can be suppressed. This makes you more susceptible to pathogens like Covid-19.

If you haven’t experienced a raise in your stress levels, please share your secrets! For the rest of you, make it your top priority to build your mental resilience:
- Choose a reputable news source, and watch no more than one daily update
- Step away from the social media platforms, or unfollow accounts that are raising your anxiety levels
- Prioritize sleep at all costs. We have lots of tips in this article.
- Meditate. It doesn’t need to be fancy, or done cross legged on the floor, just find moments to breathe deeply and calm your nervous system. If you need some structure why not try 5 minutes on the hour every hour!
- Make it a priority to connect with friends over Facetime/Skype. Even though we need to distance ourselves from each other, we still need social connection
- Along the same lines, phone, don’t text. Make a point to build connections with people you can’t see face to face right now
- Take a mental health day from work if it’s all getting too much, you have good reason to need one
- Put your phone down and read a book
- Stay well hydrated. Take your body weight in pounds, divide by two and drink the resulting number of water in ounces per day
- Avoid refined sugar and alcohol that negatively affect your immune system
- Get daily movement, from going for a walk or bike ride, to following an online yoga class, or practicing push ups.

Truehope’s OLE (Olive Leaf Extract) and Nascent Iodine are good supplemental additions too. OLE is a proven antimicrobial and powerful way to strengthen your immune system. It has 4 times the antioxidant capacity of Vitamin C, so is a worthy addition! Nascent Iodine is essential for fighting off infections, as well as for proper immune system functioning.

Working to spend more time in “rest and digest”, will not only make your immune system more resilient, reduce inflammation and reduce your risk of most chronic diseases, but it can also reduce your chance of catching and reducing the severity of COVID-19.

The whole Truehope team wishes you health and safety as we navigate these times.

The Nutrients You Need to Support Detoxification

3/11/2020

In our last article we touched on the many functions the liver plays in our health. We talked about reducing or eliminating the most damaging things to the liver first, such as alcohol and medications like acetaminophen.

Today we’re going to talk about specific nutrients needed to support the detoxification role of the liver. The liver has two main phases of detoxification when substances are processed in preparation for elimination from the body. These substances come in two forms. The first form is as endotoxins which are produced in our bodies as byproducts of metabolism. The second form is as exotoxins, like drugs (over-the-counter, prescription and recreational), herbicides, pesticides, food additives, microbes, and pollution.

In a healthy liver, the first phase of detoxification takes fat soluble toxins and transforms them into intermediary substances. To do this it needs:

- Vitamin B2 -- found in beef, fortified tofu, milk, salmon, and mushrooms.
- Vitamin B3 (niacin) -- found in tuna, chicken, pork, mushrooms, and brown rice.
- Vitamin B6 -- found in salmon, fortified tofu, chicken, beef, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Folic acid -- found in edamame, lentils, asparagus, and dark, leafy greens.
- Vitamin B12 -- found in shellfish, liver, mackerel, fortified food products, and dairy.
- Glutathione production, which can be increased by eating foods such as spinach, avocados, and asparagus, as well as sulphur, selenium, and vitamin C rich foods.
- Branch chain amino acids -- found in most protein rich foods. (However, vegans will need to work harder to get a full complement of BCAAs.) Truehope Freeminos is an excellent supplement for everyone to help cover these bases.
- Phospholipids -- found in soy lecithin, milk, chicken eggs, fish eggs, liver, cabbage, and carrots.

The results of the first phase of detoxification contain harmful free radicals, but are neutralized by antioxidants. It’s important to get enough of these antioxidants in your diet, or the intermediaries remain in their harmful state and the next phase of detoxification cannot happen effectively. Find these antioxidants in:

- Preformed vitamin A -- found in animal sources like meat, fish, and diary, or beta-carotene found in plant sources like sweet potato, carrots, and butternut squash.
- CoQ10 -- found most richly in organ meats such as heart and liver but also in small amounts in soybeans.
- Vitamin C -- found in fresh and raw kiwi, bell peppers, strawberries, oranges, and broccoli.
- Vitamin E -- found in sunflower seeds, almonds, avocadoes, spinach, and butternut squash.
- Selenium -- found in brazil nuts, tuna, and oysters, pork, and beef.
- Copper -- found in organ meats, leaf greens, nuts, seeds, and beans. Bioflavanoids -- found in vitamin C rich foods. Zinc -- found in oysters, beef, chicken, tofu, and hemp seeds.
- Manganese -- found in mussels, wheat germ, firm tofu, and sweet potatoes.

In a healthy liver, the second phase of detoxification turns the intermediary substances that have been neutralized by antioxidants into water-soluble compounds that can be excreted from the body. To do this, the liver needs the amino acids glycine, taurine, glutamine, cysteine, and methionine -- all found in abundance in Truehope Freeminos, a supplement we recommend to ensure efficient phase 2 detoxification. From here, what is left is eliminated through the kidneys as urine, through the skin as sweat, and through the intestines as bile.

When the liver isn’t healthy, both endotoxins and exotoxins leave the liver without being properly detoxified and are stored in fat tissue, the brain, and the nervous system, with the potential to cause long term health issues.

The key to supporting your liver nutritionally is eating a wide variety of nutrient dense vegetables, fruits, and protein rich foods, as well as supplements to ensure the liver has the ingredients it needs to function at full capacity.

General Health Begins With Liver Health

3/4/2020

In the world of natural health, there’s a misconception that the liver stores toxins. It doesn’t. It processes and eliminates them from the body, but it doesn’t store them. It’s time to separate facts from fiction so we can learn how to better support our liver and general health.

The liver has over 400 jobs and promotes health throughout the entire body. Here are a few things it does for us. The liver:
- Regulates blood glucose by storing it in the form of glycogen. When the hormones insulin and glucagon signal a need for glucose (such as between meals or overnight), the liver will release glucose back into the bloodstream.
- Produces and regulates cholesterol. When the liver is suffering from things like nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, or damage from medications, it can cause abnormal cholesterol levels.
- Helps eliminate excess nitrogen, a normal byproduct of protein metabolism. When a genetic disorder means we can’t do this, ammonia builds up in the blood and can cause brain damage, coma or death.
- Filters pathogens and other substances that travel from our environment via our food into our bodies and prevents them from entering the bloodstream.
- Contributes to the production of vitamin D with the help of the skin and kidneys. Vitamin D in itself has a huge number of roles including maintaining health bone formation, immune function, mental health, and reducing risk of certain cancers.
- Stores vitamins such as A, D, E, K and B12, and releases them into the body as needed.
- Detoxifies harmful byproducts from medications, changing them into a form the body can excrete.

The vast number of things the liver does means it promotes health through the entire body. Any damage to your liver will have consequences in many other areas of your health. For example, fatty liver disease, whether caused by alcohol consumption or otherwise, increases your risk of cardiovascular disease three-fold if you’re a man, or fourteen-fold if you’re a woman.

Taking care of your liver means supporting it through daily healthy choices. The best place to start is to work on avoiding substances that damage your liver, which of course means avoiding alcohol. Just 2 to 3 alcoholic drinks per day can harm your liver, and drinking 4 to 5 or more drinks in a row, known as binge drinking, can cause liver damage. Consuming alcohol leads to an increased risk of jaundice, cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer, and many other health conditions.

Medications such as acetaminophen (like Tylenol) can damage your liver if you take more than the recommended dosages, take it in combination with alcohol, or take it with existing liver damage. It’s worth addressing the root cause of why you’re taking painkillers and other medications to reduce your reliance on them.

Once you have addressed the most common causes of liver damage, it’s time to move toward things like reducing processed foods, addressing nutrient deficiencies by focusing on a nutrient dense diet (which we’ll tackle in an upcoming article), reducing exposure to environmental toxins, quitting smoking, and supporting habits that lead to quality sleep.

Author

We want to provide nothing but the highest quality information and advice for our followers to improve their health, which is why at Truehope Canada, we're happy to say our writer is a Certified Life Coach and Registered Holistic Nutritionist.
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