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Liver cleanse
Stage 1: Drink 2 cups of Golden Rod and Knotgrass tea daily, and ensure that you have at least 1.5 litres of still, plain water daily (warm if you prefer it that way).
Stage 2: Add in 500ml cloudy apple juice daily, for a week.
Stage 3: At the end of the second week, on a day when you don’t have to work or be too active, eat any combination of warm, stewed fresh (except citrus) and dried fruits for breakfast and lunch.
Add ginger and cinnamon and clove if you like.
Drink only warm water and nettle and/ or Golden Rod and Knotgrass tea.
In the evening, you can choose between steamed vegetables with lightly toasted seeds, or a small portion of millet with flaked almonds (with either sweet or savoury spices – your choice).
The herb milk thistle has historically been used to support healthy liver function, so this may be a useful addition to your programme.
Liver warming
During this cleanse, once daily wrap a hot water bottle in a towel and place it over your liver (right hand side of your abdomen, starting between the pelvic bone and lower rib and coming up under the ribs) and lie with it there for half an hour.
Foods that are good for the liver
Fresh and dried fruit: blueberries, blackberries, blackcurrants (not red), raspberries, cherries, grapes, bananas, papaya, mango, lemons, prunes and raisins.
Don’t have a whole fruit salad, as raw food is hard for the liver to process in large amounts. Have a maximum of two whole pieces of fresh fruit and a handful of dried fruit per day.
Nuts and seeds: pistachios, hazels, almonds and pine kernels in small quantities (no more than 10 large nuts or a handful of pine kernels at one time); coconut, either flaked or desiccated (without added sugar); sunflower and sesame seeds, either well chewed whole or ground and eaten immediately sprinkled on other food. Walnut oil can be used for dressings.
Vegetables: artichoke, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, raw cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, garlic, leeks and onions.
Salads: alfalfa, chicory, celery, cucumber, fennel, and radishes in small amounts, Romaine lettuce and watercress.
Grains: millet, quinoa and brown rice.
Use ginger to add warmth to food, e.g. stewed fruit.
What to avoid
- Alcohol
- Paracetamol
- Pineapples
- Citrus fruit (except lemons)
- Saturated fats
- Keep animal protein (meat and dairy products) to a minimum, apart from eggs.
