If you are concerned about your liver health, you might be thinking about doing a 14-day cleanse in order to reboot things.
It is important to take care of your liver, but is a two-week cleanse the best way to go about it?
We’re going to go over everything you need to know about the 14-day liver cleanse diet, as well as ways you can promote your liver health.
What is the 14-Day Liver Cleanse Diet?
This diet focuses around eating certain foods in order to help promote liver health.
It’s easy to see why people are so concerned with making sure that their liver is healthy because your liver is an important part of your functioning. However, you might be hearing conflicting information about what the 14-day liver cleanse diet consists of, and that is because there isn’t actually one singular diet under this name, but rather a wide variety of diets.
There are many dietary choices you can make in order to improve your liver health. However, there are some things that you want to avoid doing. In our next section, we’re going to talk about red flags to look out for when it comes to the 14-day liver cleanse diet.
What should I avoid when doing a liver cleanse diet?
You are going to want to avoid diets that cause you to buy supplements or specific processed foods. And yes, we’re including juices in that—after all, juicing is another way of processing food, removing essential nutrients like fiber and creating a high concentration of sugar.
For example, NPR found that 100% cranberry juice has a significantly higher amount of sugar than 7-Up. Your liver is going to have to process that out. The same can be said about supplements—if you take an excessive amount of vitamin supplements, you could be doing more harm than good to your liver.
You should always be wary of people promoting the health benefits of a product they are selling. This includes supplements, diets behind paywalls, or diets that require you to only provide food created by a certain supplier.
Why is the diet 14 days?
The simple reason why you will find many liver-cleanse diets to be 14 days long is that two weeks is a more manageable amount of time to stay on a restrictive diet. When people set out to create diets, they want to make sure people adopt them. This is one of the reasons why short-term diets marketed as “detoxes” are becoming more and more popular.
If you can only make a positive change in your diet for 14 days, that is certainly better than nothing. However, an even better option is to create long-term healthy habits that you are able to sustain over time. And in fact, many of the actions you can take to improve your liver health are surprisingly simple.
Here are some steps you can take to cleanse your liver for two weeks or even longer.
#1 Drink Coffee
That is right – people who drink coffee regularly are less likely to fall victim to liver disease. While drinking coffee alone isn’t a substitute for an overall balanced diet, it is a good starting spot that can be manageable for many people—especially those coffee lovers among us.
#2 Eliminate Drinking
If there is one step that you want to take on your two-week liver cleanse, eliminating drinking should be one of them. Alcohol is hard on the liver and is one of the top causes of liver disease.
While stopping completely for two weeks is a great way to give your liver a break, an even better choice would be to only ever drink in moderation. This means one drink a day for women. You don’t have to cut alcohol out entirely, but if you are concerned about your liver health, you should definitely take steps to reign it in.
#3 Eliminate Refined Carbs
Refined carbs can have a negative impact on your liver. If you are looking to cut out certain foods entirely during your two-week cleanse, opt for doughnuts and white bread. However, make sure you don’t cut them out entirely. You can instead substitute them for whole grains like brown rice.
#4 Eat A Wide Variety Of Colors
The biggest thing you want to do on your liver-cleanse diet is to integrate as many different colors of produce as possible. Eating red peppers, yellow bananas, green broccoli, and purple grapes in one day can help you ensure you are getting all of the nutrients necessary to keep your diet healthy. Remember, you want to “eat the rainbow” in order to promote your liver functioning.
#5 Eat More Fiber
The last thing you can do to create a more liver-friendly diet is to integrate more high-fiber foods. Oatmeal is one option, though eating whole, unprocessed fruits and veggies will also help a great deal.
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