Five foods that absolutely destroy your liver

Liver is the largest organ of the body and I would strongly advise all women out there to take care of it more than your heart. Liver is also one of the rare organs that can repair itself. Liver carries out the important task of removing toxins from the body. But there are other important tasks for the liver too. So if you are taking in toxins, that places a heavy load on your liver. Here are the top five foods that you must absolutely avoid.

Fructose & High Fructose Corn Syrup

The most common sweetener we all know is sucrose or table sugar, composition of which is 50% Glucose and 50% Fructose. It is extracted either from sugarcane or sugar beet. However in the USA import of sugar was mostly costly so the US govt subsidised corn production as soon as corn syrup was discovered in 1965 as an alternative sweetener. Soon corn syrup or High Fructose Corn Syrup became the most preferred industrial grade artificial sweetener. It was at around the same time that the processed food industry began sweetening their products to make them addictive. Fructose is bad for the liver because while glucose is eaten up the body cells, fructose is only processed by the liver before it can be used.

Here are a list of foods which contain HFCS. Desserts, confectionary, baked goods, tomato ketchup, carbonated drinks, packed juices, french fries at fast food joints, veggie burgers and many of the traditional sweets in mithai shops.

Vegetable oils

Most plants do not contain any oil. So vegetable oil is actually grain or seed oil. It can be corn, soyabean, canola, safflower, peanut, sunflower, cottonseed and so on. They are extracted using industrial process and lots of chemicals. These oils contain high amount of Omega-6 fatty acids which ultimately cause inflammation. Vegetable oils are commonly known as refined oils which might sound like a safe word. Refined oil is used very commonly in cooking these days. The large amount of unsaturated fatty acid directly affects the liver as a toxin. Also refined oils bring with it lots of chemicals which are leftover from the processing.

Maltodextrin

Another industrial grade food product comes next on this list. It is another synthetic sugar made from corn or maize in India. There is a growing demand for maltodextrin in dairy products including ice creams, confectionary, beverages, infant food, instant noodles, soups, salad dressings, sauces, dietary supplements, seasonings, thickeners, custards, etc. It is a low cost sweetening agent which is quick to digest which is why it is commonly used in baby food. As a thickener it is used in frozen desserts. In sports drinks it is used as liquid glucose, an instant source of energy. Finally as a colour and taste enhancer it is used in powdered soft drinks, teas and coffee premix, fruit powders and probiotic drinks.

Govt is providing support for local production of raw materials to reduce imports. It helps improve the shelf life of the product. It also improves the texture and feel good factor in the mouth while eating.

But behind all that sweetness is the dark truth about this low fibre and high glucose processed food. It digests quickly and when consumed in large amount directly leads to fatty liver and belly fat. Consumption of such food is the direct cause of type 2 diabetes, weight gain and high cholesterol. Since all that excess glucose is send to the liver to be converted to glycogen, putting more load on the liver.

Finally processed food with all those chemicals also causes inflammation.

Aflatoxins

Aflatoxin is a substance created due to fungal infections on food. Cattle feed consists of food grains, husk, minerals and grain waste from industry. All this feed is stored in the open by farmers. If the humidity level goes down, fungus grows. This feed if consumed by cattle enters the milk which reaches the end consumer. Toxins can enter meat, poultry, grains and so on during storage as well as transportation.

Storage facilities cost money which cut into margins. One of the most common food product which gets affected by aflatoxins is peanuts or groundnuts.

Aflatoxins specifically target the liver.

Among the reported outbreaks and precautions taken by the authorities the only way to stay away from this cancer causing toxin is to buy quality products from the market. There is a reason why some food products are more expensive than the others. Cheaper variety of food sold in the market might look good on shelves. But if hard working farmers and producers who are putting in extra effort to produce quality stuff we need to encourage them by buying their produce even if it is at a higher cost.