We have established in the previous e-letter that the liver has 2 important functions:

• Break down fats
• Filter harmful substances

Eliminating the harmful substances will always take precedence on your liver’s “job card”.  If your liver is busy coping with and eliminating the harmful substances then it cannot break down fats at the same time.

So if you want to get rid of fat, it seems fairly straightforward:

Stop distracting your liver by consuming harmful substances.

Of course many people are not aware of just how harmful some foods are.  I use a simple rule of thumb – if I’m reading the ingredients on the side of the packet/ jar/ box and I cannot pronounce something out loud, chance are it’s “harmful” in the liver cleansing sense. 

Once you get these harmful substances under control your liver can get working on breaking down the fats.  Many people think that the way to lose weight or lose fat is to stop eating fat.    

Eating fat does not make you fat – fat helps your liver break down existing fat through increasing the metabolic process.  What is important is to eat the Good Fats as opposed to the Bad Fats.

What are the Bad Fats?

• Trans fats - which are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it more solid
• Saturated fats – which are the solid fats

If you wanted to reduce the amount of Trans fats you would avoid:

• Biscuits, cakes, donuts, pastries
• Pizza, fries, corn chips, potato crisps

If you wanted to reduce the amount of Saturated fats you would avoid:

• Deep fried food, most take-away fast food
• Chicken skin, fatty meats
• Cheese, ice cream
• Lard – which is often used in pasty

If you have been working on eliminating the harmful chemical substances from your diet to help your liver then you have most likely reduced the amount of these foods that you eat.  Isn’t it interesting how often the same “bad” foods turn up the same “bad foods” list.

What are the Good Fats?  These are the fats that you can and ought to be eating; unsaturated fats:

• Olive oil
• olives
• Vegetable oils
• Oily fish and fish oils
• raw nuts; almonds, peanuts, walnuts, cashew nuts
• avocados
• eggs

An important take away from this is to minimise the bad fats.  Studies have shown that eating as little as 5 grams of trans fats a day can increase the risk of coronary heart disease by 25%.  There is good research to show that eating moderate amounts of the good fats actually reduces risks of coronary disease.

It is easy to say “Eliminate the Bad Stuff”.  I would rather focus on increasing the Good Stuff.  When we eat more of the Good foods we don’t feel as inclined to want to eat the bad foods.