6 Foods and Vitamins Which Are Bad for Liver and Should be Avoided

Liver is an important organ in the body which has many roles to play. Just like skin is the largest organ on outer surface, liver is the largest organ inside the body. It is a largest gland in the body involved with metabolism of several substances. Liver is involved in detoxification process, production of hormones and proteins, storage of glycogen etc.

Hence any damage to liver can affect its proper functioning which can ultimately lead to liver disease. Eating best food is essential for maintaining general health and in particular health of liver. Your liver can get damaged due to various foods and substances that you consume. There are foods that help the liver to stay healthy at the same time there are certain foods that can cause damage to liver. Hence we must ensure that the food that we consume does not harm the liver.

1. Foods that cause harm to liver: Here are some of the food and substance that you must stay away from if you are conscious about your liver health. Liver helps in digestion of food with the help of enzymes it produces.
   It is also an important reservoir of vitamins and minerals such as iron and copper. Avoid foods that harm the liver.
2. Fatty food: Avoid eating foods that are loaded with saturated fats on daily basis. French fries, fried and oily food, increased amount of red meat, food fried in palm oil, etc. These types of food eaten daily can increase load on liver. Liver has to work hard to digest these foods. Constant exposure to such foods can produce inflammatory changes in liver cells. It leads to build up of fat in liver causing inflammation and scarring of liver. It leads to a condition called fatty liver.
3. Sugary food: Eating too much of sugar in our diet is unhealthy and everyone knows about it. Still people tend to eat sweets and sugary products. Sugar is harmful for liver if eaten in excess. It is because plain sugar gets easily converted into fat and gets stored in liver and other parts of body. Eating sugar in excess can give rise to obesity. Obese people are known to suffer from fatty liver disease. Fatty liver in its advanced stage can lead to inflammation of liver, scarring and even cirrhosis.
4. Alcohol: Alcohol contains several toxins. Liver is body’s ultimate processing machine. The toxins present in alcohol are neutralized by liver and flushed out but while doing so the liver cells get damaged. High consumption of alcohol regularly can cause abnormal elevation in liver enzymes. Over a period of time, it can lead to cirrhosis of liver. In order to prevent damage to liver, person must restrain from drinking alcohol.
5. Refined flour: Refined flour is devoid of any fibers. It becomes difficult for liver to digest the food. Liver has to work harder to digest these foods. Food made from refined grains include white bread, white rice, noodles, spaghetti, macaroni, corn tortillas, crackers etc.
6. Packaged foods: Packaged foods contain excess amount of fat, salt and sugar. All the three ingredients are bad for liver health if eaten regularly.

Vitamins supplements bad for liver health:

Vitamins are of two types, water soluble vitamins and fat soluble vitamins. Certain vitamins are stored in the body while some vitamins are passed out through urine. Usually water soluble vitamins such as all B vitamins when in excess are passed out through urine. However, fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, D, E are stored in liver when in excess. Fat soluble vitamin supplements are risk to liver if they are in excess than the body requirement. Taking high amount of vitamin A supplements is dangerous for liver. Acute hypervitaminosis produces nausea, anorexia, and failure to thrive. Chronic vitamin A toxicity produces bone pain and joint pain together with liver enlargement, alopecia, fissures on skin, itching, acne etc. Vitamin D toxicity occurs when this vitamin is consumed in large amount through supplements. Anorexia, nausea, vomiting, bone pain, fatigue, kidney stones, and renal dysfunction.