This Is What Garlic Can Do For Your Liver

The humble liver deserves more love than it usually gets. This powerhouse organ may not be the most glamorous, with its reddish-brown color and rubbery appearance, but it's constantly at work, purifying and detoxifying the blood, storing vitamins and minerals, and making vital proteins (via WebMD). "Although the immune system protects our body from many dangers, it is the liver that protects the immune system from becoming overloaded," holistic nutritionist Hermeet Suri told HuffPost.

Our livers are put under serious strain when we consume large amounts of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, refined sugars, and saturated fats. "We know diets high in saturated fat make the liver fatty," Dr. Hannele Yki-Jarvinen, professor of medicine at the University of Helsinki in Finland, told WebMD. "Saturated fats such as in butter, fatty cheeses and coconut oil are thus the worst thing to eat from the liver perspective." What impact does garlic, in particular, have on the liver?

There are easy ways to proactively support good liver health. One of the most delicious ways is to include more garlic in your diet. Garlic is a superfood and antioxidant that has a host of health benefits. It has powerful sulfur-containing compounds, as well as vitamins and minerals that help with liver detoxification. Multiple studies have also shown that taking raw garlic or garlic powder helps reduce fat accumulation on the liver, and helps reduce the risk of fatty liver disease in men. Taking raw garlic has also been linked to the prevention of liver cancer (via Healthline).

Consuming raw garlic is considered to be safe for most people, but you should consult with a health care provider before taking concentrated garlic supplements, which have been linked to liver damage (via Tropical Gastroenterology). In this case, it's definitely possible to have too much of a good thing.