Been sipping on your favourite flavoured drinks? If you care enough for your liver health, you may consider to make more mindful choice next time you place an order for diet soda, cocktail or fruit punch.
The liver is the largest internal organ in your body after the skin. It is also one of the hardest-working organs that supports metabolism, immunity, digestion, detoxification, and vitamin storage, among many others.
“The liver plays a role in nearly every organ system in the body. It interacts with the endocrine and gastrointestinal systems by aiding digestion and metabolism. The liver is the storage location for fat-soluble vitamins and handles cholesterol homeostasis,” the National Institutes of Health (NIH) explains.
“It stores iron and copper. It plays a role in haematology with clotting factors and protein synthesis. The liver plays a role in heme breakdown into unconjugated bilirubin and conjugates it. It plays a role in sex hormone metabolism and produces carrier proteins that are important in reproduction and development. Finally, Kupffer and pit cells play an important role in the body’s immunological system.”
Now that we understand how important the liver is to our overall well-being. It is crucial to take proactive actions to keep the liver healthy. In this article, we will see how drinking artificial sweetened drinks is as bad as the natural sweeteners.
Top 6 Drinks Dangerous For Your Liver Health
Nutritionist and author, Dr. Eric Berg, in an Instagram post shared on 21st July, explains the worst drinks that could negatively impact your liver health. Here are the top 6 drinks dangerous for your liver health:
- Diet soda: The artificial sweeteners in diet soda are just as bad as regular, if not worse, because they affect the microbiome.
- Commercial fruit punch: The doctor says that commercial fruit punches are likely as little as 5% of real juice, but most of them are high fructose corn syrup. Dr. Berg compares drinking commercial fruit punch to drinking liquid candy with chemicals and fruit colouring.
- Sweetened tea: Another dangerous drink for your liver is sweetened tea. The doctor reveals that most sweetened tea doesn’t even come with actual sugar, but comes with high fructose corn syrup. Drinking a lot of fructose can cause stress to your liver from the chemicals and flavourings.
- Cocktail: Margarita, a great example of a cocktail, is a deadly combination of alcohol and sugar.
- Energy drink: Also known as a fatigue drink, they spike your blood sugar, but then you come crashing down, needing another energy drink.
- Flavoured coffee: At least 50 grams of sugar are in every container of flavoured coffee – a combination of caffeine, coffee sugar, artificial chemicals, flavourings and preservation.
What Is The Best Drink For The Liver?
Talking about the best drink for the liver, besides alcohol and sugary items, the doctor suggests consuming unsweetened tea or organic coffee or carbonated water with stevia and natural flavouring.