Artichokes

26 March 2007

'What delicious, healthy foods can I enjoy freely while I'm treating my wonderful liver with respect for 6 weeks of every year?' I ask myself! So many, but the most liver-friendly food? Artichokes! Honestly. Globe artichokes have an unusual, slightly sour taste and they compliment other foods very well. Tinned artichokes, amazingly, are just as beneficial to the liver as fresh ones, which have to have the bottom, sliced off and be placed in an inch or two of boiling water for 20 minutes or so. You can then easily pluck out the leaves, dunk them one by one in seasoned olive oil and nibble the soft fleshy bit on the end. These veggie medicines have been used throughout history to treat liver and gall bladder disorders and reduce the level of fats in the blood. They gently detoxify and they restore your liver - if you eat them - and fairly quickly. And they decrease fluid retention and can also stimulate the metabolism - great news if your weight loss is not happening despite your efforts to stick to a healthy eating plan. A sluggish and congested liver/bile duct is a contributing factor to that common scenario. Roasted artichokes can be bought in delies and wholefood shops, or prepared yourself (using the artichoke heart - the middle bit), or as I mentioned you can buy artichoke hearts in tins and they taste delicious!

Roberta Stimson, m.b.r.c.p., mach.rt

Practitioner of Holistic and Preventative Medicine