Liver Loving Ice Tea

Our liver is probably the most important detoxification organ in our bodies, and it’s responsible for over 500 processes, not just including the metabolism of alcohol, but also the metabolism of hormones, medications and toxins from the environment, food, etc. It also stores glycogen and is a powerful fat burning organ. You can see that it’s one of the hardest working organs in our body, which is all the more reason to give it a lot of love and support through nutrient dense whole foods and supportive herbs here and there, including this Liver Loving Iced Tea!

Our liver goes through a lot each day, metabolising everything we eat and drink, environmental toxins we encounter each day, and basically repackages toxins for your body to use or eliminates them. Most often it’s about elimination with the Standard British Diet being particularly high in toxins. Not to mention this situation makes it more difficult for the liver since the Standard British Diet lacks essential nutrients, fats, and whole foods that our liver loves. This tea filled with bitter herbs, vitamin C rich lemons, and fresh herbs is designed to give our liver a little extra love.
Even though this tea contains all bitter herbs, it’s incredibly delicious and refreshing from the addition of lemon and fresh herbs like mint over ice. You also have the option to add in purely flavoured based teas like rose, hibiscus, or rooibos. Bitter herbs have been used for centuries in preventing illness and easing symptoms of common health challenges, especially in Ayurvedic Medicine, which puts a strong emphasis on healing and taking care of our wellbeing through nutrition and digestion. Regardless of folklore and traditions, bitter herbs actually do help our digestive systems in many ways starting immediately when you put them in your mouth. Think about when you eat a lemon and the tart bitter flavour immediately makes you salivate – bitter herbs work in the same way. This initial process stimulates our digestive system by getting it moving as digestive juices start to flow. This sets off a chain reactions of digestive enzymes that stimulate hydrochloric acid (HCL helps our body digest food) and ultimately increases gastric emptying (i.e. moves food through our system more efficiently). Our digestive systems and liver work very closely with one another so it’s important that our whole food choices optimize how our liver functions. Let’s take a quick look at some of these herbs and why they’re beneficial in this tea:

• Peppermint: soothes digestion and relaxes the oesophageal sphincter that can help improve digestion (if you suffer from reflux, avoid peppermint since this sphincter will be relaxed causing more reflux).
• Ginger: a warming spice, stimulates digestion and increases peristalsis (movement of the gut) to help digest food. Ginger is also great at decreasing nausea and other tummy woes.
• Milk Thistle: a powerful herb that detoxifies the liver as an antioxidant.
• Lemon: rich in the antioxidant vitamin C, which is crucial for helping our bodies combat stress in any ways, but especially within the liver since it’s responsible for hundreds of processes.
• Other liver supportive bitter herbs you can try in this mix: chamomile, dandelion (included in the Liver Detox tea I use here), wormwood, and goldenseal.
• Keep in mind friends, if you’re pregnant or on specific medications, I would highly suggest checking the herbal interactions with your situation since these are pretty strong and efficacious herbs – safety first.

LIVER LOVING ICED TEA
Recipe type: to drink
Prep time:  10 mins
Total time:  10 mins
Serves: 12
 
A tea that supports your liver using herbal teas, digestive friendly teas, and floral teas that tastes delicious yet effective.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 peppermint tea bags
• 2 ginger tea bags
• 4 Detox tea bags, I Use Arbonne Essentials
• 2 hibiscus tea bags (optional for flavour)
• 1 milk thistle tea bag
• Juice of 3 lemons
• Optional upon serving: fresh mint, honey to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put all the tea bags in a large jug.
2. Bring 4 cups water to a boil. Pour into the jug with all the tea bags, steep for 10 minutes-- all teas have varying steep times, but 10 minutes ensures herbal teas to start releasing. Pour the tea into the jug and you're left with tea bags, put more boiling water in and repeat this process to steep the tea a total of 3 times.
3. Once you've made the tea 3 times, you'll end up with a large amount about 12 cups of tea. Add fresh lemon juice and let cool or place immediately in the fridge to cool. Serve with fresh mint over ice 1x a day.

OTHER LIVER-LOVIN’ RECIPES TO ADD TO YOUR DETOXIFICATION ARSENAL…

• One of my Ultimate Green Smoothies
• Turmeric Milk

CHEERS!
Are you in need of a little liver love tea? Let me know what you think when you give this recipe a go! Leave a comment and rate it, rating helps me continue to improve recipes for you. I love seeing what you come up with so don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #emma_olliff_nutrition on Instagram.

Emma xx
Resources:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/21/herbs-to-improve-digestion.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22010973
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4446506/