Diet: Healthy Organs

The state of your internal organs are key to your overall level of health, but because you can’t see them or feel them, they are easy to ignore. It’s often only when we are forced to change the way we live that we discover how much better we feel when we are looking after the inside of our body as well as the outside.

Heart

Your heart works as a pump, which sends oxygen-rich blood around your body. It is a complicated organ, the proper function and state of which is critical to your health. One of the contributing factors to an unhealthy heart is diet. Someone who is carrying too much weight, has a high salt intake or high fat intake can risk damaging their heart, limiting its functionality and risking heart disease or heart attacks.

Liver

The liver is a very important organ and has many functions. It is simplest to describe the liver as a filter, making sure that the beneficial things that we consume reach our bloodstream, whilst the waste is expelled. At any one time, around 13% of our blood is passing through our liver, which is the largest organ in your body. Because of it’s importance to our overall health, it is vital that we look after it. Over-consumption of any toxins, including alcohol or drugs, can have a serious impact on the liver’s ability to work and can damage it permanently. This could lead to damaging substances entering the blood stream, seriously affecting your health. Whilst many liver diseases are hereditary or caused by viruses, your diet can help to keep your liver in good condition.

Kidneys

Once the liver has filtered your blood, the waste blood products are sent to the kidneys.  The kidneys perform a further analysis of this blood, releasing useful chemicals back into the blood stream, and the waste into the bladder. Kidneys also produce three important hormones which stimulate red cell production by your bone marrow, regulate blood pressure and maintain calcium levels. Your kidneys will benefit from a diet which regulates or reduces your blood pressure, and which limits your intake of certain food types.

A good diet will improve the way your organs work, which in turn promotes your good health. Just because you don’t feel them working doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look after them. http://www.nutrition.gov/