“If you have liver disease, you must not eat garlic!”
“Garlic can kill bacteria and reduce inflammation, so you should eat more garlic for hepatitis!”
…
As the saying goes, if you don’t eat garlic, the aroma will be half as good. Mr. Zhou usually likes to eat garlic. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with hepatitis B recently, and his family insisted that he should not eat garlic.
This made Mr. Zhou anxious. His family believed that garlic was a spicy and irritating food, which would easily increase the burden on the liver. But Mr. Zhou doesn’t think so. He believes that garlic can kill bacteria and reduce inflammation, which is good for hepatitis. Instead, he should eat more garlic.
It seems that they all have their own reasons. Does garlic damage the liver or nourish the liver?
First, authoritative research: garlic may prevent liver cancer from developing
Many people think that having hepatitis B, Don’t touch garlic at all, but research has found that garlic may have the potential to prevent liver cancer. The School of Public Health of Nanjing Medical University and the Institute of Liver Cancer Prevention and Control of Qidong City People’s Hospital of Jiangsu Province conducted a study on the dietary habits and follow-up of 3199 hepatitis B virus carriers aged 30 to 70 years old. , their diet consists mainly of vegetables, beans, fruits, eggs, meat, nuts, garlic, corn and fried foods.
270 hepatitis B carriers developed liver cancer during the follow-up period. The study found that among all dietary habits, eating garlic was associated with the risk of liver cancer, and two conclusions were drawn:
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Conclusion 1: People who eat garlic more than seven times a week have a significantly lower risk of liver cancer than those who rarely eat garlic;
Conclusion 2: Compared with those who did not eat garlic and did not drink tea, those who ate both garlic and tea at the same time had a 59% lower risk of developing liver cancer.
Second, the question is, can garlic nourish the liver and fight cancer?
Garlic is indeed a nutrient-rich food, rich in trace elements selenium, and crushed garlic also contains allicin, which can play a role in bactericidal and anti-inflammatory. So, can garlic really nourish the liver and fight cancer?
Yao Zhen, Chief Physician of Internal Medicine, Shougang General Hospital believes that so far there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that garlic has anti-cancer effect, but Allicin does have antibacterial and antioxidant properties, and it has certain positive effects in protecting immunity and preventing cancer. It should be noted that excessive intake of garlic is also harmful, it will increase the secretion of gastric acid and cause irritation to the stomach, which is not good for patients with gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, people with liver disease should not excessive consumption of garlic, not only can not play a therapeutic effect on hepatitis virus, but easily aggravate the condition of hepatitis.
Therefore, you should also control the amount of garlic, especially raw garlic. You should not eat too much at one time. It is recommended to eat 1-2 cloves of garlic per meal. Best eaten with other foods, garlic can reduce irritation to the digestive tract.
Third, if you want to nourish your liver, which foods should you eat less?
The liver is an important organ of the human body. Once the liver is damaged, it will affect the health of the body. Diet and liver health are closely related. If you want to nourish the liver, it is recommended to eat less of these types. Food:
1. Alcohol
Alcohol has many effects on the body, especially the liver, because the liver is the main mechanism for metabolizing alcohol in the human body Long-term heavy drinking can easily lead to liver fibrosis, and even lead to irreversible alcoholic liver cirrhosis.
2. Preserved food
A lot of nitrite is produced during the process of salting food. Ammonium nitrate will be synthesized after entering the human body. If you eat a large amount of pickled food for a long time, it may increase the metabolic and detoxification burden of the liver, resulting in an increased risk of liver disease.
3. High-fat foods
High-fat foods such as fatty meat, offal and meat, butter, fried foods, etc. contain a lot of cholesterol and Fat, long-term intake is not only easy to become obese, but also easy to cause high blood lipids, increase the burden on the liver, reduce the metabolic capacity of the liver, and at the same time reduce the metabolic rate of fat, resulting in excessive fat accumulation in the liver, which is easy to induce < strong>fatty liver and cirrhosis and other diseases.
4. Moldy fruits and vegetables
Moldy foods contain aflatoxins, which are carcinogens. After the human body ingests it, it is easy to damage the liver and even induce cancer, such as moldy peanuts, corn and soybeans.
Fourth, if you don’t want hepatitis B to turn into liver cancer, you must insist on two things
China is a big country with hepatitis B, There are about 93 million people infected with hepatitis B virus. In conversion, almost 1 of the 10 people we come into contact with in our daily life are infected with hepatitis B virus. If there is hepatitis B and no effective measures are taken to control it, it is easy to cause hepatitis B to develop into liver cancer. Especially for hepatitis B patients, they should pay more attention to protecting the liver and prevent hepatitis B from turning into liver cancer.
1. Adhere to a healthy lifestyle
Abstain from alcohol and tobacco, eat more vegetables and fruits, reduce the intake of too greasy food, do not stay up late, let Hepatocytes can be repaired and help to improve the immunity of the liver, thereby suppressing the virus. Reduce the accumulation of excessive carcinogens in the liver, accelerate metabolism, reduce the burden on the liver, increase energy consumption, and reduce the accumulation of fat.
2. Actively cooperate with doctors for treatment and regular review
During the development of hepatitis B, a large number of hepatitis B virus will be replicated, which is also a key factor leading to the development of the disease. Therefore, it is necessary to actively cooperate with doctors to treat and prevent hepatitis B from developing into cirrhosis. In addition, the development of hepatitis B is relatively secretive, and regular review is required to detect the progress of the disease in time. It is recommended that hepatitis B patients should have a physical examination every six months, such as liver function tests, color Doppler ultrasound, and alpha-fetoprotein testing.
In short, as the liver is an important organ of the human body, we should pay attention to our diet and living habits in peacetime, and do less things that damage the liver to help reduce the burden on the liver, which is more conducive to the health of the liver.
References:
[1] “Garlic and tea can prevent liver cancer from changing”. Life Times. 2020-06-03
[2] “” “The King of Anti-Cancer”? Is garlic really so magical?”. People’s Daily Online. 2016-08-16
[3] “Can’t you eat garlic on an empty stomach? Eating too often will make the stomach hard? 》. Popular Science China. 2019-12-17