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THIS MONTH'S FEATURED ARTICLE
Why Cleanse Your Liver in the Springtime?
It seems that everyone is talking about liver cleansing at the moment. Of course, the concept of 'spring cleaning' is firmly ensconced in our consciousness and language. But why cleanse the liver in particular? It turns out that in various cultures, for millennia of our existence as humans, there has been a particular association between springtime and the liver.
One of the most joyous aspects of a raw food lifestyle is the feeling of heightened integration that it encourages us to find with our Mother the Earth, and her rhythms. In this article, we're going to expand that sense of integration to the dimension of time, with a look at some of the history of the connection between liver and spring, and after that we'll talk a little bit about various ways you can love your liver this spring.
We'll start with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which associates the liver (and its yang partner, the gallbladder) with springtime, since this is the oldest evidence. The 'Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine,' or 'Nei Ching,' states that true health comes from living in accordance with the seasons, with nature - just as we learn when we eat more raw and local foods! It identifies spring as the time of revitalization of all things in nature, the time when heaven and earth are reborn. After the fallow time of winter, things begin to grow again: it is the time of potential energy, the time to set projects in motion. Green is the predominant color, and young green plants are generally unripe and sour tasting. Green color and sour taste are associated with the liver, and considered nourishing to the liver.
The Nei Ching says that just as spring is the season of new beginnings, of renewal, and of expansion, the liver is responsible for movement and expansion within the body, and for keeping the flow of energy open.
Of course, in any cycle, it's important to know what the last phase was if you want to understand the present one. The new growth of spring follows the fallow time of winter. We'll get back to the implications of this in our own bodies, but this brings us to some liver-talk from another, very different culture.
We turn to Merye Olde England, and Chaucer's verse cycle of stories 'The Canterbury Tales.' Chaucer gets the ball rolling by saying (to paraphrase) that April is the time when new growth starts, dispelling the winter, and that this is the time when everyone gets moving and goes on pilgrimages. Once again: new beginnings and new undertakings.
The stories that form the bulk of the poem are swapped as mutual entertainment by a group of such pilgrims. Interesting for us here is the story of the rooster Chanticleer and his chief 'wife' Pertelote, told by the Nun's Priest. This story is explicitly set in early April. Chanticleer has a bad dream of being caught by a fox, which turns out to come true, and he ends up having to use all his cunning to outfox the fox and get away. But the interesting thing for us here is that first, when he wakes from his dream groaning, in a cold sweat, and tells his wife about it, what do you think she says?
She doesn't just say 'shame on you, don't be so silly, I can't be in love with a coward,' though she does say something like that. She also proceeds to recommend that he cleanse himself, because the vital fluids of his body are evidently out of balance: specifically, his 'choleric' and his 'melancholic' humors, and describes all the kinds of bad dreams that such imbalances create. 'Choler' is bile, and 'melancholy' simply means 'black bile,' so she is associating his bad night with distress in his liver/gallbladder! We've all heard rueful hangover sufferers pitying their poor liver the morning after - maybe we've been there ourselves! Pertelote even recommends specific herbs that he should use for his cleanse but since this story is a big tease and parody, and since his dream turns out to come true (and since we aren't chickens), we probably shouldn't try her recommendations at home! Hellebore sounds like an especially bad idea…
Native American traditions also talk about spring cleansing. Early-growing greens were recommended by shamans as cleansers, and the connection between bodily cleansing and emotional cleansing after a winter of less movement and close quarters was also made. The bitter herbs of the Passover Seder in the Jewish tradition, another celebration of cyclic renewal, are also cleansing to the liver.
This seems to be a universal for us humans across space and time in temperate climates where new growth follows a period of rest. Unlike other species, who hibernate and go into suspended animation for the coldest months (up to 6-7 months of the year in the polar regions), we stay awake all winter, and until the advent of refrigeration and long-distance transportation of food, had to rely on very much other-than-fresh food for those cold months. Even now, with those advantages, we tend to eat heavier food in the wintertime.
There is a natural beauty and symmetry to the fact that new growth, the first fresh food for a while, is inherently cleansing to the body. It allows us to reconnect with the awareness that it is our body that grounds us to the earth, that allows us to join in the upsurge of energy, go on journeys like Chaucer's pilgrims, or start new projects. The Nei Ching says that the liver is responsible for this expansiveness, for keeping the flow of energy open. But if you want your new project to prosper, it is certainly advisable to clear out old clutter and make space for it! As is well known, the liver is the most important organ of detoxification in the body. So cleansing the liver in the springtime, as more varieties of foods and activities become available, is a way to create a clear space, a fresh start.
We now know that the liver's own regenerative capacity is remarkable, even in the context of rest of our wondrously self-healing body. A full 75% of the liver can be damaged or destroyed, and it will still continue to do its work and will regenerate itself. Even more good reason to pay attention to the liver in the season of regeneration. For a comprehensive list of the functions of the liver, which are mind-bogglingly diverse and range from blood filtering through key digestive and absorptive processes to vitamin storage, see http://www.mylivercleanse.com, which is also a good resource for those interested in being guided through a liver cleanse.
If you eat plenty of the young, tender, sour plants of the season, you will be stimulating some gentle liver cleansing just by doing that. If you make the time to do some 'spring cleaning' of your external environment - get rid of old clothes or last year's unfinished projects, de-clutter your workspace, this is also a kind of cleansing for the 'liver' energy of new growth and cyclic renewal. Clearing your emotional space, examining patterns, habits and routines and considering whether they are still serving, will make space for the creative 'liver' energy in your thoughts and decisions. These simple observances and harmonizations with the season are great ways to 'love your liver.'
For those who feel drawn to do a more thorough 'cleanse,' there are many resources available online to help and advise: here are some recommended ones:
http://curezone.com/cleanse/liver/ (compendious list of different kinds of liver cleanse protocols and many testimonials - can be overwhelming and is not easy to navigate, but lays out all the options)
http://www.breathing.com/articles/liver-cleanse.htm (detailed description of the Hulda Clark protocol)
A really good book both in general and for the liver-gallbladder flush protocol outlined in it is 'LifeFood Recipe Book - Living on Life Force' by Annie Padden Jubb and David Jubb.
A word of caution: It is always advisable to be gentle, to listen to the wisdom and rhythms of your body. If you feel that you have 'taxed' your liver excessively with alcohol, drugs, or difficult foods, you may actually be better off to start by simplifying and cleaning up your diet and emotional space. The belief that overindulgence should be followed by a cleanse of proportionate severity can lead to an overly steep gradient of change that is very harsh on your body and on you. Of course, some people relish this! But proceeding to full-blown liver flushing after having 'cleaned up' one's diet and lifestyle for some time will be so much easier and may well yield more lasting results because of its distance from any kind of yo-yo paradigm.
Whether you choose to undertake a thorough cleanse or simply to add more greens to your day, in honoring your liver this springtime you are not only harmonizing with the season, but also with the wisdom shared by temperate-climate-dwelling humans for millennia.
BIO
Ela Harrison Gordon is a Classical scholar, linguist and poet who has chosen to devote her life to healing and spiritual growth. She has worked as a raw food chef, beekeeper and farmer as well asa translator, writer and editor. Of English and Israeli heritage and raised in London, she has lived inthe USA since 2000 and has explored cultivated and wild land whilst living in California,
Hawaii and now Alaska.She regards her body's intolerance of grains and most modern foods, as well as her journey back
from near-death from anorexia, as blessings that have led her to a greater reverence for the body and its place in our
spiritual development, a more holistic understanding of health, and a deep interest in nutrition both of person and of planet. These blessings first led her to raw foods in 2003, and she is excited to share the breadth of what she has learned from pursuing the lifestyle in a variety of climates whilst integrating with local customs and growth patterns.
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