As the saying goes, "The liver is mute."
The liver has always been low-key and often remains silent when injured. This also leads to once liver problems are detected, it is often a serious illness, even liver cancer!
Therefore, we should pay extra attention to liver health in our daily lives and eat less foods that harm the liver.
When it comes to liver damaging foods, many people think of alcohol. Indeed, both alcohol itself (i.e. ethanol) and its metabolite acetaldehyde have long been listed as carcinogens by the World Health Organization.
Frequent alcohol consumption can directly damage liver cells, causing liver damage and inflammation, leading to the development of alcoholic fatty liver disease. Long term alcohol abuse may also lead to alcoholic cirrhosis, and even liver cancer.
But besides alcohol, there are also some foods that can invisibly harm your liver and need to be taken seriously, such as these two fruits——
1. High sugar fruits
Fruits are certainly good for the body, but when eating fruits happily, everyone should also be careful of some high fructose fruits, otherwise they can also harm the liver.
This is because fruits contain a large amount of fructose, which is mainly metabolized by the liver and does not have a specific rate limiting effect by enzymes during the metabolic process. Therefore, it accumulates a large amount of intermediate products, which are then converted into fat.
If too much fructose is consumed, it is easy for fat to deposit in the liver, ultimately leading to fatty liver and other metabolic diseases.
Long term excessive intake of fructose can also stimulate hepatic steatosis. When combined with risk factors such as deterioration of the intestinal barrier, it can cause steatohepatitis.
Since the 1960s, scholars have discovered that excessive consumption of fructose can lead to liver diseases.
Many studies have also shown that overeating fructose can affect fat metabolism and increase the burden on the liver, leading to fatty liver.
In recent years, more and more people have developed fatty liver disease due to eating fruits. This type of fatty liver, also known as non-alcoholic fatty liver, is recognized as an important cause of high sugar diet.
What's even more frightening is that fructose doesn't feel full after eating, and eating too much won't make you feel as uncomfortable or vomit like drinking too much alcohol, let alone feel drowsy or uncomfortable after staying up late. Therefore, many people don't realize that they have eaten too much, which unknowingly worsens liver damage.
Therefore, it is recommended that everyone should not overeat fruits. Eating 200-350 grams of fresh fruits per person per day is sufficient. At the same time, it is necessary to eat less fruits with high fructose content, such as grapes, apples, kiwifruit, longan, bananas, etc.
In addition, citrus, peach, plum, apricot and other fruits contain more sucrose, but after decomposition and metabolism, half of them will be converted into fructose, so attention should also be paid.
2. Fruits containing aflatoxin
Simply put, it refers to fruits with mold spots or slightly rotten.
Nowadays, the temperature is slowly rising, and the fruits bought home will start to mold in a few days. Many people who are accustomed to frugality and frugality are often reluctant to throw away fruits with small mold spots, peel them and continue eating them, claiming that their taste is not affected at all.
In fact, once fruits undergo mold and decay, various microorganisms will multiply inside the fruits and produce a large amount of toxic substances, which may contain a primary carcinogen - aflatoxin.
Aflatoxin has strong hepatotoxicity, with extremely strong toxicity and carcinogenicity. It is reported that its toxicity is 10 times that of an equal amount of potassium cyanide and 68 times that of arsenic.
If a small amount of aflatoxin is continuously ingested, it can lead to growth disorders, chronic liver damage, cirrhosis, and even induce liver cancer. Excessive intake at once can also lead to acute poisoning and even death.
What's even more frightening is that toxic substances like aflatoxin can penetrate and spread throughout the fruit through juice. That is to say, even if the mold spots on the fruit are removed before eating, there is still a risk of poisoning, which can harm the liver and kidneys.
Once a person consumes this fruit, they may experience gastrointestinal reactions such as nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and even a risk of liver cancer.
Therefore, we advise everyone not to consume even the seemingly non decaying parts of the fruit.
In addition, it is important to remind everyone that boxed fruits sold in fruit shops should also be vigilant. Because we cannot determine whether the fruits used by the merchants are fresh or if there are any fruits that have been processed and sold after rotting.
If it is a rotten fruit, then no matter how cheap it is, you cannot buy it. Don't put your body at risk of getting sick or cancer just to save some money.