Whole World Botanicals'® Blog

• Do you drink soft drinks 4 or more times a week?
• Do you find it hard to get through the day without having either ice cream, candy, a piece of cake or some cookies?
• Do you find that you just don’t have enough energy to exercise?
• Do you sometimes have pain on your right side or a feeling of pressure just below the rib cage?
• Do you find that fatigue is your biggest health problem?

If you answered yes to even one of these questions, you probably have a damaged liver. New research shows a strong linkage between the consumption of fructose – the cheap corn syrup found in almost all commercial baked goods and all soft drinks—and the development of fatty liver disease. In an animal study presented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease most of the rats fed a sugar-water diet developed liver disease called “fatty liver.” The researchers went so far as to suggest that high sugar consumption may be directly toxic to the liver.

To prevent a fatty liver you need to make a radical change to your diet, if you eat like the average American. Start making water your main beverage of choice. Find ways to cut down on your sugar consumption—especially fructose.  Read labels carefully and if you are going to buy cookies, or pies, for example, find out what kind of sugar was used in their preparation.

How Herbs Can Help

Chanca Piedra, sold by Whole World Botanicals as Royal Break-Stone (chanca means “break” or “smash” in Spanish and the Indian language Quechua, and piedra means “stone” in Spanish).  It is very good at promoting liver health and is different from milk thistle a popular herb for the liver in several very significant ways.  Not only do studies suggest that it supports healthy liver enzyme levels, but it also is very useful in helping the liver digest fats. Royal Break-Stone, available as a Liquid Extract, a Tea, or in capsules, helps increase the amount of bile produced by your liver.  Bile is essential to fat digestion.  It also helps your body produce more lecithin.  One of the main properties of lecithin is helping to emulsify, or break down, fats, which enables excess fat to be eliminated from the body through the bowel.