Problems with Your Liver? Here’s what You Can Eat

Sometimes pills are not the only solution for one’s health problems. Patients with damaged livers should be happy to hear that a new study has found a food, loved by everyone, that helps them.

Spanish researchers say that antioxidant-rich dark chocolate helps lower blood pressure in the liver, diminishing the risk of organ failure and cancer, according to BusinessWeek. Twenty-one patients with end-stage liver disease included in their liquid meals dark or white chocolate.

Doctors realized patients who ate dark chocolate had a smaller increase in blood pressure. The theory that the dark chocolate has good effects on the body comes from the fact that this type of chocolate is rich in cocoa, which has large amounts of flavonoids with antioxidant action. The products rich in flavonoids may decrease the levels of cholesterol, prevent inflammations, protect the cardiovascular system, and prevent the development of certain types of cancer.

Flavonoids can also inhibit diarrhea. The traditional usage for cocoa includes treating anorexia, breathing disorders, fatigue, headaches, muscular weakness, and maintaining the health of the kidneys, heart, and pancreas. These substances from cocoa are also found in apples, onion, green tea, peanuts, and bilberries. You may want to avoid dark chocolate with peanuts or caramel because these two products may inhibit the action of flavonoids.

Be careful when you choose the chocolate. You should look for good-quality chocolate, because sugar is not good for the liver. In the study it was used chocolate with 85% cocoa.