Most of us around here know that pure fructose increases triglycerides in the liver. I had always heard that citrus is good for cleaning out the liver, of course I'm the resident fool who just soaks up what he hears like a sponge. 
I had heard that from more holistic sources. That hot water and fresh lemon juice is a liver tonic that "tells your liver to dump". And that "all citrus" is good for cleaning out the liver. This was from a holistic doctor I heard this.
I have made some juices or teas with bottled lemon juice instead of fresh, and I can tell the difference, fresh lemon tastes - well fresher anyway. Bottled tastes dead.
I know that grapefruit specifically has a substance in it that affects the liver such that doctors will tell you if you're on certain liver medications to avoid grapefruit and grapefruit juice.
Anyway, I didn't do a lot of digging, but a quick google search for "citrus liver" revealed an article about a study I found interesting.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/x580x365g1t23065/
A certain flavonoid found in citrus fruit was given to rats in a controlled study. The flavinoid is called hesperetin. After they fed a controlled diet that increased liver triglycerides, they added 1% hesperetin to the diet and the triglycerides dropped 44%.
That's if I'm reading it right. I tried to find more info on hesperetin with google but this is not my field, plus it seems like there might not be a lot of research on it yet. Can someone help me decipher that abstract?
If this is true, it just re-affirms the point that nature isn't stupid and eating foods in their natural raw form has benefits. This is why I eat my raw organic oranges instead of orange juice. The overall philosophy of eating what we evolved to eat - makes sense. Processing and breaking food down to its core elements and reconstructing it ourselves - does not.
I had heard that from more holistic sources. That hot water and fresh lemon juice is a liver tonic that "tells your liver to dump". And that "all citrus" is good for cleaning out the liver. This was from a holistic doctor I heard this.I have made some juices or teas with bottled lemon juice instead of fresh, and I can tell the difference, fresh lemon tastes - well fresher anyway. Bottled tastes dead.
I know that grapefruit specifically has a substance in it that affects the liver such that doctors will tell you if you're on certain liver medications to avoid grapefruit and grapefruit juice.
Anyway, I didn't do a lot of digging, but a quick google search for "citrus liver" revealed an article about a study I found interesting.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/x580x365g1t23065/
A certain flavonoid found in citrus fruit was given to rats in a controlled study. The flavinoid is called hesperetin. After they fed a controlled diet that increased liver triglycerides, they added 1% hesperetin to the diet and the triglycerides dropped 44%.
That's if I'm reading it right. I tried to find more info on hesperetin with google but this is not my field, plus it seems like there might not be a lot of research on it yet. Can someone help me decipher that abstract?
If this is true, it just re-affirms the point that nature isn't stupid and eating foods in their natural raw form has benefits. This is why I eat my raw organic oranges instead of orange juice. The overall philosophy of eating what we evolved to eat - makes sense. Processing and breaking food down to its core elements and reconstructing it ourselves - does not.
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