What Does the Liver Do?
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The various functions of the liver are carried out by the liver cells, called hepatocytes, which act as stem cells and are responsible for the organ's unique ability to regenerate tissue. Your liver has three main jobs—breakdown, storage and detox
Nutrient Breakdown
We all may know that skim milk is good for your bones, fish is good for your muscles and olive oil is good for your heart. But only a weird cartoonist thinks your bones actually bathe in milk or there's a blood vessel that transports fresh olive oil through a side door in the aortic chamber. Everything we eat and drink has to be broken down into different chemicals before it can get to work on helping (or, in the case of some foods and drinks, harming) your body. And that's one of the primary jobs of the liver.
Storage and Creation
The liver, which makes protein and stores glucose, vitamin B12 and iron, helps get nutrients to your body by processing all foods—carbohydrates, protein and fat—into glucose that can be used throughout your body.
Glucose is a fancy name for a specific and common sugar...yup, everything is turned to sugar. Iron stores in the liver are great enough for most people that iron supplements are not usually needed, except in people with iron deficiency anemia, which is the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide.
The liver also serves as the initial source of glucose when you rush the hot dog stand at halftime since the sugar in your blood provides only 10 minutes of energy. It then does double duty to break down the nitrates from that hot dog in the detox function. This, by the way, is the reason you don't burn fat immediately when you start exercising—your body is using the fuel that's stored as glucose in the liver first.
More about the most famous job of the liver—detox
Nutrient Breakdown
We all may know that skim milk is good for your bones, fish is good for your muscles and olive oil is good for your heart. But only a weird cartoonist thinks your bones actually bathe in milk or there's a blood vessel that transports fresh olive oil through a side door in the aortic chamber. Everything we eat and drink has to be broken down into different chemicals before it can get to work on helping (or, in the case of some foods and drinks, harming) your body. And that's one of the primary jobs of the liver.
Storage and Creation
The liver, which makes protein and stores glucose, vitamin B12 and iron, helps get nutrients to your body by processing all foods—carbohydrates, protein and fat—into glucose that can be used throughout your body.
Glucose is a fancy name for a specific and common sugar...yup, everything is turned to sugar. Iron stores in the liver are great enough for most people that iron supplements are not usually needed, except in people with iron deficiency anemia, which is the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide.
The liver also serves as the initial source of glucose when you rush the hot dog stand at halftime since the sugar in your blood provides only 10 minutes of energy. It then does double duty to break down the nitrates from that hot dog in the detox function. This, by the way, is the reason you don't burn fat immediately when you start exercising—your body is using the fuel that's stored as glucose in the liver first.
More about the most famous job of the liver—detox
As a reminder, always consult your doctor for medical advice and treatment before starting any program.
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