Liver Injury and Tropical Fruit

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The liver is the second largest organ in your body. It can process the foods and drinks you eat into essential nutrients and filter out harmful or toxic substances in your blood. Tropical fruits such as bananas, pineapples, guavas, mangoes and lemons grow in warm climates. Although these fruits do not cause liver damage, if you already have liver disease, you may need to avoid certain minerals in these fruits.

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If you have liver injury, you may need to limit pineapple intake. (Image: Burke/Triolo Productions/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images)

Liver Injury

Many different problems or diseases can lead to liver injury. Some cases are hereditary, some are caused by chemicals and toxic substances. Different conditions can lead to liver damage, including hepatitis, cirrhosis, cancer and parasitic infections. Symptoms of liver damage include yellowing skin, abdominal pain, itching skin, dull urine, chronic fatigue, nausea, tarry stool and loss of appetite. Several factors increase the risk of liver damage, including heavy drinking, diabetes and certain drugs. Pineapple is a tropical fruit with trace element manganese. Your body needs manganese for various physiological processes. However, excessive manganese can cause poisoning. A cup and a half of raw pineapple contains 0.77 mg of manganese. Adults should not consume more than 11 mg of manganese per day, according to data from the Linas Bowling Institute. The body of patients with chronic liver disease can not discharge excess manganese through bile, so the risk of manganese poisoning is higher. People with liver disease may develop neurological symptoms, such as Parkinson's disease, if they eat pineapples or other high-manganese foods in large quantities.

According to the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, hydroxyapatite, a potential weight-loss supplement, may cause liver damage. Hydroxyapatite is made from tropical fruits, but the exact ingredients that cause liver problems are not yet known. In 2009, hydrocut voluntarily recalled 14 products after receiving 23 liver injury reports from the fda. A 19-year-old boy died of liver injury. The symptoms of other patients ranged from jaundice to complete liver failure. These patients were healthy before they started using hydroxyapatite products. Patients with liver diseases usually need to change their diet. Talk to your doctor or nutritionist about specific dietary recommendations. Severely damaged livers cannot process protein, so you may need to limit protein intake. Medline Plus recommends that you take in 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. You may need to increase your carbohydrates, which will help prevent protein breakdown. In addition, sodium may increase liver swelling, thus reducing sodium intake to less than 1500 mg per day.

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