What Your Liver And a Vending Machine Have In Common

Five comparisons on how they both can make you fat and toxic…

YOUR LIVER, AN ORGAN OR A VENDING MACHINE?

The more I learn about the liver, the more I am surprised that it hasn’t played the lead role in a Batman film yet. Yes, it’s that cool! However, let’s take it down from superhero status and compare it to a simple vending machine, as these two surprisingly have a lot in common.

Yes, your liver removes many toxins from your body. By the way, your skin and lungs help with this too. But another role it has is to store and release nutrients as your body becomes deficient in them. Just like a vending machine, without even needing to insert a coin! So let’s take a look at a few more examples of how the largest organ within your body, the liver, compares to a simple vending machine. Just for fun!

Here are five things your liver and a vending machine have in common and how they both can make you fat or toxic.

1. TEMPERATURE CONTROL

Vending machines regulate temperature to keep food and beverages cold or hot for maximum freshness… If “fresh” can be used to describe the contents of a vending machine?

When it comes to your liver, all the heavy processing it performs generates quite a bit of heat. Which is then circulated throughout the body, helping you to stay nice and warm. Here are just a few of the MANY impressive tasks your liver performs to generate all of this heat.

What Does The Liver Do? 5 Ways Your Liver Is Awesome

• clears toxins from the blood and everything you eat
• maintains hormone balance
• regulates fat storage
• metabolizes alcohol
• regenerates its own damaged tissues

2. STORES ENERGY-PROVIDING SUBSTANCES

When you need some quick energy, a vending machine can be your best friend. Your liver is just the same, yet, it’s automatic and doesn’t require any spare change!

Your liver stores and generates many of the critical nutrients that your body needs. For example, vitamins, sugars, bile, enzymes, and even cholesterol, are stored in the liver and ready to dispense when your body needs them.

One thing I found particularly interesting was how the liver can stock:

• a supply of Vitamin A for up to four years
• and Vitamins D and B12 for up to four months

3. DISPENSES A VARIETY OF ITEMS

A vending machine has one main exit where the product drops. Unfortunately, this can be defective, leaving you to pound against the machine in a desperate attempt to rescue your tasty treat.

Luckily, your liver is designed better than this. As your liver dispenses various substances such as nutrients, toxins, and bile, to name a few. It contains multiple unique pathways to ensure that each substance is released without any unnecessary blockage.

However, regardless of this efficient exit plan, if your liver is damaged, these pathways can also become blocked. Leading to more serious issues than a few lost coins.

4. RELEASES TOXIC WASTE

Some items I have seen coming from vending machines I can only imagine containing more toxic ingredients than beneficial ones. And just as a vending machine can release toxic material, so can your liver. However, the system is a bit more complicated than pressing a button.

How Your Liver Clears Toxins From Your Body

All the nutrients from the food your body digests first get filtered through your liver before being absorbed into your cells for energy. When the liver is preparing to clear out toxins, it first breaks them down into smaller more toxic particles. After this, other “carriers” quickly come along to direct those nasty buggers out through the correct pathway.

In addition, aside from dispensing stored nutrients and toxins. Your liver also releases additional scavengers throughout the body that search for more toxins to clean up. Nice bonus I would say!

5. ADJUSTS BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS

When your blood sugar is low, the snacks within a vending machine can provide a quick surge of energy. Your liver can also provide you with an even better solution to this problem, without the following crash…

Glucose is the energy we absorb from eating sugar and carbs. When our body has enough glucose, our liver will store extra for later in the form of glycogen. This way, when our blood sugar dips it will then release that stored energy to rebalance the body’s blood sugar levels.

This is fine and well if you don’t frequently obey your sweet tooth. As when too much sugar is consumed the liver can’t process or store it all. As a result, excess sugar gets packaged up into a type of fat cell called triglycerides. Too much of this can lead to heart issues, fatty liver disease, and impaired liver function. None of which I can imagine are enjoyable.

FAT OR TOXIC? HOW YOUR LIVER CAUSES WEIGHT GAIN

Let’s face it, most snacks available in vending machines will not loosen the belt. If you’re struggling to lose weight or have excess body fat. It’s important to know that too many calories may not be the reason. Too many toxins circulating throughout the body could be the cause.

How Your Liver Can Make You Gain Weight

When the liver detects excess toxins circulating throughout the body, it cannot clean them all at once. Yet, it is determined to keep them from absorbing into your brain, bloodstream, or the soft tissues of your joints. All of which can cause issues ranging from phycological to joint pain. So what does the liver do? It creates fat cells to store these excess toxins so they cannot cause you any serious harm.

How To Lose Weight Safely

By eliminating toxins such as pesticides, oxidized fats, food additives, and others. You allow your liver to rest from the overburden of toxic cleanup, allowing it to go back and finally slowly remove those toxic fat cells. Some of which may have been stored inside you for years!

With all this in mind, if you are overweight or trying to slim down, it’s safer to lose weight slowly. As too many toxins released at once from fat cells can overwhelm the liver, starting this vicious cycle all over again. Slow and steady wins the race!

WHAT YOUR LIVER AND A VENDING MACHINE HAVE IN COMMON — CONCLUSION

So there you have it, my perspective on what your liver and a vending machine have in common. I hope these comparisons have inspired you to pay more respect to this superhero-like organ living inside you.

So next time you stumble upon a vending machine. Please choose wisely, as you wouldn’t want to overwork your new favourite organ would you? Worst case, the liver can function and regenerate itself even after 90% of it has been destroyed through bad habits.

If you wish to learn more about how the rest of your digestive system works, check out my article on what happens to food after you eat it.