Archives Categories: Food & Nutrition
115 Responses
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Kelly
I always say “liver blows any fruit or vegetable out of the water in terms of nutrient-density” – how nice to have someone else of the same opinion. After numerous tries, my children now eat “kid pate” – made with sauteed apples, bacon, liver, all pureed along with a bit of Rapadura I hope to wean out over time, and cinnamon. They actually really like it on toast, topped with apple slices! Yay!
- Kelly, CNC
holistic nutritionist
http://www.foodtherapeutics.com-
Jeff
Everyone knows that there is more nutrition per weight… what about per calorie? a 100g of carrot is not a comparison to 100g of red meat.
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Kristine
I am very anemic and keep trying to get my iron levels up with vitamins as well as eating foods with high amounts of iron. Every time I eat liver I notice how immediate the feeling of energy comes back. I’m a gastric bypass patient and know how important it is to eat healthy things, sometimes I have to avoid the fruit or veggies because my protein intake, but I always try to make a point to still find a way to keep them in my routine. It’s nice to be able to GOOGLE information that is informative! Also, I found a recipe that suggested soaking the liver in milk to help with the bitterness, which I did, skim milk to be exact, and the taste is much better!
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Adrienne
I soak it in apple cider vinegar, which also works pretty well.
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admin
Kelly,
Thanks for your comment – and for sharing your recipe for “kid-friendly” liver. Truth be told, I’m still experimenting with different methods of preparation myself because I’m one of those unlucky people who finds the taste of liver on its own to be somewhat objectionable.
My wife is a different story. She gobbles it up stir-fried with a few onions without a second thought!
Best,
Chris-
Andrea
I take my liver by chopping it (frozen) and shallowing it down like pills…not my favourite taste either…make sure you have something nice-tasting to pop in your mouth when you’re done though
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kristin
Andrea, I also freeze beef liver and pop it like a pill. I swallow it down with warm tea (the warmth helps the cold jagged pieces go down better, the flavor of the tea masks the potent flavor). At first I could hardly stand even cutting up the liver (the smell was so strong), but now I’m totally OK with it. I love chicken liver pate…but beef liver will probably never become an anticipated meal in our home. I think “liver pills” are a great alternative.
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KristenK
I could eat it straight up. I love the texture. Am I weird?!
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Tara
I must be weird too, i loved it growing up. going to try and make it tonight. hopefully it tastes as good as i remember.
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Cindy
When we were first married I made beef liver for dinner. My husband just sat and stared at it. I couldn’t imagine someone not liking beef liver. I love it but need to eat apple sauce with it, seems to help with the dryness.
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Bruce
You said that red meat surpasses carrots and apples in all nutrients. Based on your data, folic acid is lower in red meat than in both carrots and apples. Vitamin B6 is lower in red meat than in apples. Thiamin in red meat is simply equal to apples. Other than that, your claims seem to be accurate.
However, it’s not really fair to compare things on a weight basis. They also should be compared on a calorie basis. Then, the fruits and vegetables may come out ahead. Let’s see. According to NutritionData, 100g of carrots has 35-41 Calories. 100g of apples 48-51 calories. 100g of beef (15-25% fat) is 215-293 Calories. 100g of beef liver has 135 Calories.
http://www.nutritiondata.com/We must also consider how the foods are prepared and the bio-availability of nutrients. Just comparing nutrients by weight doesn’t always tell us the whole story. For example, dark chocolate may have more anti-oxidants per gram than blueberries or red wine, but on a calorie basis it might have less anti-oxidants. Likewise, a food may have more anti-oxidants, but also more pro-oxididants that cancel out the anti-oxidants.
For example, soybean oil might be higher in Vitamin E than Macadamia Oil, or Coconut Oil, but that doesn’t mean it’s better. We must consider all the factors – nutrients per gram, nutrients per calorie, bio-availability, positive and negative effects, etc. It may be that red meat has more bio-availability than ALL plant foods, in which case it would be better to eat a carnivorous diet. Or maybe fruits and vegetables come out ahead sometimes, because they have more nutrients per calorie.
What is your affiliation with the Weston Price Foundation? You refer to the work of Chris Masterjohn, and your first name is Chris. Coincidence, or are you the same person? It’s hard to tell from the blog.
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I said “Vitamin B6 is lower in red meat than in apples. Thiamin in red meat is simply equal to apples.”
That should be carrots, not apples. I read the wrong column by mistake. But my main point was still right, that red meat had less of several nutrients on the basis of weight. On a calorie basis, it will look even worse, compared to carrots and apples. And those aren’t really the most nutritient-dense foods, either. Compared to romaine lettuce or something like that, the carrots and apples might look like nutritional light-weights.
Comparing foods by weight can be deceptive, if one food is vastly higher in calories than the other. Like comparing dark chocolate and blueberries. The chocolate may have 10 times as many calories (or more). Comparing things by calories can also be deceptive, if the amounts you would have to eat to get those calories would be unrealistic with a given food. Like comparing a hundred calories of romaine lettuce to 100 calories of butter.
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Bruce,
Thanks for your comments. First, I am a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation but I have no professional affiliation with them whatsoever. Nor am I Chris Masterjohn, as you can see from my About page.
I agree with you that there are other things to consider when comparing foods than a straight nutritional analysis by weight. Calories may be important for some people, but then again, they may not be. I don’t pay any attention at all to calories myself, because 1) I am not overweight and 2) I don’t believe weight management is as simple as “calories in, calories out”. This, in my opinion, is yet another mainstream myth (and I plan to address it in a future post).
You compare red meat with apples and carrots several times in your comments. Actually, the point of this post was to compare the nutrient contents of vegetables with liver – not muscle meat. And if you look at the chart, liver is significantly higher in every single nutrient than carrots and apples by weight, and is still higher in most nutrients even if you compare the foods by calories.
For example, you would have to eat seven times more carrots than liver to obtain the same amount of vitamin B6. And you would have to eat nearly fifteen times more carrots than liver to get the same amount of iron. Clearly it’s safe to say that liver is more “nutrient-dense” than carrots and apples by both weight and calories.
My intention here is not to say that we shouldn’t eat apples or carrots. Far from it. I’m merely pointing out that people often have a mistaken idea that vegetables are the only foods high in vitamins and minerals. This is due to the demonization of meats and organ meats that has occurred over the last several decades in the U.S..
The importance of eating fruits and vegetables is well-understood in the mainstream (although this advice is not followed by most people according to the statistics). However, it isn’t commonly known that organ meats (and muscle meats to a slightly lesser extent) are often much higher in almost all the nutrients we find in fruits and vegetables. I hope that posts like these will raise people’s awareness of this fact.
I’d also like to point out that I strongly recommend eating meat and organ meats from pasture-raised animals. Not only is this better for the environment, the nutrient levels in grass-fed meats are significantly higher than those in meats that come from animals raised in confinement feedlots. Please see my recent posts Why grass-fed is best – part I and Why grass-fed is best – part II for more information.
Chris
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I have no disagreement about the calorie myth. I think what you eat is more important than how many calories (which tends to take care of itself when a person doesn’t eat highly processed food). My point was simply that you can eat lots of vegetables without getting a lot of calories. Some people believe juicing raw vegetables is particularly healthy, but I’m not convinced that the plant toxins and anti-nutrients are safe. Liver is a good food, but most can’t stand to eat it in large amounts or frequently. It’s also possible that a highly carnivorous diet would reduce our need for nutrients.
You say “you would have to eat seven times more carrots than liver to obtain the same amount of vitamin B6. And you would have to eat nearly fifteen times more carrots than liver to get the same amount of iron.” I’m assuming you’re talking about a calorie basis here. Maybe you don’t need much B6 (or other B Vitamins) on a pure meat diet. And maybe it’s not that good to get large amounts of iron from meat. Iron promotes free radicals, lipid peroxidation, and other problems. A high-fat diet would be low in iron, because fat displaces iron. Lean beef has significantly more iron per calorie and gram than fatty beef, for example, because it has more protein.
To compare several foods and say that one is better does create a fallacy, because it suggests that we must choose between eating one or another when we could just as easily add fruits and vegetables, while also eating red meat and liver, perhaps getting cumulative benefits thereby. It should nonetheless be considered that maybe some people would do better on a purely carnivorous, high-fat, very-low-carb diet without any fiber. I’m by no means convinced fruits and vegetables are essential or healthy.
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Elizabeth
Fruits and vegetables are healthy and they make your body alkaline. When your body is alkaline, it goes into healing mode and all inflammation goes down. Inflammation is linked to heart attacks, diabetes, cancer, and arthritis, allergies, and asthma. The people that live the longest in the world are the Okinawans in Japan and their diet consists of 1 ounce of red meat a day 8 servings of fruits and vegetables, and fish twice a week, grains 8 servings and soy products two times a day.
THey limit meat drastically and they live the longest in the world. THey have the most people living over 100 years old and their villages have virtually no cancer, heart disease or autoimmune disorders.What does that tell you?
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Hi Bruce,
Thanks for your very thorough reply. I agree with you that eating lean meat (or any source of lean protein) without fat isn’t a good idea. In part this is due to the higher iron content per calorie, as you mentioned; the other reason is that digestion of protein requires the presence of fat-soluble vitamins (A & D), and if we eat lean protein without fat it depletes our body’s own stores of those vitamins (which are crucial to health).
I pretty much agree with everything else you’ve said here. I just want to reiterate, however, that I’m not saying that liver is “better” than carrots or apples. As you point out, such a claim isn’t really meaningful without a context. My intention was simply to counter the popular myth that fruits and vegetables are higher in micronutrients than meats and organ meats.
I’ve got nothing against fruits and vegetables
– I eat them every day! Are they essential to health? Possibly, possibly not. But as you suggest, there are plenty of cultures around the world that eat almost no fruits and vegetables at all and are healthy and free of many modern degenerative diseases. The Masai tribe in Africa comes to mind. They subsist almost entirely on milk, blood and beef. -
Bruce
I’m glad you pointed out Chris Masterjohn’s PUFA Report. I’ve been talking with him about PUFAs on another list, and he has changed his position very considerably from what it was several months ago. A lot of information has been presented by Ray Peat that I find valuable, such as the health benefit of keeping PUFAs very low, the toxicity of various plants, etc. Chris makes a good point that the need for PUFAs is inflated by modern diets of processed refined sugars and toxic vegetable oils.
I’ve read Ray Peat’s articles on fats, oils, Vitamin E, and PUFAs. He is a bit extreme about it, basing the diet on foods that are very low in PUFAs, like coconut oil, dairy, red meat, potatoes, honey, fruit, and root vegetables. I think there is a lot of truth to what he is saying, though. Here are some of his key articles, I think, which support a lot of Chris Masterjohn’s points. It is good to read them all, as they build on each other.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/coconut-oil.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fats-degeneration.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/nutrition/oils-in-context.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/unsaturated-oils.shtml -
Bruce,
Sorry I didn’t reply earlier. Somehow your comment was erroneously labeled as SPAM.
Yes, Chris’s report is excellent. I have also read all of Ray Peat’s articles and I am less convinced by some of his more extreme views. I do not believe that n-3 PUFA in small amounts is toxic as he suggests. However, in general he makes several good points and I agree with much of what he is trying to get across.
Best,
Chris -
I tried to post this in the EFA article, but the site kept rejecting it. Said you had disabled all comments temporarily to prevent spam. I think because of having several links, the software identifies it as spam. I didn’t think it had gone through at all, because the site wouldn’t accept it.
Peat is not against small amounts of omega-3, but he gets it in the form of shellfish and lean fish (cod, white fish, pollock, etc) eating occasionally. The point that he makes is that we should be making more Mead Acid, which is the 20:3 omega-9 PUFA our bodies make (from MUFAs, SFAs, carbs, protein, and so forth). Here’s a good article about Mead Acid.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showpost.php?p=7121180&postcount=15
There are other PUFAs we can make, llike Nervonic Acid, with vital functions in the brain. These fats have not been investigated enough, because all of the attention is on dietary PUFA (omega-3 and omega-6). Mead Acid is less inflammatory than omega-3. In fact, it makes omega-3 look inflammatory by comparison. Peat believes that most of the PUFAs in our bodies should be made by our body. That way, there’s a feedback loop preventing them from building up to toxic levels. Obviously, it’s impossible to avoid omega-6 and omega-3 fats completely, but they can be kept very low (1-4% of calories), without much effort, depending on your total fat intake.
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Bruce,
Sorry you had trouble posting the comment. I’ll look into it. I’m still pretty new to blogging, so I haven’t figured out exactly how the comments filter works.
Thanks for the link about mead acid. I’ll definitely read it, and I’ve seen a lot of discussion of mead acid and the various other fatty acids elsewhere lately. Clearly we still have much to learn.
Best,
Chris -
crystal sage
I have just recently read an article where a fellow consumed 5 pounds of carrots daily to treat his cancer.. Would he have been better off adding some liver to his diet?
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2006/11/12/re_my_experience_with_carrots_and_cancer.htm
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In short – yes! There is a rather famous doctor (can’t remember his name at the moment) who uses raw liver juice and dessicated liver to treat cancer.
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Max Gerson used to do that, but he stopped recommending the practice for some reason. I think raw liver would be better than 5 pounds of carrots. It would be difficult to consume that many carrots unless you juiced them and carrots are high in sucrose and carbs. What’s the reason for liver juice? It’s not hard to eat raw liver, just swallow without chewing. Stefansson said in one of his articles that the the Eskimos didn’t chew their meat much. A dog won’t chew their food, either. They just gulp it down.
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Thanks Bruce. It was Max Gerson I was thinking about.
If that fellow wasn’t eating any fat along with the carrots, then he wasn’t absorbing the beta-carotene and converting it to vitamin A. I can’t see how that would be beneficial.
Often when people improve with such strategies, I think what is actually happening is they are benefitting more from what they’ve *removed* from their diet (PUFA, flour, processed food, etc.) than what they’ve added (a whole bunch of carrots).
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Five pounds of carrots is insane. That’s like half a gallon of juice probably. I agree with you that it’s probably food elimination that provides most of the benefits there. When you stuff yourself with one food, you eat less of other foods. It’s basically like a fast or elimination diet. That’s how those fad diets work like the grape diet, grapefruit diet, cabbage soup diet, etc.
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Joan
Raw carrots rid the body of estrogen. Drinking carrot juice increases PUFA’s and liver is anti-thyroid. Not that I would recommend eating five pounds a day.
Joan
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Lee
The base nutritional content of Liver in comparison to raw vegetables bares no relevence in regards to the benefit it holds once digested by the human body.
All meat & processed food leaves an acidifying ash after digestion for which the body has to strip essential alkalizing minerals i.e calcium & magnesium away from bones to counter this effect. One can understand that much disease e.g Osteoporosis is caused by our diet.
If we were designed to eat meat then why would we need to cook it? It is a process that doesn’t come naturally but we utilised/invented.
No other species on the face of the planet eats what & how we do.
True carnivores salivate with the smell of blood, have teeth/claws/talons to tear raw flesh & a short digestive tract to process the meat. We do not!…Just some food for thought.
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The base nutritional content of Liver in comparison to raw vegetables bares no relevence in regards to the benefit it holds once digested by the human body.
Yes, that’s correct. But the nutrients in liver are not only significantly more numerous than they are in fruits and vegetables, they are more assimilable.
All meat & processed food leaves an acidifying ash after digestion for which the body has to strip essential alkalizing minerals i.e calcium & magnesium away from bones to counter this effect. One can understand that much disease e.g Osteoporosis is caused by our diet.
This is a myth. The homeostatic mechanisms controlling the pH of your blood are incredibly robust and tightly regulated. Proponents of the “acid/alkaline hypothesis” view salivary and urinary pH as the same. They’re not. Saliva is not used by the body to get rid of excess acid or base. Although the pH of your urine can indeed range from 4.5 to 8.0 (nearly four orders of magnitude difference in H+ concentration), urine pH is not body pH. In fact, you can’t really control the pH of most of your bodily fluids, particularly blood and extracellular fluid.
Urine is one exception, and this is the very reason why the “remedies” sold by the pH fetishists appear to work. For example, dairy products, eggs, and foods with a lot of protein, like meats, will indeed acidify your urine, mainly because the kidneys will secrete the excess acid that is generated when the excess protein is broken down. Your blood pH changes minimally if at all.
As you pointed out, certain foods can leave end-products called ash that can make your urine acid or alkaline, but urine is the only body fluid that can have its acidity changed by food or supplements. Alkaline ash foods include fresh fruit and raw vegetables. Acid ash foods include all animal products, whole grains, beans and other seeds. These foods can change the acidity of your urine, but that’s irrelevant since your urine is contained in your bladder and does not affect the pH of any other part of your body.
Several studies have supposedly shown that meat consumption is the cause of various illnesses, but such studies, honestly evaluated, show no such thing.
Dr. Herta Spencer’s research on protein intake and bone loss clearly showed that protein consumption in the form of real meat has no impact on bone density. Studies that supposedly proved that excessive protein consumption equaled more bone loss were not done with real meat but with fractionated protein powders and isolated amino acids. [1. (a) H Spencer and L Kramer. Factors contributing to osteoporosis. J Nutr, 1986, 116:316-319; (b) Further studies of the effect of a high protein diet as meat on calcium metabolism. Amer J Clin Nutr, 1983, 924-929; c) Do protein and phosphorus cause calcium loss? J Nutr, 1988, 118(6):657-60.]
The claim that meat consumption causes a degenerative disease like osteoporosis is hard to reconcile with historical and anthropological facts. Osteoporosis and other chronic ailments like heart disease are primarily 20th century occurrences, yet people have been eating meat and animal fat for many thousands of years. Further, as Dr. Weston A. Price’s research showed, there were/are several native peoples around the world (the Innuit, Maasai, Swiss, etc.) whose traditional diets were/are very rich in animal products, but who nevertheless did/do not suffer from the above-mentioned maladies. [2. WA Price. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. (Keats Publishing; CT.), 1989, 256-281.] Dr. George Mann’s independent studies of the Maasai done many years after Dr. Price, confirmed the fact that the Maasai, despite being almost exclusive meat eaters, nevertheless, had little to no incidence of heart disease, or other chronic ailments. [3. (a) G Mann. Atherosclerosis and the Masai. Amer J Epidem, 1972, 95:6-37; (b) Diet and disease among the milk and meat eating Masai warriors of Tanganyika. Food Nutr, 1963, 24:104.] This proves that other factors besides animal foods are at work in causing these diseases.
As to our evolutionary biology and the diet of our ancestors, I suggest you investigate the “Expensive Tissue Hypothesis”, formulated by anthropologists L. Aiello and P. Wheeler. Our brains are twice as large as they should be for a primate of our size. Meanwhile, our digestive tract is 60 percent smaller. Our bodies were built by nutrient-dense foods. The Australopithecine brain grew to Homo sapiens size because meat let our digestive system shrink, thus freeing up energy for those brains. For more on the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis, see this post by Dr. Michael Eades.
Humans are not monofeeders. From the moment we stood upright, we’ve been eating large ruminant animals. Four million years ago, Australopithecines, our species forerunners, ate meat. Anthropologists Matt Sponheimer and Julia Lee-Thorp found Carbon-13 in the tooth enamel of four three-million-year-old skeletons in a South African cave. Carbon-13 is a stable isotope present in two places: grasses and the bodies of animals that eat grass. Those teeth showed none of the scratch marks of grass consumption. [4. Eades and Eades, Protein Power Life Plan, p.6]
Humans have the physiology of a true omnivore – not a vegetarian. We have incisors in both jaws, ridged molars, and small canine teeth. Our stomach has a relatively small capacity (2 quarts), and our colon is also short and small and has putrefactive bacterial flora. In contrast, a true vegetarian animal like a sheep has incisors in the lower jaw only, flat molars, and no canines. Their stomach is huge (8.5 quart capacity) and their colon is long and capacious, with large amounts of fermentative bacteria (to help them digest cellulose and raw grains, which humans are incapable of digesting.)
I could go on but I believe I’ve made my point. If you are open minded and willing to question your own views, I suggest you read The Vegetarian Myth, by Lierre Keith. It will disabuse you of these (and many more) common misconceptions about meat eating and vegetarianism that are so often reiterated on the internet and elsewhere.
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Arjun
by that logic…why do you cook wheat & rice also ?? why don’t we eat all grains raw ?
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tickyul
What a great website, put it on my favorites list. As for me, I eat mostly as a carnivore and feel great. I do not use any sweeteners, so when I eat liver- bloody and rare-nothing on it, it tastes sweet and yummy, I also really love chicken livers, even higher in iron than beef liver. Now, if only I could find a good source of duck eggs.
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dmc
Isn’t it true that eating liver could cause vitamin A toxicity?
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Thx, interesting readings, it’s true that I gathered this info from Dr Mercola’s site. I see there’s a debate going on.
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RustyH
Is consuming liver still beneficial if it is “supermarket” liver? I have searched my city, and I can’t find any grass fed beef.
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Yes, it’s still beneficial because it still has all of the micronutrients. However, that benefit has to be balanced against the potential harm caused by the chemicals found in factory-farmed meat.
Have you tried EatWild.com? They have listings of grass-fed meat suppliers in various locations. Also, you might also check the Weston A. Price Foundation for a local chapter in your area. They will be able to tell you where to buy grass-fed meat locally.
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James
Regarding “edible” liver: First get it fresh, then don’t render it to leather. When growing up my parents would get half cows and freeze them, things like liver and hamburger sat in the freezer the longest. When it came time to cook it, my parents subscribed to (as Alton Brown’s grandmother would say) make sure it’s good and done or you’ll be good and done! Needless to say, I hated liver when I was growing up.
It took some persuading, but a friend finally got me to try liver that was fresh and not cooked to death. Buy it and fry it the same day, just a bit pink in the middle. Very tender and not at all strong flavored. When growing up (before chemotherapy/radiation) I still had all of my teeth and could not chew the majority of the meat my parents cooked, the stench of liver would make me nauseous. Today with less than half of my teeth remaining (after chemotherapy/radiation in my late teens) I can not only chew it, but I can barely smell it even sitting in the kitchen while it is cooking. -
sam
try the traditional jewish recipe for chopped liver. my 5 year old son just ate some on toast and had no complaints. dice an onion and begin sauteeing,cut up a half pound to a pound of broiled liver and add to onions. sautee for another 8-12 min. boil 3-4 eggs, add liver, onion, eggs, salt, pepper, garlic powder , oil and for that sweet flavour honey and a bit of sugar. process in a blender. for a more savoury recipe leave out the honey. hope you enjoy it
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[...] cheap (at my local whole foods I only pay $3.09 for one pound of chicken livers), but are also nutrient dense superfoods. You will get far more bang for your buck with a pound of liver than with a pound of any organic [...]
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Anonymous Bob
I have some in the fridge all thawed out.
How many times per week would anyone recommend to eat liver? I don’t want this stuff to go bad!
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No more than 3x/wk
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pete
“No more than 3x/wk”
Why? i eat it every day…love the stuff. what’s the downside?
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Iron overload in those that are susceptible, and possibly vitamin A toxicity in those not getting enough D & K2.
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Thanx for your prompt reply Chris. I do take both D and K2.. ( Thorne’s MK4 ) Lots of informative info here. Much appreciated
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Chris, what do you think of Liver Tablets Supplements? some say they are from grass fed cows? is this an alternative to eating the stuff?
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JST Books
The require for iron, however, varies greatly in the coursework of the life cycle. Iron deficiency is more common among quickly growing kids & females in their childbearing years. Because iron is contained in blood, iron deficiency is more likely when people lose blood. Thus females who are losing blood in the coursework of their every month periods are more likely than other adults to create iron deficiency. liquid iron supplement
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Anonymous
liquid iron supplement is beneficial for conditions of anemia, nose bleeds, tendencies to hemorrhage, chronic nephritis and many other conditions.
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[...] don’t think it’s a great secret that liver is a super-food. The nutrient density of once ounce of this organ meat looks like something of a vitamin [...]
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[...] got something wrong in this post. I’m just interested in the truth. I’d hate to discard the most healthy food on the planet, because we are using a spoiled meat [...]
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[...] foods available to us today. Chris Kresser writes about it – and does some myth-busting - here. Liver is a traditional fertility food, rich in folate (different from folic acid – which is [...]
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[...] Liver is the most nutrient-dense food I know of – 1 oz. of beef liver has 800% Vitamin B12, 300% Vitamin A, and 450% Copper! I like to alternate between beef liver and chicken liver, which is higher in Folate and Iron, which sometimes come up short. Eating 4-8 oz. of liver a week will give a huge boost to your DV’s; just make sure to spread it out, this is strong stuff. [...]
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[...] is a comparison chart again from Chris Kresser(can you tell I like this site?) Showing how liver stacks up to a few other [...]
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[...] nature’s multivitamin. It’s the most nutrient-dense food on the planet, as I explained here. I recommend eating 3 ounces a week if you’re taking [...]
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[...] Liver is nature’s multivitamin. It’s the most nutrient-dense food on the planet, as I explained here. I recommend eating 3 ounces a week if you’re taking [...]
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[...] Liver is nature’s multivitamin. It’s the most nutrient-dense food on the planet, as I explained here. I recommend eating 3 ounces a week if you’re taking [...]
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[...] We consume 3-4oz of frozen beef liver per week as a super food to replace other supplements. http://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood [...]
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[...] animals organs just weirded me out. But thanks to smart posts like this one from Balanced Bites and this one from Chris Kresser, I’ve started to warm to the idea of eating organs. For this challenge, I decided to start [...]
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[...] Don’t take my word for it, see what Chris Kresser has to say about liver here. [...]
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[...] and minerals such as as vitamin A, arachidonic acid, DHA, and the B vitamins. (9)We already know liver is an amazing superfood. Liver from pastured animals is a great source of trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium, [...]
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[...] Bron: http://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood [...]
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[...] how much it could benefit you (yes it’s gross, but raw grass fed liver is one of the most nutrient dense foods on the entire planet, so get over [...]
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[...] Liver: nature’s most potent superfood [...]
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[...] know… people are supposed to hate liver. But it’s good for you! Beef liver is high in vitamins A, D, E, K, B12 and folic acid, and minerals such as copper and iron, and it has a decent amount of vitamin C, too. No wonder in my nutrition class in cooking school [...]
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[...] know… people are supposed to hate liver. But it’s good for you! Beef liver is high in vitamins A, D, E, K, B12 and folic acid, and minerals such as copper and iron, and it has a decent amount of vitamin C, too. No wonder in my nutrition class in cooking school [...]
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[...] you’re wondering why I’m trying out liver, check out this article by Chris [...]
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[...] Yes, you read that correctly. Bison liver. If you’re wondering why I would eat bison liver, Chris Kresser lists many of the health benefits of organ [...]
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[...] overstate the nutritional quality of grass-fed ruminant liver. As Chris Kresser has pointed out, liver is nature’s most potent superfood, and it’s especially high in the important fat soluble vitamins A and D. If I don’t eat liver, [...]
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[...] was a lot of talk at PaleoFX about the nutritional benefits of liver (Liver: nature’s most potent superfood), but that’s not the only reason I cooked it [...]
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[...] This chart by Chris Kresser, breaks down the nutrients in beef liver compared to apples, carrots, and red meat. [...]
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[...] We consume 3-4oz of frozen beef liver per week as a super food to replace other supplements. http://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood [...]
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[...] wise friend (Diane Sanfilippo) of ours once said, “Goji berries aren’t a super-food, LIVER is a super-food!” Liver truly is a super-food, and one everyone should make an effort to include in their [...]
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[...] Check out this article by Chris Kresser… Liver: Nature’s Most Potent Super-Food. [...]
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[...] my symptoms so significantly. The answer may not surprise you…liver has been dubbed a Superfood in the Paleo world, and now I can safely say that I agree. In addition to regrowing my hair, the liver has helped with [...]
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[...] -Chris Kresser [...]
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[...] Liver: Nature’s Most Potent Superfood from Chris Kresser [...]
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[...] all, it’s a completely natural substance–and a nutritional powerhouse at that — although it can also harbour E-coli, which killed five people in Japan last year [...]
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Why we eat grass-fed beef (or, What’s wrong with meat from the grocery store?) | Intoxicated on Life
[...] is much higher in b vitamins, vitamin k and e, as well as essential trace minerals. In fact, many experts report that the bio-available (what your body can actually use) vitamins and minerals that are in meat [...]
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[...] There is so much negative stigma around eating liver; it’s dirty, it holds a lot of toxins, it’s bitter…the truth is that while liver’s role is to neutralize toxins, it does not store them. Toxins that cannot be eliminated are likely to be accumulated in fatty tissues and nervous systems, but regardless of what cut of meat you are eating, if it’s coming from a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation), raised in filthy conditions and pumped with antibiotics and hormones, it is going to have toxins. Besides that, liver is considered by some nature’s most potent superfood. Here is a chart I borrowed from Chris Kresser: [...]
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[...] it into slivers and swallow like a pill. Read more about the benefits of liver from Chris Kresser here. Always use pastured and organic poultry or grass fed beef [...]
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[...] – Beef or lamb liver. Can be consumed once every two weeks (or more regularly if desired), consuming up to 500g-1kg in one sitting. The primary benefits we are looking for from organ meats is the enormous amount of nutrients, particularly vitamin A and micronutrients such as copper which can be difficult to obtain from other sources. Due to the fat soluble nature and ability of the human liver to store vitamin A and copper (bound to ferritin), eating these organ meats intermittently is not a problem and does not have to be done on a regular, religious basis. Vitamin A: Vitamin A does many wonderful things for the human body, which can easily be looked up. The one we are interested in: Regulation of bodyfat levels (See this study). Most people are deficient by World Health Organisation (WHO) standards (which likely means that every human being is deficient). An american observational survey based study found that 27% of families have lower than 50% the RDI (recommended daily intake) of vitamin A (Study link). This study included vitamin A content from vegetable sources. Unfortunately, vegetable sources are a really shit form of vitamin A, in the form of beta-carotene (found in abundance in carrots, for example). It has been shown that many humans can not convert plant sourced beta-carotene into bioavailable vitamin A. This was discovered when researchers discovered that a group of pregnant Indonesian woman were consuming what should have been 3x the WHO intake of vitamin A from plant sources, but were showing signs of marginal vitamin A deficiency. Researchers from the Netherlands revealed that the conversion of beta-carotene to active vitamin A was about 21 units beta-carotene, to 1 unit of activated vitamin A (link here). –> Brief note on the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals: They were created initially to determine what levels of various vitamins are required to prevent symptoms of deficiency. For example, to ward off symptoms of scurvy, the average human requires 60mg of vitamin C per day. Due to this, the WHO says the RDI is 90mg/d. Preventing symptoms of deficiency, and reaching levels for optimal are entirely different. Other nutrients in liver: Rather than list them all, Chris Kresser has a nice table comparing the nutrient density of 100g apples vs 100g carrots vs 100g red meat vs 100g beef liver. The table can be found here [...]
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[...] as liver are between ten and a hundred times higher in nutrients than muscle meats and check out this handy chart which shows that liver outperforms apples, carrots and red meat in terms of nutrient [...]
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[...] Liver: nature’s most potent superfood by Chris Kresser [...]
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[...] are important. If you want to read more about why offal, such as liver, is so good for you, click here, here, and [...]
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[...] Pureed raw or lightly cooked grassfed beef liver w/ beef or chicken stock. If raw we froze it and then thawed it to ensure any buggies were [...]
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[...] more wrong. It’s unbelievable the nutritional content in liver. Read more about it here and here. I have never been one for supplements. I truly believe that it’s much better to [...]
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[...] sitting in my freezer for months now, unsure of what to do with it. Liver is known as one of the most potent superfoods and is ridiculously high in micronutrients. I recently tried sheep’s liver fried in butter [...]
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Matt
This article omits the plethora of evidence that demonstrates negative health impacts associated with red and processed meat consumption. See the World Cancer Research Fund’s expert report, where over 200 of the world’s scientists from 30 different countries summarized over 7000 scientific studies on the topic of lifestyle and cancer etc., for example.
Nothing that I can see being said here outweighs this large body of research, which is not only epidemiological, but also mechanistic and experimental in origin.
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The “largest body of research” does not guarantee truth.
The Inuit didn’t “research” a nearly all-meat diet, they just lived it.
On the other hand, a *viable* Vegan diet is quite complex, you have to eat a wide array of things to insure your complete nutrition. To live on only vegetables without that complex diet leads to coining “Rabbit Starvation” to describe it.
As far as evidence, especially as pertains to *my* health, mine consists of my blood tests. I have found that my health improves when I eat more meat, and you can hardly claim that the printout from my doctor’s office is anecdotal.
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I eat beef liver 2 times a week and some other offal or red meat 2 or 3 times a week.
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[...] is incredibly nutrient-dense, and Chris Kresser does a fabulous job of extolling its virtues here. (Trying to get pregnant? Check out that folic acid [...]
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[...] of the most potent superfoods available to us also happens to be the most gross, in my opinion. It has amounts of notoriously [...]
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[...] Nature’s Most Potent Superfood: Liver [...]
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[...] it gets on your table, you probably would never eat meat at all. Some sources say that “In general, organ meats are between 10 and 100 times higher in nutrients than corresponding muscle m…” so not only is it tasty, but also very good for you. Take the folic acid itself – liver has [...]
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[...] We consume 3-4oz of frozen beef liver per week as a super food to replace other supplements. http://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood [...]
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Justin M
random question here. but I’ll go for it anyways.
I have been following the paleo lifestyle for many months now and feel amasing.
Still haven’t fully conquored my rheumatoid arthritis but see great improvements on top of elsewhere in my health. Slowly figuring it out with knowledge gained from Chris’s website aswell as all the helpful comments that have been provided by all you “health infowarriors”. Thanks a million.
The random question at hand here is while I haven’t consumed much alcohol lately I have always noticed that when I do it helps with my circulation. Now does anyone have a reason as to why this is the case comming from the paleo view-point? and is there anyway I can expierence this beneficial effect without consuming beer/alcohol on a regular basis?
does it have something to do with the yeast?
(no joke intended here, by asking about alcohol that damages the liver, on a article that promotes beef liver as a very beneficial food:))
thanks again,
Justin -
[...] it into slivers and swallow like a pill. Read more about the benefits of liver from Chris Kresser here. Always use pastured and organic poultry or grass fed beef [...]
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[...] chart comparing the health benefits of liver to fruits, vegetables and red meat can be found on Chris Kresser’s website. He also discusses the importance of choosing excellent quality, hormone & antibiotic-free [...]
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[...] Die enthält viel Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin K und noch weitere sehr wichtige Nährstoffe (Chris Kresser schreibt hier zum Thema und liefert eine sehr interessante Tabelle mit Vergleichswerten zu Apfel und Karotte), aber ich [...]
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[...] don’t need to dig deep around the internet to read about the benefits of eating liver. This article and this article should convince you. Once you get past the idea, then comes the taste. I am not [...]
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What about Goat & Chicken liver…. how does it compare with Beef liver ?? I am a Hindu & don’t eat beef
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Kerrigan
Chicken liver is a good option since it has more moderate amounts of vit A and B12 than beef liver
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Bet
Justin, I’m not a food scientist, but I know that alcohol does dilate blood vessels, that’s probably why you sense an improvement in your circulation.
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My family is from France so I grew up eating pate and rillettes and not thinking much of it. But once those trips to France stopped I sort of forgot about it. I’m now trying to incorporate more liver into my diet to clear up my keratosis pilaris.
Just a question – is the Vitamin C in liver destroyed in cooking? Should I just rely on other foods to get C?
Thanks!
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[...] more information, check out The Paleo Mom’s post about organ meat and Chris Kresser’s post on liver. [...]
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[...] this super food. (here are two of my favorite articles on the importance of eating organ meat: Kresser and [...]
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Jonathan
You mentioned that you do think conventional liver still may be a positive…sadly that’s all I can afford. I was wondering if those stats you listed for the 100 grams were grass-fed liver? I wasn’t sure as it just says Beef Liver in the chart and I didn’t see anything making it clear what type it was.
If that’s the number for conventional liver than grass-fed must be even more exceptional.
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[...] It also blows any other “superfood” out of the water on nutrient comparison. Don’t believe me? Check out this post. [...]
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[...] It also blows any other “superfood” out of the water on nutrient comparison. Don’t believe me? Check out this post. [...]
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[...] So if you are still reading, you obviously are at least a little interested in discovering one of the best ways to eat liver…raw. I can’t take the credit for this though. I’m pretty sure the first time I learned about this was on a podcast I listened to with Chris Kresser. [...]
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[...] For more information, including a chart of how liver compares to other foods, check out this article written by Chris [...]
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Dee
Hi, I really enjoyed reading your information about liver. I too, have eaten liver ever since I was a small child. I love it, and think it’s the best tasting meat out of all of them. The problem with liver is it can get dry and/or have a bitter taste. I quit cooking it in butter awhile ago, now I use canolla oil. My favorite way to cook liver is with onions… The more onions you put in it, the sweeter it will taste (if it’s still bitter, add some sugar). That’s how my mom fixed it, that’s how I fix it. I do have one question though, I see it lists carrots as not having any Vitamin A in them… What happened to that saying about eating carrots so your eyes will be healthy? Is that not true… Because I love eating honey carrots with liver.
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[...] More…. [...]
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[...] to say that’s not the case. Instead, liver is a powerhouse of nutrition. Take a page out of Chris Kresser’s [...]
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Ben
Hi Chris all, I’ve been trying some liver (lamb) after hearing the benefits on Chris’s podcast, I feel amazing shortly after consuming it. I feel more alert and improved mood just wondering if there might be something lacking in my diet (primal/paleo) that liver satisfies?
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nathan
Alright, so I grew up hating everything about the taste of liver. That all changed this past December. I have been water fasting regularly for years. Did 23 days just water several times but have always desired to do a real 40 water fast. So I prepared all last year to end the year with a forty day water fast. My preparations included gaining 45 lbs to sustain me for 40 days. Thought gaining weight would be quick. Took almost 6 months of fast food twice daily to hit 200 lbs from my start weight of 155. Process was not near as enjoyable as anticipated. I got to experience my joints all loosen up. Acid reflux, got sick, headaches, tired sore and pissed off. Process really sucked. Felt my body degenerate fast.
Dec 21 I started my 40 day water fast. Amazing experience. At the end my eyes were opened as to why anyone would subject them selves to this level of self denial. The 37th night my eyes were fully opened for several hours to the divine.
Anyways I spent those 47 days (took over a week longer to turn my digestion back on. Didn’t anticipate this. Was forced into 47 days and not 40) designing my new feed program for when I was to start eating again.
Liver. Here’s my point. Hated it. Fasted and choose it for my first solid meal and loved it. Couldn’t believe how good out made me feel. I felt led to easy it raw. New nothing about eating raw meat at all. Didn’t know others ate it raw. After a week of eating nothing but raw organ meat I finally googled eating raw meat, and the benefits of eating raw liver.
Now I’m hooked. I feel like I’m really on to something. Since December I cut out all fruit and veggies except for one day a week as more of an intestinal sweep. I cut out all fiber. My feeding since then has consisted of only gras feed lamb liver, grass feed beef heart, wild caught fish with the skin, bone broth, pastured eggs, chicken with the skin on, lots of coconut oil by the spoon full, lots of butter, home made yogurt and lots of clean water. I consume all my food in one meal at 6pm. Daily feeding is the same everyday. One dozen egg yolks. 1 to 2 lbs of raw lamb liver. About a lb of beef heart, quart of raw yogurt, several big spoons of coconut oil and either 5 or six pieces of pastured chicken with the skin or trout with the skin.
Yup. All that in one meal over the course of about an hour and a half of steady feeding. Pure protein and tons and tons of saturated fats.Results……lost 55 lbs during the fast. Have gained over twenty pounds of lean muscle since then. All my joints are stronger than when I was a kid. No acid reflux at all. At 37 I suddenly naturally became a morning person with no alarm. I require very little sleep now. Friends say I look 25 all of the sudden. I have veins, muscles and a six pack for the first time in my life. My digestion system works perfectly. I can Beatty all my old pt scores from when I was infantry at 20. My skin and hair have totally changed. Here’s something that most don’t know. Farting and burbing are signs of improper digestion. I hasn’t farted or burbed since my third week of my water fast. I have quit using deodorant completely since fasting as my sweat no longer has any odor.Weird but awesome. I feel like I have a brand new body. Anyways if you hate the taste, it might be time for a pyridine shift in your thinking. Instead of eating to satisfy your mouth and stomach only, how about a shift to feeding your body instead. Be your own science project. Instead of being your very own victim! PS. I hasn’t been into a grocery store since November. I get all I eat from 1 butcher shop. I’ve never looked or felt better.
