The Health Benefits Of Liver
Most people assume that fruits and vegetables are the most nutrient-dense foods we can eat. While it’s true that fresh fruits and veggies are rich in certain vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients (that aren’t found in high concentrations in meats and organ meats), organ meats far surpass most plant foods for nutrient density, especially liver.
Organ meats contain some of our most prized nutrients in concentrations hard to find anywhere else. They’re between 10-100x higher in nutrients than muscle meats, and the nutrients they contain are more bioavailable than those found in plant foods (meaning they’re more easily absorbed by the body and ready to use).
Liver in particular is one of nature’s most nutritionally dense foods.
I think of it as nature’s multivitamin.
Liver contains:
Active Vitamin A - A fat-soluble vitamin that’s beneficial for eye health, skin health, hormone health, immune function, and cell turnover.
*Note: The type of Vitamin A found in plants (carotene) is different than the form found in liver. Carotenes from plants are a great antioxidant and can be converted into active Vitamin A in our intestine, but many people are poor at converting it due to genetic and dietary factors, and run the risk of Vitamin A deficiency if they follow a vegan or vegetarian diet.
B vitamins - B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12, and Choline. All of the B vitamins are important for helping convert food into energy, which is extremely important for maintaining a healthy weight, and helping us feel vibrant and energetic. They’re also important for many other processes in the body, including building, repairing and detoxification.
Heme iron - A highly usable form of iron that’s important for muscle function, brain function, thyroid function, and hemoglobin formation, which is important for energy production.
Copper - A mineral that contributes to nerve, immune, thyroid and adrenal health. It also helps strengthen collagen, the connective tissue responsible for our bone, joint, hair, skin and nail health.
Zinc - A mineral that protects against every form of stress (infection, toxicity, blood sugar dysfunction, etc), supports thyroid, adrenal, and sex hormone function, and is used in the production of proteins, enzymes, and nitric oxide for healthy blood flow.
Molybdenum - A mineral important for detoxification and preventing DNA damage
Selenium - A mineral that supports proper thyroid function and cell function
CoQ10 - An antioxidant that is especially important for cardiovascular function
Today most people eat the muscle meat of animals and avoid organ meats, but throughout our human history we ate nose-to-tail; we consumed all the edible parts of animals and nothing went to waste, especially not the valuable organs.
A misconception I often hear about liver is that liver is full of toxins.
While it’s true that one of the liver’s roles is to neutralize toxins, it doesn’t STORE toxins. Toxins the body isn’t able to eliminate get stored in the body’s fatty tissues, which is one of the reasons why reducing the toxic burden on the body can aid in weight loss. What does get stored in the liver is many important nutrients the liver requires to do its job.
Another concern I hear is that liver contains toxic levels of Vitamin A. While there are concerns of toxicity from over consumption of vitamin A, these concerns come from studies where moderate doses of synthetic vitamin A were found to cause problems. Vitamin A sourced from real, whole foods is an extremely important nutrient for human health and does not cause problems except in very, very large amounts, particularly in people who are also deficient in other fat-soluble vitamins, especially Vitamin D. With an adequate Vitamin D intake, the threshold for toxicity could be much higher. When people began taking synthetic vitamin A supplements, this was when we began to see vitamin A toxicity. It’s best to get your vitamin A from natural sources like egg yolks and organ meats rather than synthetic vitamin A, and consume them in moderate amounts. A good recommendation for liver is one 4 oz serving of beef, lamb, bison or duck liver once or twice per week, providing about 50,000 IU vitamin A per serving. Chicken liver, which is lower in vitamin A, may be consumed more frequently.
If you’re going to enjoy the health benefits of consuming liver, it’s important to source it from pasture-raised animals. I don’t recommend eating organ meats or muscle meats from conventionally raised animals that spend their lives in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) as their diet and living conditions don’t result in healthy, nutrient-rich organs or muscle meat.
While eating liver can feel a bit intimidating at first, there are tons of simple ways to try it, one of my favourites being crispy chicken liver poppers. Chicken liver has the least intense flavour, so it’s usually the best to start with if you’ve never tried liver before. Liver can also be hidden in meatballs, meatloaf, and other ground meat recipes if you don’t want to eat it on it’s own.
If you struggle with anemia, low energy, adrenal dysfunction, thyroid issues, autoimmune disease, skin issues, or infertility, I highly recommend incorporating liver into your diet. It took me a few years to learn about the benefits and finally try it, and now I can’t imagine life without it!
Now I’d love to hear from you. How are you going to try incorporating liver into your diet? Share and let me know!