Why Liver?

Liver Nutrition

Is liver good for you, and just how nutritious is liver?  Not only does liver provide a very high dose of iron and vitamin A, but it’s also one of the best sources of many B vitamins, phosphorous and magnesium.  In fact, liver is hands down your greatest source of vitamin B12. If you compare the overall nutrient density of liver to other healthy foods like spinach, carrots or apples, liver outperforms all of them due to how many vitamins and minerals it packs per calorie.  However, the key to getting all of these benefits from liver is consuming the right kind: liver derived from organic, grass-fed or pasture-raised animals.   Contents:

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-  Vitamin A

-  Vitamin B (6 types)

-  Vitamin C

-  Vitamin D

-  Vitamin E

-  Vitamin K

-  Folate

-  Calcium

-  Potassium

-  Copper

-  Choline

-  Hyaluronic Acid

-  Magnesium

-  Zinc

-  Betaine

-  Biotin

-  CoQ10

-  Alpha Carotene

-  Retinol

-  Manganese

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So is liver good for you?  Below is more about some of the main benefits of eating liver:

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1. Loaded with Vitamin B12

The No. 1 benefit of consuming liver is that it’s very high in vitamin B12.  We know that vitamin B12 benefits red blood cell formation and improves cellular function.  Eating foods that are high in vitamin B12 helps prevent B12 deficiency, which can cause symptoms like fatigue, muscle weakness, brain fog and mood changes.  We also need vitamin B12 for nervous system function, supporting our metabolism and for brain health.

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2. Great Source of Active Vitamin A

Liver is one of nature’s most concentrated sources of vitamin A.  Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that acts like an antioxidant, helping reduce inflammation through fighting free radical damage.  It’s needed for vision and eye health, skin health, thyroid health, building strong bones, regulating gene regulation, facilitating cell differentiation, and supporting immune function.
 

What’s important about the vitamin A found in liver is that it’s the active form (also called retinol), which only comes from animal-derived foods.  Active, or preformed, vitamin A can be used directly by the body and does not need to first be converted like plant-based vitamin A (called carotenoids).

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3. Very High in Iron, Helping with Anemia Prevention

If you struggle with any type of anemia, which is often tied to iron deficiency, then liver is one of the best foods to consume.  It contains a powerful combination of folate, iron and vitamin B12.  These are three vitamins and minerals you need in order to overcome anemia naturally and prevent or treat symptoms like low energy, fatigue, irregular menstrual cycles or neurological issues.  Menstruating females, pregnant women, nursing mothers and vegetarians/vegans should be especially careful to get enough iron from their diets. 

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4. High in Vitamin B6, Biotin and Folate

In addition to vitamin B12, liver is high in vitamin B6, biotin and folate.  These B vitamins, especially folate, help your body with something called methylation as well as cellular function.  An important folate-dependent reaction in the body is the conversion of the methylation of deoxyuridylate to thymidylate in the formation of DNA, which is required for proper cell division.  When this process is impaired, this initiates megaloblastic anemia, one of the hallmarks of folate deficiency.

Liver also supplies smaller amounts of nutrients, including copper, zinc, chromium and selenium, which have far-reaching benefits for your metabolism, central nervous system and endocrine systems.

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5. Great Food for Fertility and During Pregnancy

Liver is practically the perfect food for pregnancy, providing protein, B12, iron, folate and other key nutrients for reproductive health and fetal development.  Pregnant women, or women who are nursing, need even more B12 than normal to help with growth and development of their babies, including the brain and organs.  Folate is also especially important during pregnancy because it helps prevent birth defects.  Folate (the natural form, as opposed to synthetic folic acid) aids in prevention of neural tube defects and serious abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord.

Pregnant women are at higher risk of iron deficiency due to the increase of iron demand, making iron-rich foods essential since iron plays a role in the transfer of oxygen to tissues, including the placenta.  Liver and other grass-fed organ meats are also a good source of protein during pregnancy.  Pregnant women should aim to eat at least three servings, or 75 grams, of protein per day.
 

Liver also provides activated vitamin A for pregnant women that helps with reducing oxidative stress.  The Baby Center website states that for pregnant women over the age of 19, “The USDA recommends getting no more than 10,000 IU of preformed vitamin A from supplements, animal sources, and fortified foods – combined – each day,” so it’s best to consume liver in small amounts only several times weekly. 

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6. Helps with Detoxification and Supporting Liver Function

One of the questions I often get asked is, “Isn’t your liver toxic; doesn’t your liver deal with toxins?’’  Actually, toxins are cleaned by your liver, but they are not stored in your liver.  Your liver helps filter waste and toxins from your blood so they can be removed from your body, but it requires essential nutrients to work properly. Your liver is also responsible for metabolizing drugs, hormones and medications, plus helping make proteins that are needed for blood clotting.

B vitamins found in liver, especially folate, help with cellular functions, so they help support your body’s detoxification pathways.  This means that consuming liver actually helps your own liver function better.  In fact, consuming liver is actually an effective liver cleanse, especially when it’s part of an overall healthy diet, because it provides your body and liver with all the nutrients you need in order to eliminate waste from your system.

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7. Good Source of Protein

Eating between one to three ounces of liver provides about seven to 21 grams of quality protein.  The macronutrient protein helps with dozens of functions in the body, including maintenance of muscle mass, which is especially important as we age.  We also need enough protein to help with tissue repair, recovery from exercise, for growth and development during childhood, for controlling our appetite, producing hormones, forming our skin and hair, and for many more bodily processes.

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8. Plays a Prominent Role in Disease-Fighting Gerson Therapy

Liver has actually been used extensively by doctors of natural medicine for years.  In fact, German scientist Dr. Max Gerson created something called the Gerson Protocol, or Gerson Therapy, that involved the use of liver.  Gerson Therapy was a natural cancer treatment protocol that was used for every type of disease as well as digestive disorders, tuberculosis and heart disease.

Gerson had his patients drink 13 glasses of vegetable juice a day, eat raw veggies, and have beef liver or liver juice (he also recommended performing coffee enema).  Beef liver was part of his primary protocol in helping his patients heal due to how many important vitamins and minerals it provides.  According to the Gerson Institute, Gerson Therapy helps regenerate health by supporting metabolic functions, reducing oxygen deficiency in the blood, and supporting the thyroid by increasing antioxidant intake and cutting out heavy animal fats, excess protein, sodium and other toxins.

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9. Provides CoQ10

Both beef liver and beef heart have been found to be rich sources of CoQ10. CoQ10, which is often taken in supplement form, is found in the greatest concentration in the mitochondria of cells, also called the cell’s “powerhouse” because it helps produce energy.  CoQ10 is associated with cardiovascular health, improved blood pressure and vascular health, improvements in sperm and egg quality, enhanced endurance, reduced inflammation, and much more.  Animals’ organs are where the greatest supply of CoQ10 can be found, although muscle meat and even some plant foods also contain smaller amounts. 

Since our supplies of CoQ10 decrease with age, eating liver and other organ meats is a great way to keep your levels up, helping decrease the effects of free radical damage and stress.

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10. Less Waste
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Organ meats (Offal) are often automatically discarded in our modern culture's appetite for "tidier" animal products.  Why not redeem this waste for creation of energy and bodily support?

Better stewardship - Better nutrition.

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IS LIVER DANGEROUS?

In spite of widespread tradition and abundant scientific evidence on the health benefits of liver, conventional nutritionists and government agencies now warn against its consumption.  The putative dangers of eating liver stem from two concerns–the assumption that liver contains many toxins and the high level of vitamin A that it provides.

One of the roles of the liver is to neutralize toxins (such as drugs, chemical agents and poisons); but the liver does not store toxins.  Poisonous compounds that the body cannot neutralize and eliminate are likely to lodge in the fatty tissues and the nervous system.  The liver is not a storage organ for toxins but it is a storage organ for many important nutrients (vitamins A, D, E, K, B12 and folic acid, and minerals such as copper and iron).  These nutrients provide the body with some of the tools it needs to get rid of toxins.

Of course, we should consume liver from healthy animals–cattle, lamb, buffalo, hogs, chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese.  The best choice is liver from animals that spend their lives outdoors and on pasture.  If such a premier food is not available, the next choice is organic chicken, beef and calves liver.  If supermarket liver is your only option, the best choice is calves liver, as in the U.S. beef cattle do spend their first months on pasture.  Beef liver is more problematical as beef cattle are finished in feed lots.  Livers from conventionally raised chicken and hogs are not recommended.

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As for concerns about vitamin A, these stem from studies in which moderate doses of synthetic vitamin A were found to cause problems and even contribute to birth defects.  But natural vitamin A found in liver is an extremely important nutrient for human health and does not cause problems except in extremely large amounts.

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According to the authoritative Merck Manual, acute vitamin A poisoning can occur in children after taking a single dose of synthetic vitamin A in the range of 300,000 IU or a daily dosage of 60,000 IU for a few weeks.  The Manual cites two fatalities from acute vitamin A poisoning in children, which manifests as increased intracranial pressure and vomiting.  For the vast majority, however, recovery after discontinuation is “spontaneous, with no residual damage.”

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In adults, according to the Merck Manual, vitamin A toxicity has been reported in Arctic explorers who developed drowsiness, irritability, headaches and vomiting, with subsequent peeling of the skin, within a few hours of ingesting several million units of vitamin A from polar bear or seal liver.  Again, these symptoms clear up with discontinuation of the vitamin A-rich food.  Other than this unusual example, however, only vitamin A from megavitamin tablets containing vitamin A when taken for a long time has induced acute toxicity, that is, 100,000 IU synthetic vitamin A per day taken for many months.

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Thus, unless you are an Arctic explorer, it is very difficult to develop vitamin A toxicity from liver.  The putative toxic dose of 100,000 IU per day is contained in two-and-one-half 100-gram servings of duck liver or about three 100-gram servings of beef liver.  From the work of Weston Price, we can assume that the amount in primitive diets was about 50,000 IU per day.

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As for liver for pregnant women, a study carried out in Rome, Italy, found no congenital malformations among 120 infants exposed to more than 50,000 IU of vitamin A per day (Teratology, Jan 1999 59(1):1-2).  A study from Switzerland looked at blood levels of vitamin A in pregnant women and found that a dose of 30,000 IU per day resulted in blood levels that had no association with birth defects (International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition Research 1998 68(6):411-6).  Textbooks on nutrition written before the Second World War recommended that pregnant women eat liver frequently, yet today pregnant women are told to avoid this extremely nutritious food.  Don’t eat beef liver, cautions Organic Style magazine in a February 2005 article on diets for pregnant women, “. . . it has high levels of retinol, a vitamin-A derivative that can cause birth defects.”

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A good recommendation for liver is one 100-gram serving of beef, lamb, bison or duck liver (about 4 ounces) once or twice a 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 experience headaches or joint pains at this level, cut back until the symptoms go away.





* Information sourced from Draxe.com, Westonaprice.org. 

** These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.  These products are not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease.

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