| via thepaleohygenist.com |
This week, I've at my grandparent's house because Ben is away in Lynchburg for training, and I brought up how I wasted to have liver again, and lo and behold, it made an appearance in the menu last night, with creamy mashed potatoes. Naisa, unbeknownst to her, thought it was chicken and ate a good amount without complaint (there was one bite that was too chewy that got spit out, but she was hungry and she ate it! MOMMY WIN!).
I love liver and eat it as often as I make it. Depending on the month, I might have it every week, or I might not have it at all. It just depends on if I'm up to the process! At our house, we thaw, then soak in lemon juice for a day, then cook it the next day. I usually pan fry it, dredged in flour with salt and pepper, and eat it with ketchup and onions, although for awhile I was having it with cold potatoes and yellow mustard, because that satisfied my fancy. When I was in my first trimester, though, I couldn't stand it (just like I couldn't handle fermented cod liver oil.. it was a texture thing.). So I did with out, though I tried several different times to consume it! (Or forced myself to consume it!)
I know what you are thinking.
EWWWWWWWWWW.
That's too bad, though, because the nutritional powerhouse of liver (and other organ meats) is the densest nutrition on the planet. Check out this link comparing fruit to beef liver. To have the same amount of vitamins as only four ounces of beef liver, one must eat 70.9 ounces of fruits (five pounds, anyone? ? )
If that's not enough to encourage you to discipline yourself to eat it, you can always take dessicated liver pills, so you don't have to taste it, but you get the benefits. But you do have to take a lot of them. But if you can't handle texture, I understand.
Grace... that organ filters toxins. So it must be full of them!! Why would you eat such a thing??
Actually, because the liver filters toxins, it doesn't actually contain them (except for the albeit tiny amount the animal may have been filtering at the time of death. But that is not a large amount at all). Animals that are healthy, spend their lives in the sun, outside, eating what God created them to eat will have healthy livers doing a great job of filtering out their toxins. Here's a great description of what the liver does with the toxins. Toxins are passed through the liver, and either sent to be stored in fat cells (another very important reason to eat animals that live happy lives on green pastures!), or passed from the body through elimination (we all know what those are!)
What about cholesterol? I thought we're only supposed to eat a very tiny amount of that? Isn't liver full of cholesterol?
Did you know that the human brain is mostly cholesterol? So, if we don't eat enough cholesterol, how do you think the brain is doing? (that' s my common sense approach). Also, there is a lot of cholesterol in breast milk for (you guessed it!) your growing baby's brain. Babies need cholesterol. Adults need cholesterol.
Here's a quote about cholesterol from the Weston A Price Website:
"Dietary cholesterol contributes to the strength of the intestinal wall and helps babies and children develop a healthy brain and nervous system. Foods that contain cholesterol also provide many other important nutrients. Only oxidized cholesterol, found in most powdered milk and powdered eggs, contributes to heart disease. Powdered milk is added to 1% and 2% milk."
You know what we don't need? Trans fats. GMOs. Medicine to "level" our cholesterol levels. Contrary to popular belief (and Time magazine recently reported on this) saturated fat and cholesterol do not cause heart disease. It's the way that food is processed and convenienced and microwaved and ultra-heated and us eating it that causes the arteries to clog and the body to fail. May I even step out to say cholesterol IS ESSENTIAL. Don't put down that butter!
Cholesterol and saturated fat aren't destroying your arteries... eating industrialized oils (think canola, corn, cottonseed, and soy oils), processed grains (like white flour), and processed sugars (think sugar, high fructose corn syrup) cause insulin resistance (aka pre prediabetes), and lead to all sorts of other issues (nutrient deficiencies, sugar cravings, lots of abdominal fat, and eventually the hated heart disease,
Ok, but what about the large amounts of vitamin A in liver? Aren't large amounts of vitamin A toxic?
Liver has lots of Vitamin A (in combination with vitamin D and K2, it's so great for your immune system!) and you are right, too much vitamin A is toxic.. if it's synthetic. Read this section on the Weston A Price website, under the section Vitamin A Knavery.
Other organ meats provide other levels of nutrients and are just as good for you! Organ meats are noninflammatory, which helps level out the inflammatory effects of chronic consumption muscles meats :) (Don't worry: eggs, dairy, and bone broths are also noninflammatory!)
It's recommended by the Weston A Price Organization to eat some organ meats of a weekly basis (not much, though! Just a couple ounces!)
Liver truly is nature's multivitamin.
Do you include organ meats in your diet? Would you be willing to try?
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