Essential benefits of liver
When transitioning to a traditional diet, some changes come easier than others. Switching from using refined sugar to using raw honey/pure maple syrup as a sweetener? Pshaw, no problem. Making bone broth? Couldn’t be easier. Eating more butter and coconut oil? Yep, no problem there!
But liver. Real foodies love their liver, but the gosh-darn stuff is certainly an acquired taste.
Due to the high amounts of bioavailable nutrients in liver, it plays a key role in rebuilding nutritional deficiencies. I knew I just had to get it down!
- Liver is the highest source in nature of bioavailable vitamin A. Contrary to popular belief, we must consume vitamin A from animal sources like liver. The “vitamin A” in vegetables like carrots is carotene, and this must be converted to retinol in our body before we can use it. This conversion rate is extremely poor and virtually insignificant for children and people with health issues including thyroid disorders (source). Because the vitamin A in liver is already retinol, the body can use it.
- The high vitamin A content can help repair severe hormonal damage. In particular, it supports thyroid deficiencies so liver is a must for anyone who is hypothyroid. Vitamin A also plays a key role in liver health and detox.
- Traditional cultures considered liver a sacred food and put great stock in it’s revitalizing properties. In particular, liver was used to promote fertility. It should be consumed on a regular basis by couples trying to conceive.
- Liver contains an unidentified “anti-fatigue factor.” In a famous animal study, liver consumption prevented rats from exhaustion, even after swimming for two straight hours (read more)
- A 2-3 ounce serving of liver should be consumed at least 1-2 times per week (source).
I’ve given it the old college try, but I just cannot eat liver plain. I’m okay with it in homemade pate. I make my pate with copious amounts of butter and caramelized onions, and that does a good job of disguising the “minerally” taste. Often, I’ll grind up a pastured chicken liver and mix it into ground beef to make meatballs. Again, I add lots of heavy seasonings like garlic to mask the liver taste.
But my absolute favorite way to get a healing dose of liver? Liver pills!
Homemade Liver Pills
I swallow a couple of these homemade “pills” with every meal for a no-fuss, no-taste way to get the benefits of liver. Even better, the liver is raw so all the enzymes and nutrients are most potent. Eating cooked liver still provides your body with nutrients, but some delicate vitamins, like certain B vitamins, are decreased by cooking.
Of course, since the liver is raw, make sure you have a fresh source of liver. I buy pastured chicken livers from a local farmer who freezes the liver immediately after butchering his chickens. Liver should only be consumed if it comes from pasture-raised animals. Regular supermarket liver from CFAO animals shouldn’t be eaten!
Desiccated Liver Capsules
What if you don’t want to make these liver pills? Or what if you don’t have access to pastured liver? In that case, I recommend purchasing these desiccated liver capsules.
This brand uses very strict standards for sourcing the grassfed beef liver used in the capsules. And that’s all… it’s just purely beef liver. Gram for gram, desiccated liver contains more valuable nutrients than any other food. Take 2-4 capsules per day.
- Grassfed/pastured liver, thawed if frozen. Use only the highest quality liver.
- Rinse the liver and pat dry. With a sharp knife, carefully cut the liver into pill-sized chunks. Place the pieces, separated, on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Freeze until solid.
- Transfer the frozen "liver pills" into an airtight container and store in the freezer. Freeze for 14 days before eating to kill any pathogens in the liver. Swallow a couple of frozen "liver pills" with every meal.
While I personally find benefits from taking liver pills on a regular basis, it’s worth noting that the “anti-fatigue” study seems to be flawed in that the other group of rats were likely iron deficient, see this analysis: https://medium.com/@jamesheathers/the-strange-case-of-liver-tablets-b81d7135c8f3
I freeze 1 inch chunks for about 30 minutes on a cookie sheet. Then I grind the semi-frozen liver in my Ninja and press into mini-ice cube trays and freeze. This makes small, easy to swallow pill. I have a couple every morning.
Would you recommend the liver pills from vital proteins or only those from radiant life? I am using the collagen peptides and gelatin from Vital proteins and it would be simple to add the liver pills to my order as well. Thank you! Have so much appreciated your site!
Yes, I do recommend Vital Protein’s liver pills 🙂
I just made my own liver pills thanks to this blog! I put some in a blender with some frozen berries, water, and some stevia and it wasn’t bad at all. You said here that you have a couple of the pills with every meal. Are you concerned with toxicity at all? Do you know how much liver is too much? I suggested to my husband to put 1 or 2 in his smoothie as well, but I want to make sure its okay. I have chronic fatigue so I assume I would need more than my husband, although he is a big guy.
Is liver a good source of vitamin D? I thought I read it somewhere. My blood work showed I am low in iron and vitamin D. So I am looking for a natural food supplmebt to help both do to finances?
Thanks!
Mary
Beef liver (per 100g) contains 16IU of vitamin D (source: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beef-products/3468/2)
Compare to Mushrooms (per 100g) at 7IU of vitamin D (source: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list?qlookup=11260)
Whole eggs (per 100g – I include whole eggs rather than egg yolk even though the vitamin D is pretty much only in the yolk) at 87IU per 100 grams. (source for eggs: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list?qlookup=01129)
Incidentally, eggs are – pound for pound – one of the cheapest sources of protein you can buy.
Vitamin D is a misnomer since it can be synthesized in the body using cholesterol and UV light. However, many individuals, particularly those who are nonwhite like myself, may find that self-produced vitamin D is not sufficient when living at a northern latitude. Personally, I find that taking supplementation is the easiest way to ensure adequate levels of serum vitamin D. This is not uncommon, particularly when you consider how the levels of nutrients found in commercial food have decreased from the mid-20th century to today. Vitamin D supplements are not expensive either, especially when you buy generic or store brands. Just something else for you to consider.
You recommend eating the liver pills with every meal. I eat breakfast and lunch at work. How can I keep the frozen liver pills fresh so they don’t get bad while I am at work?
For convenience sake, I would recommend not taking them to work or taking desiccated liver capsules when traveling: http://empoweredsustenance.com/desiccatedliver
So glad I came across this post. I’ve been doing this for some time but your post verifies it has value. Sometimes I do a ceviche and put the raw liver in lime juice for 12-24 hours. I still swallow it whole as fast as I can and wash down with water. I do the same with beef heart to supplement CoQ10
If the liver has been frozen for 14 days, then we defrost, cut, re-freeze, do you think we can consume immediately? Thanks.
Sorry for the typo multiple responses. I don’t see an option to delete. 😉
Yes, that will work.
If the liver I purchased was already frozen, do I still need to wait 14 days after I’ve slightly thawed/processed it into pills to eat? Or can I eat them immediately once they are in frozen pill form? I plan to put these in berry smoothies. My midwife did this technique with my placenta this past January immediately following the birth of my son. The results were amazing.
Freezing doesn’t kill pathogens, it preserves them. We store enteric pathogens in freezers precisely for this reason. Your protocol is not safe in any event where the liver is exposed to a sufficient amount of bacterial CFUs.