Tag: ancestral diets

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Why Organ Meats Are Good to Eat

In a previous article on How to Source Beef, I briefly mentioned liver, one of my favorite superfoods, and said that organ meats should never be thrown away! Why so, you might ask? Organ meats in general do not seem that appealing. The short answer is that “organ meats are the most nutrient-dense foods by far,” states Chris Kresser in Your Personal Paleo Code. Not only are organ meats full of nutrients, but these nutrients can also be easily absorbed by the body. Dr. Anthony Gustin and Chris Irvin add, in Keto Answers, that “this makes organ meat like a natural meat version of a multivitamin.”

Organ Meats that You Can Buy

Organ meats can be from animals like cows, pigs, lambs, bisons, goats, chickens, and ducks, as long as they are well-sourced. Here’s a short list of organs you can eat:

  • Liver
  • Tongue
  • Heart
  • Kidneys
  • Brain
  • Sweetbreads
  • Tripe

You can find these at some local farms (to find local farms, you can visit EatWild.com) or online sites like US Wellness Meats. There are recipes everywhere online on how to prepare these. For instance, this page on Mark’s Daily Apple.

You can also consume organ meats in capsule form. Every day, I take liver and bone marrow capsules sold by Ancestral Supplements. To take capsules is fairly convenient, and if you don’t like the taste of certain organ meats, or don’t have the time to prepare them, you still can get most of the nutrients they contain (vitamins, minerals, healthy fat, and essential amino acids).

In Summary

Including organ meats into our diet provides such an array of beneficial nutrients! Even just once a week can be sufficient, especially when it comes to a superfood like liver. (And consuming liver is okay, as most of the toxins are stored in the fat of the animal, and not the liver). Most ancestral diets included organ meats, alongside bones, cartilage and skin, fats, seafood, and wild plants.  For example, in the traditional Okinawan diet where food is considered medicine, a pig is eaten entirely, internal organs included. Going back to these ancient ways of feeding ourselves as much as possible makes perfect sense if we want to harness the health and wellness benefits of consuming truly nutrient-dense foods.

References

Gustin, Anthony, and Chris Irvin. Keto Answers : Simplifying Everything You Need to Know about the World’s Most Confusing Diet. Middletown, De, Four Pillar Health, 2019, pp. 150-151, 302-303.

Kresser, Chris. Your Personal Paleo Code: The 3-Step Plan to Lose Weight, Reverse Disease, and Stay Fit and Healthy for Life. 1st ed., New York, NY, Little, Brown and Company, Dec. 2013, pp. 43-44, 70-72, 151-152, 155-156.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Okinawa Diet.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet. Accessed 3 Apr. 2020.

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