Food of the week: Liver
Organ meats are some of the most nutritious foods we can consume. Cultures around the world regularly consume organ meats as part of their regular diet. Think pickled tongue from Argentina, Raga beef tripe from Bolivia, Sicilian spleen sandwich or kat-a-kat, a famous Pakistani hash made of kidney, heart, brain, liver, and testicles of goats or sheep. These are but a few examples. The French also famously pride themselves of the diverse use of liver pâtés made of chicken and duck or goose "foie gras" translated to "fatty liver".
Personally I would love to begin incorporating some of these foods into my diet because they really are hands down some of the best sources of vitamins and minerals we can find. They are total nutritious powerhouses!
Brain: High in Omega 3's, B12 vitamins, Niacin, pregnenolone, progesterone, and DHEA (these last three are hormones which are all recognized as being "youth-associated hormones”.
Tripe: High in Protein, Calcium, B1, 2 & 3.
Heart: High in Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Vitamin B-12, Choline, Protein, Coenzyme Q10, Collagen, Elastin & more.
Spleen: High in Iron, Vitamin B12, Zinc,
Liver: High in Iron, B12, Riboflavins (B2), Folate (B9), Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Coenzyme Q10, Potassium, Protein, Copper & Choline.
After reading this, I hope you will consider getting more curious about organ meats. I would always recommend that you source organ meats ORGANICALLY. I would not eat an organ meat that is not organic because of the nature of some of these organs. Take liver for example. Just like the human liver, an animal liver is also designed to filter the blood. If an animal has been feed GMO grain, antibiotics, growth hormones etc, that means that the liver has had to work overtime filtering these ingredients out of the blood and some may still be remaining in the liver from the time of death. This is something that would be detrimental to your health. So for this reason I am especially uptight about sourcing organic organ meats!
The easiest organ meat to source and enjoy is by far LIVER! I would like to officially declare liver as being the "gateway drug" of organ meats. Liver is one of the healthiest and most palatable organ meats available. I myself easily get squeamish about most organ meats but want to learn to enjoy them for their benefits. Liver is especially important for those of you who are iron deficient, pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant or who simply want to up their vitamin intake. Liver is like taking the best natural multivitamin around and will fill your body with so much of the goodness it needs.
Here I would like to share with you my recipe for Chicken Liver Pâté. I have always struggled with low iron counts and being border line anemic. I also try to limit taking store bought vitamins because of certain side effects they are associated with. For this reason I try to reach for foods that I can cook and consume daily at home instead. That is what led me to discover my love of pâté as a simple way to get all of my iron and B vitamins without the need for synthetic pills. I have been consuming 3-4 servings of this pâté each week which is equivalent to roughly 4-6 cooked livers. I am telling you, the day after I take liver I feel more alert, energized and less fatigued. I haven't had any blood drawn to confirm increased iron but if I was to go by my mood and energy alone I would proudly attest that they are certainly doing a job well done!
Three cheers for liver! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!
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