Are you getting all the health benefits of liver? Learn why you should start eating liver regularly in your diet. Liver is a nutritional superfood and can be seamlessly incorporated into weekly meal prep for the whole family.
Liver is just one of many organ meats you can make to maximize nutrition from animal foods. Add something new to your routine and learn how to cook organ meats that taste good!
Table of Contents (click to view)
Why Eat liver?
Liver, and organ meats in general, are heritage foods eaten by traditional cultures all over the world.
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A Price is just one of the eye-opening books we recommend if you are interested in learning about nutrition and holistic health. His research should be shared high and low because it points to the undeniable and essential need for animal foods in the human diet.
Not only are organ meats affordable sources of protein, fat, and fat soluble vitamins, they are extremely nutrient dense. Adding a small amount of liver to your diet, may be better than a multi-vitamin. Liver is an unprocessed food that contain important co-factors and live enzymes intact so our bodies can properly assimilate the nutrition. Liver, and all animal foods, are highly bioavailable and easy to digest.
There is one more point to share when it comes to the benefits of organ meats.
Breaking through the “yuck” factor will bring you closer to the source of your food and connect you to the circle of life in a more meaningful and profound way.
Is Liver Safe to Eat?
There is a popular misconception that liver stores toxins and can be potentially dangerous to eat.
I once thought “isn’t liver where all the toxins go?”
The Weston A Price Foundation has this to say
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.
The liver is an important organ for detoxification but does not store toxins itself.
Souring the highest quality liver you have access to will be best.
Grass Fed Liver is a Superfood
Compared ounce for ounce, liver is the most nutritional organ meat on the planet.
Some say the most nutritional food bar none.
Liver has ranked above all other offal as one of the most prized culinary delights. Its heritage is illustrious–whether savored by young warriors after a kill or mixed with truffles and cognac for fine patés de foie gras.
Margaret Gin and Jana Allen, Innards and Other Variety Meats (San Francisco, 1974)
Out of all the organ meats and “odd bits”, liver is the one that packs the most nutrition.
If you can only eat one organ meat, liver is the one to try.
Read All You Need to know about Liver Pate on Keto and Carnivore Diets and make some this week!
What are the Health Benefits of Eating Liver?
Forget about imported sacha inchi nuts from the Amazon or pink Himalayan salt from China, liver is a real superfood.
Liver is one of the richest sources of Vitamin A which serves a vital role in many bodily functions.
One the benefits of cod liver oils, Cholesterol and Health as this to say
Vitamin A has traditionally been understood to promote healthy vision, promote healthy fertility in males and females, and allow for proper embryonic development.
More recently, researchers have found vitamin A to be important to many other processes. These include preventing childhood mortality, preventing childhood asthma, promoting pubertal development protecting against oxidative stress, protecting against environmental toxins, preventing kidney stones, regulating the amount of fat tissue in the body, regulating blood sugar, and protecting against fatty liver disease. Almost one third (27 percent) of Americans surveyed in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey had vitamin A intakes below 50 percent of the RDA.
Even the RDA may be too low — we still do not know what the optimal intake of vitamin A is, especially with respect to its more newly discovered roles.
In an excellent article by The Weston A Price Foundation on the lore of one of our most important sacred foods they note liver contains
- An excellent source of high-quality protein
- Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A
- All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12
- One of our best sources of folic acid
- A highly usable form of iron
- Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
- An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
- CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
- A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.
Sally Fallon Morell, the WAPF spokeswoman, joined our podcast to talk about the importance of nutrient dense foods like liver and raw milk.
It is a must-listen episode, especially if you are in your childbearing years or feeding small children.
Which Liver is Best: Beef Liver, Chicken Liver, Pork Liver
Kirschmann published a chart comparing liver nutritional facts from different animals in the Nutrition Almanac. Beef, lamb, veal, chicken, duck, goose, and turkey livers are listed with the amounts of Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, and E as well as all the important minerals.
There’s really no wrong choice when it comes to eating liver since all livers have health benefits. Take a deeper dive into beef liver vs. chicken liver and give each a taste test to find your favorite.
Read Where to Buy Liver to source from a farm near you or find a place online. Choose the best quality one you can find or the one you like the taste of most.
- grass-fed beef liver
- chicken liver
- bison liver
- cod livers or fermented cod liver oil
Desiccated Beef Liver
If you aren’t ready to buy the real thing, desiccated beef liver capsules are the second best option.
Ancestral Supplements provides high-quality organic and grass-fed beef liver capsules. Getting the benefits of liver is literally as easy as swallowing a pill. This option is also great if you are traveling and want to take your nutrition on the go.
Jan 2023 UPDATE: Unfortunately, we no longer recommend this brand due to public scandals and misleading marketing by the owner, Brian Johnson.
Healthy Beef Liver Recipes (Keto & Carnivore Diet Approved!)
If you are making easy keto recipes, carnivore diet recipes, low-carb, paleo, or any from-scratch recipes, I have a liver recipe for you!
Browse through my collection of Organ Meat Recipes.
If you are eating a keto diet or carnivore diet but don’t already have The Ketogenic Edge Cookbook or The
Liver pate’s are great for beginners:
- Classic Beef Liver Pate Recipe
- Dairy Free Ox Liver Pate
- Keto Chicken Liver Pate Recipe (with Carnivore Option)
Dive into healthy liver recipes with hidden liver and you won’t be disappointed!
Easy and Delicious Liver Recipes
This is the perfect way to cook liver without flour. With only 5 ingredients, all of which are dairy-free and gluten-free, you can't go wrong! This recipe is suitable for keto, carnivore, paleo, and AIP styles diets. Add it to your meal prep today!
Organ meats are some of the most affordable meats and happen to also be some of the most nutritious parts too. This nourishing combination of ground beef, liver and heart baked into a meat pie is simple and satiating.
Thin crunchy low-carb chips made from grass-fed beef liver are perfectly dippable for all your favorite dips but come with a super nutritional boost!
Homemade pemmican is the ultimate protein bar! Made in the traditional style of multiple North American Indian tribes, pemmican is extremely nutrient-dense, lightweight, and shelf-stable.
Enjoy this Asian inspired one pan skillet meal with pan-fried cabbage noodles and ground beef. Add "hidden liver" for extra nutrient density and no one will know it's there!
Originally published September 9, 2015. Updated April 2020 with new images and information.
Recently I’ve begun eating a half ounce of grass fed beef liver daily. Although I’m interested in various cooked recipes, I’ve been eating it raw. Somebody said I should be concerned about parasites, which has me wondering if that’s an issue I need to be wary of?
If you trust the quality and sourcing it’s probably not a big deal. But whenever in doubt, cooking it will be the best remedy to worry. Hope that helps.
My mom made us eat liverwurst paste when we were kids, but it was very processed & full of nitrates and other questionable ingredients so that may have subliminally given liver a bad association for me. But your article has convinced me to give it a try again using Grass-fed liver.
Give it a try Stacey! Grass-fed liver can be energizing, especially for hard-working mamas 🙂
I’m a huge fan of liver and I’m so thankful you wrote this up so we can share it. This is such important info for people to know.
I have some pork liver and apple pate in my fridge right now. It’s my first time trying pork – I think I’ll stick with chicken or beef.
Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm with us Donny! Liver is a wonderful food and so many miss out on it just because it’s culturally “weird”. I also prefer beef and chicken liver over pork. Lamb is also excellent!
I love liver! This is such a great, informative article. I try to eat liver every week. My 7 month old loves it as well!
It amazes me that children have such a natural affinity for liver. They are so wise! Our babies were the same. Your great-grandma would be proud 😉
Love your article and I shall read a lot more from your site! I stopped eating organs because here where I live in the UK it’s impossible to find meat from grass-fed, free to roam, outdoor raised animals. Which is a real shame as organ meat is so nutritious and tasty. As for cheaper cuts of meat, have you ever had beef or pig cheeks? Absolutely delicious and inexpensive, around 85p for 3 pig cheek pieces. If you braise them (slow cook) for 1.5-2 hours in a little stock and seasoning, they turn into a melt-in-the-mouth delicious meal. I have a keto recipe on my blog you might like to check out http://queenketo.com/low-carb-cheeky-sticky-pork-chops/. Will your book be available as a kindle version anytime soon?
Thanks for the suggestion – haven’t tried cheeks yet. Our cookbook is available exclusively here on the site, in the shop. No kindle for us.