Liver - The most nutrient dense food

Since history began liver has ranked over all other offal as one of the most prized culinary delights. Some cultures place such a high value on it that human hands can’t tough it and special sticks must move it. Throughout most of recorded time humans have preferred liver over steak by a large margin, regarding it as a source of great strength and as providing almost magical curative powers.So why is it so good for us? basically it contains more nutrients gram for gram than any other food.

Just some of these benefits are:

Natures most concentrated source of vitamin A.

It is a really great source of really high quality protein.

All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin b12.

One of the best sources of folic acid.

A highly usable from of folic acid.

Our best source of copper.

coQ10 which is important for cardiovascular function.

Liver has an as yet unidentified anti fatigue factor. Lab rats were divided into three groups. The first ate a basic diet fortified with 11 vitamins. The second ate the same diet but fortified with an additional supply of vitamin B complex. The third ate the original diet but instead of vitamin B complex received 10% of rations as powdered liver. The rats were placed in a drum of cold water. They were basically swimming for their life! The first group with just the basic 11 vitamins swam for an average of 13.3 minutes. The second group with the B vitamin complex swam for an average of 13.4 minutes. The third group receiving the liver, three swam for 63, 83 and 87 minutes and the other nine rats in the group were still swimming vigorously at the end of two hours. Something in the liver had prevented them from becoming exhausted. To this day scientists have not been able to pin a label on this anti fatigue factor.

In spite of all the tradition and scientific evidence about the health benefits of liver, conventional nutritionists and government agencies now warn against its consumption. This is because of the high levels of vitamin A being toxic to the body and toxins within the liver.

Covering the toxins idea first, one of the roles of the liver is to neutralize toxins but it 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. As with all animal products you choose it is always best to consume liver from healthy animals that spend their life outdoors on pasture.

The concerns about too much vitamin A becoming toxic stems from studies in which synthetic man made vitamin A were found to cause problems and contribute to birth defects. Synthetic vitamin A found in supplements can be toxic at only moderately high doses, fat soluble vitamin A naturally found in foods like cod liver oil, liver and butterfat is safe at up to ten times the dose of water soluble, solidified, and emulsified vitamin A found in some supplements that produce toxicity. Vitamin A toxicity has been reported in arctic explorers who consume several million units of Vitamin A from Polar bear and seal liver. But the symptoms go once the discontinuation of the vitamin A rich food. But unless you are an arctic explorer it is very difficult to get vitamin A toxicity from liver. The suggested toxic dose of 100,000 IU per day is contained in 250g of duck liver or about 100g of beef liver. We can assume that the amount in primitive diets was about 50,000IU per day. Also it is suggested that pregnant women should not consume liver as the high vitamin A content may cause birth defects but a vitamin A deficiency in pregnant mothers results in offspring with eye defects, displaced kidneys, harelip, cleft palate and abnormalities of the heart and larger blood vessels so a good supply of not synthetic vitamin A is ideal.

One more benefit that might interest the bodybuilders of you is that the high content of vitamin A in liver can really help you build huge amounts of muscle. Follow the link to read more... Liver, vitamin A and building muscle. Liver is very cheap compared to meat and there is a huge variety of ways it can be cooked so there really is no good reason why you aren't eating it!