Is Beef Liver Good for You?
I was born onto a macrobiotic diet, which is a mostly vegan, traditional Japanese approach to food.
When I was 4, we began branching out to include a wider range of foods, but as a kid, I was skeptical.
Since I never ate animal products in those first few years, they felt very foreign to me.
After mostly eating:
- Vegetables
- Brown rice
- Beans
- Tempeh
- Tofu
My body was confused (and grossed out) by:
- Eggs
- Fish
- Meat
While I wasn’t consciously restricting when I was that young – that I’m aware of – I would do things like:
- Only eat the egg whites
- Avoid fish and meat
- Eat my pasta plain
As I got older I began including more foods, but my family and I were still largely dairy-free until my late teens, and I avoided dairy into my 20s, as a preference and believed allergy.
In high school I struggled with disordered eating, chronic fatigue, coughs and bronchitis, low blood pressure, anemia, amenorrhea, and PCOS.
It sounds like a lot – and it was – but still, I was a generally healthy teenager, getting great grades and playing sports all year round (soccer, then cross country and track), sometimes on more than one team at the same time.
Here’s the thing: Regardless of how I felt, I had an iron will.
I once ran an entire cross country season with mono, only to find out after the season ended that that’s why my times were slower than usual.
Countless doctors told me I was perfectly healthy, so I learned to ignore my symptoms and just push through.
The truth is that most of the issues I was dealing with – even the diagnosable disorders – were and still are largely unstudied, since they only develop in women.
The majority of the medical system is still based on the male body.
Since I didn’t have any conditions they deemed “real,” I was sent on my way.
One time, a doctor even offered me anti-depressants, when I was clearly struggling with an eating disorder and simply undernourished.
In my early 20s, after years of disordered eating, I had a sobering epiphany:
I was walking home on 9th Street in New York when I realized, with crystal clarity, that restricting, binging, and purging were slowly breaking down my body, creating an acidic environment.
I was ok – still quite healthy by most traditional standards – but I could sense that I would not be ok if I didn’t stop.
So I committed to 100% intuitive eating: Eating whatever my body asked for, and keeping my food down.
It was a gradual process of first overeating, then getting sick of that uncomfortable feeling, and now, today, never overeating and feeling completely in flow with food and my body.
Over the past 10 years I’ve continued to add in more foods – some foods I never thought I would eat.
Since I’d restricted myself for so long, even after committing to intuitive eating there were foods that simply weren’t on my radar or didn’t appeal to me at first.
One of those foods was beef liver.
Beef liver is one of the richest sources of nutrients on the planet, and over the past few years I’ve felt very drawn to it.
My body craves it, I feel immediate benefits when I eat it, and I’ve even connected with it during inner child meditations.
Intuitively, I feel beef liver has key nutrients that I missed out on as a child.
At first, I was totally grossed out by liver.
When I was 26 I started working at a restaurant where chicken liver mousse toast was a popular appetizer.
I was hesitant to try it, but then I fell in love with it.
It’s probably the first liver dish that I actually liked.
It made me realize how good it can taste when prepared properly, and I immediately felt how much my body loved it.
It felt incredibly nourishing, both physically and emotionally.
Beef liver has long been regarded as a superfood, and a key part of the ancestral approach to food.
Other types of liver are great sources of nutrients, too, but today we’re focusing on beef liver.
What are the core health benefits of beef liver?
1. Detoxification.
When you think of detox foods, you usually think raw vegetables, juices, and smoothies.
Those foods can actually hinder detoxification in a lot of cases.
Beef liver, on the other hand, helps your liver – a key detox organ – function more effectively, getting rid of harmful toxins.
Eating grass-fed beef liver or taking beef liver supplements reinforces liver function in a like-supports-like effect.
2. Hormone health.
Rich in folate and iron, beef liver can support healthy moon cycles and fertility.
The female reproductive system is extraordinarily intricate, and it requires a lot of nutrient density to function well.
Hormone health is also closely tied to digestion, healthy weight, skin health, hair health, and joint health.
3. Energy support.
Beef liver is packed with B vitamins, iron, and magnesium, which are crucial for energy.
If you’re dealing with chronic fatigue, eating beef liver or taking beef liver supplements can make a huge difference in your energy levels.
This is one of the biggest benefits I’ve experienced from eating liver: more energy.
4. Deeper sleep.
Rich in essential minerals like magnesium, zinc, and selenium, beef liver supports deep sleep.
When your body is undernourished and unsettled from a lack of diversity and nutrient density in your diet, it’s very difficult to sleep well.
Including beef liver can fill in gaps and fortify your system.
5. Immune system support.
Full of immune-boosting vitamins like A, D, and K, beef liver helps your body fight off bacteria and viruses, and recover from illness faster.
While these vitamins are present in vegetarian sources, they exist in their most absorbable forms in beef liver and other animal sources.
If you’re averse to eating beef liver, there’s some great, high-quality supplements available today.
I’ve been taking Ancestral Supplements Grass Fed Beef Liver for over a year and have felt major benefits. It’s freeze-dried, in capsule form.
I also love a liver pâté – the Three Little Pigs brand is delicious.
Isn’t beef liver high in cholesterol?
Cholesterol is key for every single cell membrane in your body.
It has dozens of functions throughout the body, from blood circulation to digestion to brain health, and everything in between.
Some cell types are as much as half cholesterol – it’s not a small part of the body.
Healthy fats and proteins, like beef liver, help our bodies maintain healthy cholesterol levels.
On the other hand, the food and drink sources most likely to increase unhealthy cholesterol and create health issues are refined sugar, processed foods, and alcohol.
If you want to dive deep into cholesterol, click here to check out Weston A. Price’s rigorous review.
How eating liver and taking beef liver supplements has improved my health…
After dealing with health issues like chronic fatigue, amenorrhea, and PCOS in my teens and early 20s, today I’m healthier than I’ve ever been:
- After dealing with acne for years, my skin is clear and glowy.
- My moon cycle runs like a fiercely on-point, giggling, pink-clad regime, predictable and happy as can be.
- I feel at peace and at home in my body, which was a battle for a decade.
- I feel more relaxed, happy, and free than I ever have.
- I’m traveling the world, working remotely for myself, and making the coolest friends.
The more broadly I eat, the more I trust my intuition, and specifically, the more I include deeply nourishing foods that have been demonized by some camps – like beef liver – the better I feel on every level.
In my coaching practice of 10+ years, many of my clients have had similar experiences, especially when it comes to animal products.
Women have come in leaning vegan or vegetarian, then moved toward including more animal products with dramatic benefits, like clearer skin, healthier hormones, sharper focus, weight loss, and higher energy.
>> Click here to check out client testimonials.
I don’t think including animal products is necessary for everyone, but I think it’s helpful for many people, especially women.
Including a wider range of foods and nutrients in my diet, including beef liver, has been absolutely transformative for my physical, mental, and emotional health.
Do you feel like you were missing any key nutrients as a child?
Do you want to broaden your diet to include a wider range of foods?
I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
In rich health,
Lula
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