The Unbelievable Health Benefits of Beef Liver

Beef liver has somehow fallen out of the standard American diet. It does tend to taste strong and if it is overcooked it can be quite unpleasant to eat. However, the health benefits of beef liver are amazing.

I recently heard about Minot and Whipple curing pernicious anemia through a liver feeding therapy. They fed 2-4 ounces of liver to people on a daily basis to cure pernicious anemia, an autoimmune condition. It worked! Within 8 weeks, the patients’ iron levels had all normalized.

I decided that I should look further into the health benefits of liver and begin incorporating this superfood into my own diet. Here’s what I found…

 

High in Bioavailable Nutrients

Liver is high in bioavailable nutrients. This means that there aren’t components of the food that may block absorption. In plants, phytates and lectins can often interfere with the nutrient absorption. You may not absorb all the vitamins and minerals when you consume something like grains or nuts.

  • Vitamin A: Liver is highest in vitamin A. The high amount of vitamin A does concern some people and they feel that you could overdose on liver. Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin that benefits eye health, skin health and cellular turnover.
  • Iron: Liver is high in iron. Iron helps with muscle function, brain function and hemoglobin formation. This makes it crucial for energy production.
  • Copper: Copper is an important mineral because it contributes to nerve and immune health. Copper also assists with collagen production. It is beneficial in the development of hair, joints, skin and nail health.
  • B Vitamins: Liver is a great source of all the B vitamins, especially vitamin B12 and folate. The B vitamins are important for converting food into energy. They help you feel energetic and vibrant in your daily life. Folate is essential for cellular growth.
  • Choline: Liver provides your body with the daily Adequate Intake (AI) for women and almost all of it for men. Choline is beneficial for brain development and liver function.

When you compare the nutrients in liver to apples, carrots and other red meat, liver beats them out by quite a bit!

health benefits of beef liver
Image source: https://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood/

Liver exceeds the RDI (recommended daily intake) for vitamin B12, vitamin A, riboflavin and copper. One serving will allow you to meet your daily needs. Liver is also rich in the essential nutrients folate, iron and choline.

A High-Quality Protein

Protein is an essential building block for every part of the body. It is needed to make and repair cells and turn food into energy. Over 25% of beef liver contains protein.

Beef liver is very high-quality protein. It provides all the essential amino acids which make up proteins. The essential amino acids must come from food, they can not be made in the body.

Helps with Weight Loss

High protein intake has been shown to assist with weight loss. It reduces hunger and appetite. Protein satisfies hunger much better than carbohydrates, according to a study done by the Rowlett Research Institute.

Protein causes increases your metabolic rate by 15–30%, compared to 5–10% for carbs and 0–3% for fats. Including a high protein food, such as liver, in your diet can increase your metabolic rate. This means you’ll burn more calories which can be helpful for weight loss.

Cures Pernicious Anemia

George Minot and William Murphy studied the diets of patients who had pernicious anemia. Minot ordered his patients to eat a diet with 100 grams to 240 grams of liver per day along with 120 grams of muscle meat, and leafy vegetables, spinach, fruits, eggs and milk.

Many of the patients on Minot’s diet recovered rapidly showing improvements within a few days. After eight weeks, patients’ blood was examined and blood showed newly formed reticulocytes. This supported the diet’s efficacy.

 

Treats Tropical Sprue

In 1883 Manson promoted the use of liver to treat Tropical Sprue, a digestive disorder. Tropical sprue is similar to celiac sprue. It shows a loss in intestinal villi, which affects the intestinal absorptive function. Patients who have tropical and nontropical sprue suffer from malabsorption.

The cause of sprue has not been determined. Patients with sprue present with macrocytic anemia due to malabsorption of folate or vitamin B12.

Treatment of tropical sprue with vitamin B12 and folate cures the macrocytic anemia and the glossitis. This results in increased appetite and weight gain.

Conclusion – A Healthy Superfood

As you can see, your body will benefit in many ways from consuming liver. People have been healed from pernicious anemia and Tropical Sprue through a diet that is rich in liver. It contains nutrients that benefit almost every aspect of life for your body. From improving your eyesight to easing your digestion, liver is supporting your health on a grand scale.

While liver may not be the tastiest superfood out there, it is worth it to include it in your diet. You may want to check out beef liver capsules if you don’t want to fix yourself liver everyday.

Not sure why grassfed beef is important? Check out the difference between grass fed and grass finished beef.

6 thoughts on “The Unbelievable Health Benefits of Beef Liver”

  1. Wow,after reading this, I can say that liver is very essential. Being able to beat some very healthy fruits nutritionally is totally out of this world. I do not take liver regularly except I go to a restaurant a few blocs away from where I work before. I think I need to start taking more liver and a little less red meats. And since it works for weight loss which is what my diet is all about, I’ll check it out. Thanks for the valuable information.

  2. Wow! Though I’m not a vegan but I have never for once included liver in my meat. Either I consume a chicken or I eat pure beef flesh. Discovering that this need liver has so much benefits to the overall health of our body really seems amazing and great. I will definitely give it a try. Seeing that it can even help with weight loss is also of great advantage. Thanks so much for sharing this out. God bless

  3. Nice and informative article about beef liver and its health benefits. I have always known how good and health some beef and especially liver are but didn’t know its micronutrient levels to be that high! The only drawback is high a-vitamin but its also needed. B and C group vitamins can be used as much as you want cause them are water-soluble vitamins are generally not stored in the body. The liver is also super high on amino acids, especially very high bcaa (branched-chain amino acids) but its included among protein in the list of macronutrients. Your article made me hungry, I would like to make some home-made liver pate, it’s great too. 

  4. Yeah, I definitely subscribe to that notion of standard American diet having no Beef liver within it. In that sense, I feel people these days typically are too occupied with eating that what is tasty, instead of focusing on that which is truly healthy. Hence, obesity, diabetes and all kinds of other ill conditions being an epidemic. It really is just a direct consequence of poor diets.

    All I’m really trying to say is that I sincerely appreciate your efforts in educating people about proper food choices. Turns out I myself was not fully aware of just how beneficial it can actually be. 🙂

    Thank you for sharing the insights, have a Great One!

    Matiss

  5. Hey, Melinda, I loved your post. Just everything about it. Really resourceful, plus the studies. Well done. 🙂

    I would lie if I were to say I had no clue of the beef liver being beneficial. However, I’m one of those people that get ridiculously sick from the taste of it. Hadn’t had good experiences in that regard. But it may as well be just a case of not knowing how to prepare it tastefully (my husband can’t stand it if it’s simply cooked but for liver pasty he’s crazy).

    Which brings me to my point. I wanted to encourage people to experiment with recipes. If you don’t like it cooked in one way, there’s no reason it can’t taste really good for you if cooked in another (I mean, my husband’s a perfect example of this).

    I too promise to try that (though I’m not into pasty at all).

    Have a wonderful day, everyone.

    Rasa

  6. I saw a cooking show sometime back and one of the ingredients is liver. The liver has never been on my dinner table. Now that you have shown the benefits of it which I can see clearly from your comparison chart, it may be worth trying. All I need to do is search for the recipe online. Thanks Melinda.

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