Are There Health Benefits to Eating Organ Meat? (2024)

FAQs

Are There Health Benefits to Eating Organ Meat? ›

Organ meats are full of nutrients, and are often pound-for-pound more nutritious than muscle meats. With the notable exceptions of tripe (intestines) and brains, most organ meats are good sources of numerous vitamins and minerals, including many of the B-Vitamins, iron, and zinc.

Excess vitamin A and iron: Consuming too much vitamin A can cause birth defects. As organ meat contains high amounts of vitamin A, people who are pregnant should avoid it. Organ meat is also loaded with iron, which can be a problem for those with an iron overload disorder.

Why Americans do not eat organs. Organ meat consumption in the United States has drastically declined over the last 100 — 150 years. The reason for this is mostly related to the socio-economical stigma around them. For a long time, organs were considered “poor country folk” food.

Just a quarter pound of kidney fulfills the daily recommended amounts of vitamins B1, B2, B6, and B12, as well as copper, niacin (a form of vitamin B3), folate, biotin, iron, and selenium. And the nutrients in organ meats (and all meat) are more bioavailable than in vegetables.

Furthermore, many B vitamins in organ meat help build healthy muscle mass and burn body fat for energy.

For most people, liver can be enjoyed in moderation as part of a balanced diet. However, it should be eaten in limited amounts if you are pregnant and avoided if you have gout.

It's possible, and dangerous, to get too much vitamin A. Eating large amounts of liver can lead to symptoms of vitamin A toxicity, which happens when your own liver can't process the excess vitamin A quickly enough. Most doctors recommend that people without vitamin deficiencies eat just one serving of liver per week.

Aside from the more commonly consumed parts of the animal, it is traditional to also eat organ meats such as liver, brains, and intestines. Many of the early settlers were taught Southeastern Native American cooking methods.

Our hunter-gatherers-ancestors didn't just eat muscle meat —organ meat (sometimes called Offal), was highly prized, too. Hardly surprising when you consider organ meat is some of the most nutrient-dense food on the planet.

The Big Benefits of Beef Liver

While less common organs may offer varying nutritional profiles, liver deserves the crown and is truly king of the organ supplements.

What meat is a superfood? ›

NUTRIENT DENSE RED MEAT

So what qualifies it as a superfood? Compared to many other meats, ostrich is a better source of vitamins and minerals. Zinc: A 100-gram serving of cooked ostrich meat provides around 4 milligrams of zinc, over 30% of the recommended daily value.

Oxtail: Oxtail is classified as offal even though it is not an internal organ. Oxtail is mainly used for making soup to extract its rich flavours. It is more bone than meat, but the meat from the oxtail, once properly braised, is very rich in flavour.

Beef Liver Can Improve Energy Levels

Chronic anemia (iron deficiency) is known to cause fatigue. Liver is one of the best foods to combat this—since it provides heme iron, which is an extremely bioavailable source.

Chicken gizzards are a protein-packed, mineral-packed, and generally nutritious type of organ meat.

Lean beef

Beef is packed with high quality protein, B vitamins, minerals, and creatine. Some research has even shown that consuming lean red meat can increase the amount of lean mass gained with physical exercise.

Beef liver contains high levels of pre-formed vitamin A (also know as retinol) and is one of the most well recognised and easily absorbed nutrients for healthy skin.

The most common safety concerns are: Infection risk: All transplants come with the risk of infection. Many steps are taken to lower this risk as much as possible. The risk of infection from an animal organ may be higher than the risk from a human organ.

Wild game organs can have higher amounts of chemicals and metals than the meat: The liver and kidneys filter chemicals and metals from the blood. This can lead to high amounts of chemicals and metals in the organs. Some chemicals can build up in the brain of animals.

Heavy Metals in Organ Meats

(Copper and iron are also often found in multi-vitamin supplements.) Cadmium is another highly toxic metal that remains in the body for years, because our bodies have no efficient way to dispose of it.

Not only is liver a good-for-you ancestral superfood, it's also cheap (because people are afraid to eat them), in an easy to absorb bioavailable form and so delicious. Liver is one of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world.