how much organ meat to muscle meat?

[razmatazz]

I'm confused as to how much raw organ meat to eat to mimic our paleo ancestors as closely as possible. The way i see it, most of an animal would be fat and muscle and some organ measts (i mean each animal has only brain, one heart, few sweetbreads if any, etc..) so eating mostly organ meats isn't very realistic right? But how much organ meats do i need to be healthy? At the moment i eat about 500g liver a week, about 6 or 7 lamb kidneys, 3 or 4 lamb hearts, about 100g marrow fat (thats all i can get - the rest is suet) and a few sweetbreads every couple of weeks when i get them. The rest is suet and fatty muscle meat (mainly rump steak - i ask the farmer i get my meat from to give me as much fat as possible).
Is this ok? should i be eating more organ meats? I feel like i'm eating too much muscle meats...

[Raw Kyle]

That sounds great to me. I rarely eat organs because I don't like them much. If you wanted to truly simulate natural eating you could probably just google anatomy of ox or bison or whatever animal you're eating and find out lb for lb how much lean muscle, fat, and organ weight they had in a percentage. Like lean muscle makes up ___% of the animal, the liver is usually ___lbs in a ___lb animal.

But maybe in paleo times they threw away a lot of muscle and ate more organs? Or maybe they ate more muscle and threw away some organs? That's the wild card that makes it pretty much impossible to "simulate" paleo eating. Also, different cultures probably ate different parts of the animal with more frequency. I remember reading one of the African tribes in Weston Price's book made a big deal about liver, I would guess they would eat the liver first and possibly give away other parts like muscle to dogs or let it rot if they were full with liver. Also one of the North American Indian tribes supposedly ate the organs first and gave muscle to dogs.

There are some tribes that ate the whole animal without choosing much over parts, but usually it seems those are the ones who have the least food available like the Inuit, and therefore don't want to waste anything. Still I bet they give certain parts with more frequency to pregnant women, children, working men, etc...

I think the amount of organs you're eating is great.

[Guittarman03]

I don't know how much is too much, but I have been eating 0.5-1 lb of liver every other day now for a week.  I don't seem to have developed any problems, although I'm still a little concerned that maybe the Vit A could be too much.  I had 1lb of beef heart yesterday.  I'll probably get into the kidneys soon enough. 

[TylerDurden]

The amounts you're eating are fine, and the variety is good as well.

I should mention that not only wild animals but also hunter-gatherers prize the organ-meats above all other meats. In some cases, in times of plenty, they'll just eat the organ-meats and leave the rest. A good example are those killer whales hunting the baby (grey?) whales in the eatern pacific - usually, all the killer whales eat is the fatty tongue of the calf, ignoring the rest. A human example, would be the royal courts of Mediaeval Europe where the kings and nobles getting first priority/right of choice  re the organ-meats.

My opinion is that organ-meats are essential for important things like fertility(tribeswomen, according to weston-price) would routinely seek out the organ-meats to ensure maximal health for their offspring(indeed, I strongly suspect that the falling western sperm-count is directly attributable to the lack of organ-meats in the modern diet). However, it is possible to maintain adequate, if not optimal, health on a diet of zero-organ-meats. Obviously, though, if one is seriously ill at the start, it would be more beneficial to have some organ-meats so as to speed up recovery.

[RawZi]

    Just trying to draw attention.  What I really mean is I just got a bunch of bison stuff and want to know the best ways to use them.  I got a pancreas, a liver, a heart, a spleen, a thymus, a testicle, marrow, suet, a tongue and two adrenals.  It's amazing how small most of it is.  I was told these buffalo are small.  Thanks.

    I have biodynamic butter, kefir, milk, honey and eggs too.  Maybe they can be used in recipe with above?

[goodsamaritan]

I eat goat testicles plain.

Beef pancreas I don't want to eat.  Last time I had too much of it I woke up wobbly and my eyes seeing double vision I couldn't drive.  Too powerful.

[van]

  raw adrenals are powerful, so eat small amounts and then increase.  There should be no rule as to how much, each of us will desire or need different amounts at different times.  Let your taste/desire guide you.  There is a stop.  In the beginning you may have to encourage yourself to try various organs.  Then when acclimated your body will steer you towards or away from each.  I do find bison organs far superior in taste.  Try North Star bison, they ship most reasonably. 

[RawZi]

    Thank you, guys.  I ate testicle, pancreas and marrow last night.  I felt like I could eat a lot of pancreas. 

    I don't like anything beef so far.

[RawpaleoHealthdiet]

 Your having the same problem I had, don't be fanatical. Measuring food and trying to mimic the old ways are where you are messing up. The old paleo hunters would kill an animal and have a FEAST eating whichever part they craved. And since the food was the healthiest and most nutritionist they just ate and ate.

Just eat mostly organ or whatever you are craving. Just don't turn it into a job. Its a creative art, eating is a reward. What you do when you have worked hard and EARNED nourishment.

Don't be perfecto either. Yes I know harsh, but think about all the super healthy people who have high testosterone and success drive. Floyd mayweather,Tyson, Michael phelps(eats pounds of food a day)

This comes from passion. Eat all raw and whatever organs you like, don't force-feed. Like in Amadeus "Lets have some fun" lol.

Seriously when you body is strong enough you will be able to eat shards of glass (NO DON'T TRY IT NOW) and be healthy.

[surfsteve]

Old thread here but I've been consuming 50% raw organ meats for going on 2 years in the form of raw meat smoothies. I eat anywhere between a quarter and a half a pound of liver daily and don't have any symptoms of taking too much vitamin A. If I total them all up I eat between ¾  and a pound and a half of organ meats  a day.

How I got started:
In my late teens and early 20's I took raw glandular tablets. I did really well on them and wanted to start taking them again a couple years ago when I started bodybuilding but they were so darn expensive! I even tried to bid for them on Ebay but none of my bids even came close to what they were going for.  I thought to myself. What's the difference between raw drying them into tablets and grinding them fresh into smoothies? As long as I don't get any parasites wouldn't it be even better? I read how the Weston Price foundation claimed that freezing meat for two weeks killed parasites. Though I keep my meat in the freezer out of convenience and economics I didn't want to wait for 2 weeks and my first time tried them fresh.  To date I've never had a problem with them. I  can't believe how cheap organ meats are. I started using them instead of the dried pills out of economics but found that they are actually way better too. At first I took only small amounts but I soon found out that the more I took, the better I felt. Since making my own jerky I found out that I love eating ground heart that way. Tried them as steaks. They are a little tough but I mainly don't care for the texture. I can get ground beef heart for half the price of hamburger and am going to start buying it instead so if I keep up with it I'll probably be going to 3/4 organ  meat to 1/4 muscle meats.

Though I often wonder. Is heart an organ meat or a muscle meat. I guess technically it's both.

[Drengr]

surfsteve where do you get the ground beef heart?

[surfsteve]

I just ask for it from my local butcher at a chain store supermarket. They don't charge any extra for grinding it for me. ( $1.99 a pound, much cheaper than hamburger) They like it better if I call ahead and order it. They keep beef heart in stock but other than heart, liver and tripe I have to request them to order anything else. Things they can get are kidney, testicles, and thymus. Things they can't are adrenal, pituitary and eye balls. They can get whole heads but not eyeballs. Pretty sure I can order brains too but I don't eat them for fear of prions. I sometimes wonder if the adrenal might be sold as part of the kidney since they are so close together. Perhaps pituitary could be included as part of the brain. Does anyone else know? For sure it would be included if I wanted to pay for the whole head.  I have an order in for 10 pounds of heart and 10 pounds of liver to be ground and picked up on Sunday. This is my first time ever, ordering ground kidney. ( 99 cents a pound.) Not sure how I'm going to prepare it, if at all. ( I might wind up giving it to my dogs if I fail to make it palatable.)

[TylerDurden]

Didn't you state, a while back,  that the raw meat you ate was largely grainfed/grainfinished? It's just that it's RVAF folklore that the toxins collect in the organs, thus making the organs of  unhealthy animals fed on  grain/soy etc. diets  more toxic than the raw muscle-meats.  I concede, however, that a couple of  RVAFers have told me in the past  about relatives who regained their health after eating raw(albeit grainfed) meats.

[surfsteve]

True. I can not afford grass fed meat.

I've been eating around 50 percent raw organ meats for the past two years and have largely regained my health. My hair has also reverted back from gray to it's natural color.

Whenever possible I try to cheat, for example when I buy liver I make sure it's calves liver because calves are often slaughtered before they go to market and are fed grain. Also thymus reportedly only comes from calves because cows thymuses have allegedly shrunk to nothing by the time they go to market. But for the most part the beef I eat is grain fed.

Fish on the other hand are a different story. I only buy ocean caught fish and usually only from the Atlantic since Fukushima. I find that wild fish doesn't cost all that much more than farmed so for the time being it's affordable and a good bargain.