Which organ and gland supplements are good for mineral imbalances - Zinc/Copper?

[PaleoPhil]

Good heavens. Maybe it's best to lightly cook oysters then? I couldn't afford to be sick for a month.

The health food market only had wild clams and farmed mussels anyway, no oysters. I got some clams.

[Guittarman03]

Liver has a huge amount of copper.  It has fair amounts of zinc, phosphorous, and iron as well.  Not nearly as much zinc as oysters, but still decent.

[cherimoya_kid]

Good heavens. Maybe it's best to lightly cook oysters then? I couldn't afford to be sick for a month.

I didn't know about activated charcoal then.  Still, that's not an experience I care to repeat, even if I can stop the cramping/diarrhea with activated charcoal or healing clays.    

[van]

as regards to the bones not being a food.  Think about the animals that 'we' would have eaten when there weren't  New York and rib eyes on every corner.  Smaller animals like birds of all kinds, rabbits, mice, insects.  All of which would have been eaten in their entirety.  The inuit were even reported to chew on the ends of rib bones and eat fish bones.  Every other carnivore eats some to a lot of the bones of it's prey.  Tigers and lions don't just kill zebras, they also eat smaller prey which they then consume their bones with the meat.  Just watch a house cat eat a bird or mouse.  We tend to be the only carnivore or omnivore that doesn't for some reason eat bones 'today'.    When fresh rib bones are ground finely,  the taste is very pleasing, almost something I look forward to.       Simply my take and experience here.

[Michael]

cherimoya, very similar oyster experiences to my own.  I used some herbal parasite tinctures which seemed to be the only thing that helped me get over it but, likewise, it took a good month or more before I was feeling ok again.  Charcoal may have also been useful but I don't fancy the idea of eating oysters again to test it!!  

paleophil, yes you're right that I probably wouldn't bother with a celiac test as I'm avoiding gluten anyway.  But, from reading that post on another forum linked by William  I got the impression that celiac also involved some kind of fat absorption problem related to a missing messenger.  I need to read it again and look into this matter in more detail.  I do feel like I'm struggling with my digestion since upping my fat intake and have even been considering a liver cleanse using olive oil/pink grapefruit juice which I found incredibly helpful, back in my vegetarian days, for removing gallstones from the liver and gallbladder.

van, I'm very keen to try this.  What do you use to grind the bones?!  I can't imagine my food processor being too happy were I to drop a couple of stock or marrow bones in there!!    Any tips much appreciated!

[TylerDurden]

Just wanted to point out that I get my raw oysters from far out to sea near Norfolk, and  have never ever had an issue with them.

[van]

Be happy to Michael.  Go on line and look for ferrier files, the ones they use to file down horse hoofs.  Get the best you can find, with a good handle.  You want to get ahold of rib bones.  Ask for them as long as they can provide them; like a foot long.   Take a sharp knife and scrape away any of the remaining meat etc. leaving a clean bone.  Store in fridge or freezer.  Eventually the reddish cartalidge middle will start to smell a little fishy if left for longer than a couple of months in the fridge, hence using the freezer to store long term.    Now to file,  hold straight down into large wooden cutting board and you'll stroke up with the bone against the file.  The material will 'clog' the ribbed file surface, ( the other side of the file is usually sharp bumps, the ribbed section works best) so get a wire brush used for getting rid of rust and run across the file in the direction of the ribs.  Do this right over the cutting board.  Then get a good 3 inch wide paint scraper and gather up the bone dust and scoop into a spoon and eat.  Sorry about the non metric references.  I eat it when I start to get hungry  before my first meal.  It then fills/takes off the hunger edge for me temporarily and then in maybe a half an hour, I get hungry again, and that is when I eat my meat then fat.  I think we need all the acid in our stomachs to digest it, and believe that even though bone has a lot of protein itself, the concentration of mineral leaves your stomach more alkaline in the end, hence not mixing it with meat, so that I don't alkalize the stomach with the bone.  Obviously experiment on your own.  I eat about one or two ribs per week, and feel good about knowing that I am getting all the elements my body needs to build bones.  Bones have such an array of nutrients that go to make them up,  it seems silly to miss out on that offering.   Yes the blood has all essential elements and it does pass through meat/muscle/tissue, but like organs, each part of the body pulls from the blood what it needs.     Feel free if you want further clarification on any of this.   Also I keep the file in the fridge so when I file the bone, it and the grinder are cold and that helps to prevent any heat build up.    I do this a couple of times a day, and like to eat about four tablespoons a day.   Van

[Michael]

Thank you van!  I really appreciate your efforts in typing out that lengthy description!  I am intrigued to try this and will start looking for a farriers rasp/file.  I would never have thought of using such a method!

How long have you been 'supplementing' with your powdered bone?  Have you noticed any changes since you introduced it?  I'm certainly keen to see if it helps with my receding gums.

I, too, have now tried searching the 'net for more information on the mineral contents of bone but am dizzy with information overload!  These seemingly simple bones are one complex mother of a structure!!  Even the notorious Wiki has lots of interesting information on 'Bone' but I've drawn little further knowledge from my search regarding constitution.  Calcium and Phosphorous seem to be all that gets mentioned.  I think this is a subject worthy of much more reading and understanding!

[PaleoPhil]

Ron's comments in the linked thread regarding celiac and fat absorption were a little concerning though.  I think I'll look into this aspect a little more.  I have long suffered with gluten intolerance but have never been tested for celiac.  

I am also gluten intolerant and I had trouble digesting fats at first (I used to eat mostly very lean meats), but my fat digestion seems to be improving rapidly. I still have trouble with some fats, like beef intramuscular fat and most cooked pork sausage (I only eat cooked sausage on rare occasions now when I need a road food and don't have any low-heated jerky or pemmican).