Is Store Bought Organ Meat Better Than Nothing?

[Amris]

So I've been trying to find a local farm and/or butcher to get organ meats from, but the only kind of "not muscle" meat I can find so far is tongue.

So... is it better to go ahead and get liver from the grocery store, or not? I'm uncertain, myself, as isn't organs and marrow one of the places that the hormones and such concentrate?

Thanks for any help!

(I'll be eating them raw, FYI)

[Iguana]

No, it's not better than nothing - unless you're starving to death... which is probably not the case, isn't it? You can live well without organ meat as long as you have other raw animal food to eat such as wild seafood or suitable eggs.

[Amris]

Thanks.

I did actually find some raw, though frozen, calf liver. So I'm going to give that a try.

I can get Bison that hasn't been frozen, but even the local dairy stuff I get has all been frozen.

However, I can get eggs and milk, and unfrozen fish. The same store I found the calf liver at has unfrozen grass-fed meats, too.

Does anyone know what Caul Fat is??

[Josh]

A lot of USA people order from Slanker's farm. Could you do that?

[Iguana]

However, I can get eggs and milk, and unfrozen fish. The same store I found the calf liver at has unfrozen grass-fed meats, too.
Does anyone know what Caul Fat is??

I don't know what Caul Fat is but if milk is considered OK by AV in his "Primal Diet", it's typically neither a primal nor a paleo food, except for babies and young children who drink the milk of their mother, not the milk from another animal species. 

[eveheart]

I've been eating raw for about 2 months now, and I'm just beginning to uncover really good local meat sources. Lamb and goat are my favorites. I won't presume that your area is like mine, but my best sources are very large health food stores with butcher departments and very small halal (Muslim) markets that are connected with local ranches. I can order fresh lamb liver and kidneys from halal markets.

Caul fat can be looked up in Wikipedia.

[Waldpfad]

Store bought organ meats is still better than eating bagels, breads, crackers, pasta, donuts, etc.
Keep the meats very lean because toxins are mostly in skin and fat (chicken especially).
Most stores carry 'wild caught' fish. (which mostly means it's farmed raised and released to be caught 'wild'. 
Oysters and clams are high in minerals and are very good for you (even from the store).
Don't go back to eating a crappy SAD diet because you can't find grassfed/finished local lamb (for example).
Btw, most lamb in the US is pastured, so is buffalo. They are not given pesticide, hormone and anti-biotic shots even if grain finished. The omega ratio is off and a few toxins (from the feed) are stored in the fatty tissue and organs (mostly kidneys) but that's about it.
Rotate buffalo/lamb and seafood, stay away from chicken as much as possible, the ratio is the worst and they're all fed soy and arsenic (for rapid growth).

[RawZi]

Most stores carry 'wild caught' fish. (which mostly means it's farmed raised and released to be caught 'wild'. 

    Really?  Do you know somewhere I can read more about it, or how to ask to get the truth?  I never asked, but I did wonder a little.  What about when it's not only labeled wild caught but in addition labeled sustainably harvested or something like that? 

[CitrusHigh]

That would explain the 'wild caught' salmon I got frozen at walmart there for a while. Usually real wild caught salmon you can easily distinguish from its farmed counterpart because it is ruby red compared to the light pink of farmed. This stuff came from china, go figure!

Still, the vast majority of wild caught claims I see in the markets are the real deal, but even then they can get treated with gas or additives for transport, there really just is no way to know for sure unless you raise or grow the food yourself. Fortunately that's pretty easy with animals....not! Well it would be if we used our space more efficiently!

[eveheart]

Btw, most lamb in the US is pastured, so is buffalo.

I used to assume that this was true, but a thread elsewhere on this forum led me to start asking at the meat department about how buffalo and lamb were fed. Whole Foods knew for sure that their buffalo was grain-supplemented, meaning that the livestock is pastured on fields with grain available at all times. Likewise, pastured chickens are grain-fed while running free in the pastures. The meat manager wasn't sure about his lamb, but guessed that lamb won't eat grain feed. Since this eye-opening clarification, I look for the exact wording "grass-fed" for all the red meat I buy, and I also want to know which ranch the meat comes from, just to assure myself that there is grass in that area.

[jessica]

i dont know, the more i work with and butcher animals and share stories with others who do the same the more wary of non local anything i become, my pigs had worms in their livers but we slopped them, they werent free range or pastured(not my choice for sure!) the guy i slaughtered with said hes seeing more and more cows with worms...honestly just know your source.....eatwild.com is a great resource, so is your local farmers market, find em online, on facebook, call whoever organizes it even if its during the off season and ask them to help you find a local ranch....

[Waldpfad]

Eveheart:

Yes, lamb and buffalo are grain supplemented but only once they leave the true owner where they ate grass and are transported (after being sold whole and alive) to the middle man who then keeps them in tight quarters so they don't move much and are then fattened up with grains for about 150 days.
So when an animal spent 1 day of its life on grass it can legally be called grass-fed.

I have contacted the buffalo meat supplier that sells his Products to Fred Meyer stores all over the country. They admitted that once the animal leaves their healthy, 100% pesticide and other chemical free pasture they have 0 control over what the middle man does.
Buffalos are not allowed in feedlots and are on a seperate piece of land away from commercial cattle to be fattned up. Of course there is no guarantee that this piece of property is clean...buffalo however get sick VERY fast so special care has to be taken to ensure they live through those 150 days of being fattened.
With this said, buffalo and sheep is one of the best commercial meats you can buy today.
I've eaten lamb many times, mostly raw or slightly warmed up, also consumed the bone marrow raw.
My dogs are spoiled on raw grassfed/finished meats and bones and won't touch commercial feedlot bones. They can tell the difference between soy fed, organic chicken from the store and chicken bought from the local farmer who raises them outdoors and supplements them with earth worms!
Dogs very much KNOW where the nutrition is and will always pick the better piece.
The lamb and buffalo I buy at Fred Meyer are the 2 meats they will chow down in a heart beat just like they chow down on their grassfed/finished cattle bones, local farm raised turkeys and chicken/eggs and hogs.

My motto has always been 'If my dogs don't eat it, I won't either'.