Too Much Liver in Diet?

[Fermenter Zym]

I eat raw pet food from US Wellness Beef on a daily basis and I was wondering if the mixture of 65% lean ground beef (90% total product), beef liver (5%) and beef heart (5%) will cause too much Vitamin A intake. If I eat a pound a day I would be eating about 0.05 pounds or ~23 grams of liver. My daily vitamin A would likely be about 9000 IU and I don't believe I eat any foods at the moment to balance the Vitamin A with Vitamin D (I'm all out of Cod Liver Oil).

I sometimes still get cravings for whole raw liver and often feel really good after eating it, but as of late I haven't had the same euphoric feelings after eating it and am wondering if I've had enough. The Weston Price Foundation recommends "A maintenance dose of cod liver oil that provides about 10,000 IU vitamin A daily, obtained from 2 teaspoons of regular cod liver oil or 1 teaspoon of high-vitamin cod liver oil" so it sounds like the amount of Vitamin A I get from liver each day is a safe dose, but I wonder if I need more Vitamin D.

What do you all think? Am I eating too much liver? Do I need more Vitamin D? Where would I get the Vitamin D from?

[KD]

I think they are very careful not to add enough liver that would poison dogs much smaller than you. That said if you are eating tons of liver on top of that it might not be the greatest idea. Probably just pay attention to those signals as you are doing and be aware of any actual signs of true poisoning, or just go on intentional breaks from the whole liver for a week or so every so often. A lb a day of that stuff is probably nothing. No clue on the D in relation to A but you could try the regular prescribed menu in food for minor amounts of D, like seafood, or for heavy doses take supplements like the oil or pills, or take a vacation in a sunny location.

Most people seem to start shitting their brains (ok, ingested liver, whatever) out prior to the problems you are speaking of.

[cherimoya_kid]

Most people seem to start shitting their brains (ok, ingested liver, whatever) out prior to the problems you are speaking of.

Yeah, TylerDurden became completely unable to digest liver for a while, it just passed right through him, because he was eating so much of it.

I think you'll be fine, as long as you don't eat extra liver.

[eveheart]

I eat about 3 oz of lamb liver almost every day. I love the taste and start missing it after a few days if I stop eating it. A friend of mine starting supplementing vitamin D and said it made her stiff shoulders feel better, so I bought vitamin D-3 from Trader Joe's just to experiment and see how my stiff shoulders felt. So far, I've gotten a lot of relief. I chew the capsules and spit out the gel-cap. I also eat a few good egg yolks every day.

[Neone]

My wife and I eat around half a pound of liver a day...  We dont look like the simpsons yet...
Sometimes I even eat a whole pound of kidney!!!  (because some guy here said that over 250g of kidney has enough something to hospitalize you.)

[Muhammad.Sunshine]

You can always get vitamin D from sunshine. Even during winter there are occasional crisp and sunny days; on such days I trounce around for brisk walks in my shorts and jersey. It feels invigorating and everyone will think you are a frost inoculated superman as they shiver beneath multiple layers of clothing.

Natural retinol is safe in my opinion. Liver is lovely, and I eat plenty.

[Dorothy]

When hubbie was researching vit D he came across something that indicated getting your vit D from cod liver oil did not work because something prevented the D from being absorbed, but now for the life of me I can't remember the details. I wouldn't depend on the cod liver oil for your D.

[jessica]

ive eaten more then a pound of liver a day, and eaten up to a pound per day for days on end
though i have really bad anemia as well as a compromised liver of my own and doubt i am absorbing the full nutrient content, or that even a healthy person would absorb every microgram of nutrition from the liver..usually before i add it to a meal i take a bite and see if it is what i want to eat, sometimes it tastes different and i dont want any after that bite and sometimes i munch down a ton right there, just depends....try that out, start listening to and trusting your own body

[Dorothy]

After some thought - we think it was that vitamin A interferes with vitamin D and cod-liver oil is so high in vitamin A that you don't absorb much of its vitamin D when you take cod-liver oil.

[Fermenter Zym]

After some thought - we think it was that vitamin A interferes with vitamin D and cod-liver oil is so high in vitamin A that you don't absorb much of its vitamin D when you take cod-liver oil.

It's supposed to be the opposite from my research, Dorothy. If you eat Vitamin A without D, it can be highly toxic in large doses, but with synergistic Vitamin D, you can eat a lot and receive the full benefits.

[Dorothy]

It's supposed to be the opposite from my research, Dorothy. If you eat Vitamin A without D, it can be highly toxic in large doses, but with synergistic Vitamin D, you can eat a lot and receive the full benefits.

I bet I'm remembering it wrong Zym - thanks for the correction - but now it is really bugging me why they said that cod-liver oil is not the way to get vitamin D! and I'm going to have to go searching. That's probably going to be hard to find with all the research we did.... but I just gotsta know now!

[RawZi]

... - but now it is really bugging me why they said that cod-liver oil is not the way to get vitamin D!

    Regular cod liver oil or fermented? Encapsulated? Which one was it referring to if not all when saying it's not a good way to get vitamin D?

    I got cinnamon flavored blue ice clo, just to try taking d.  Took it one or two doses, and it's nothing like food, made me burp oil taste, yuck!   Anyway, now, not to waste it (it's expensive, and moreso than the price sheet read), I've been adding it to meat and liver dishes till I run out of the oil I guess.

[Haai]

I bet I'm remembering it wrong Zym - thanks for the correction - but now it is really bugging me why they said that cod-liver oil is not the way to get vitamin D! and I'm going to have to go searching. That's probably going to be hard to find with all the research we did.... but I just gotsta know now!

I think it is because that Blue Ice fermented cod liver oil contains mainly vitamin D2 rather than D3, but it's the vit D3 that we want.

[Dorothy]

I think it is because that Blue Ice fermented cod liver oil contains mainly vitamin D2 rather than D3, but it's the vit D3 that we want.

This I KNOW for reals about from nephrologists.  D2 is the precursor to D3 so most people can do fine with D2 if their kidneys are working right - unless of course that relates to the clo issue.

The search for that quote continues!....

[RawZi]

    It's been written some places tha d2 is vegan and d3 is made by animals.  It's written else where that whether animal, plant or other, d2 is synthetic and d3 natural.  Does anyone understand and know the science behind clo being d2?

    I seem to remember the medical doctor prescribing us d2 tablets about 20 years ago.  I don't recall it helping us.

[Dorothy]

Here you go ------- I FOUND IT! D2 vs. D3 and clo. This video answers the above questions and concerns very well.

http://youtu.be/wiL_mb5Pf4Y

Here are two short little videos on the difference between D2 and D3

http://youtu.be/HyZNkM7MgqA

http://youtu.be/vWElfaHekLk

But I should add that if you have sever kidney disease you need calcitriol.

[Joy2012]

My wife and I eat around half a pound of liver a day...  We dont look like the simpsons yet...
Sometimes I even eat a whole pound of kidney!!!  (because some guy here said that over 250g of kidney has enough something to hospitalize you.)

Do you eat cow's kidneys or pig's kidneys? Do you have to clean kidneys in someway to get rid of the veins which I suppose used to carry urine? Does raw kidney taste like cooked one?

The salewoman in Slanker's told me she heard somebody said kidneys taste like urine!   

My culture eats a lot of cooked pig's kidneys and I liked them.  The kidneys have to be cleaned in some way though. My culture also says eating kidneys is great for one's kidneys.

[Dorothy]

So Joy - YOU'RE the reason Slankers can't fill my order!    And you already have WF to buy from and I don't. Bwwwwaaaa.

But really - no food for doggies, no food for chickens - I'm never going to recommend Slankers again! They won't let me automatically order but don't have food for me when I do order. My poor beagle is suffering because of the radical change in diet.

Without a constant food source - how on earth can someone do a ketogenic diet?! You need ALL the organs - the whole animal. Slankers is undependable. Sucks.

What culture are you Joy?

[sabertooth]

 I find its much better to just buy whole animals.

Its not an option for everyone, but I suggest that if you are on a ketogenic  mostly meat diet, you look into it.

I have found a local network of small scale family farmers that supply me with a 100 pound lamb about every three weeks.  At 1.35 dollars a pound on hoof, its a very economical arrangement.

[Dorothy]

I find its much better to just buy whole animals.

Its not an option for everyone, but I suggest that if you are on a ketogenic  mostly meat diet, you look into it.

I have found a local network of small scale family farmers that supply me with a 100 pound lamb about every three weeks.  At 1.35 dollars a pound on hoof, its a very economical arrangement.

No kidding that's economical! That's real lucky Sabertooth. I looked into buying a grass-fed lamb and they wanted $7 a pound even when buying the whole animal. I've been talking to a farmer that has miniature herefords - but still too big and too much meat to fit in my freezer and fridge.   But I'm going to see if I can get a bunch of raw meat dog feeders to go in with me. Fingers crossed. She might be able to get me a goat - which hopefully won't be such a high cost as all the other options and will fit in my space. But I don't know if she will be a dependable source either.

I'm ordering bugs just in case the dogs like them - I know the chickens do. That will at least be an affordable source for one form of critter. I'll become a bug farmer! Then I'm thinking of starting to raise some fish (I can also feed the bugs to the fish) and then hopefully the dogs will have both eggs and whole little fish (the cats can have fish too that way). I haven't convinced my husband to eat raw bugs yet - boy - would that make everything much easier!

I just found a store here that carries fresh grass-fed ground meat (when they have it in stock - which is rare because it sells out) and guess how much they want for the ground beef: $20 a pound! They couldn't give me any organs or bones because they say that nothing goes to waste - they sell everything. No scraps at all.... and nothing left.... and no telling when there might be more.

I really do have to find some farmers that have whole smaller animals to sell me that aren't so expensive. Wish me luck! I hope I can get as lucky as you Sabertooth.

[Fermenter Zym]

I'm ordering bugs just in case the dogs like them - I know the chickens do. That will at least be an affordable source for one form of critter. I'll become a bug farmer! Then I'm thinking of starting to raise some fish (I can also feed the bugs to the fish) and then hopefully the dogs will have both eggs and whole little fish (the cats can have fish too that way). I haven't convinced my husband to eat raw bugs yet - boy - would that make everything much easier!

What bugs are your raising? And what bugs do you eat?

I'm not gonna lie, the idea of eating bugs still freaks me out.

[Dorothy]

Zym - the truth is that I haven't gotten myself to eat one bug - but I eat little meat. Veggies and fruit and seeds do me good and I like eggs and dairy and with fish and suet I'm cheaper to feed than my beagle! My husband needs a great deal more meat than me - so that's why I think HE should eat bugs. lol. It's all these darn creatures that need so much whole meat animal that are my trouble. If I could feed them all worms then I wouldn't have to hunt down farmers like I am.

I just now made my big container for mealworms which is what I'm going to start with first. I have a small amount and some darkling beetles (what the "worms" turn into) from a pet store - but I'm going to order 5,000 or maybe more on-line - probably tonight. I once raised masses of mealworms but then one night a lizard must have gotten in the house and they all disappeared. That lizard must have EXPLODED. So I just made a container that will allow in lots of air but not lizards and hunter spiders and the like.  I bought lots of organic meal for them as their bedding and I'm ready to go.

I used to raise crickets, but that will be later down the road to introduce them again. You have to be ready for crickets.

But this order I will be getting a whole bunch of red wiggler worms. Those I will feed my garbage to. Those are great. I used to compost indoors with them all the time. Their feed is free. Those I will definitely be able to feed the chickens and fish - but probably no one else. Red wigglers and mealworms are both pretty easy to raise. Roaches would also be pretty simple - but I can't get myself to do that. 

Superworms and waxworms and silkworms are all do-able too, just not quite as much of a no-brainer as the mealworms and red-wigglers.

I'm also outside making a black soldier fly composter for the self-harvesting maggots. Chickens go nuts for those and that is totally free food.

That's what I'm up to on the bug farm. 

[RawZi]

    Dorothy, other grass-fed frozen companies have dog-food, like US Wellness and I'm sure there are others when Slankers doesn't have.

... YOU'RE the reason Slankers can't fill my order!    ...

But really - no food for doggies, ... I'm never going to recommend Slankers again! They won't let me automatically order but don't have food for me when I do order. My poor beagle is suffering because of the radical change in diet.

Without a constant food source - how on earth can someone do a ketogenic diet?! You need ALL the organs - the whole animal. Slankers is undependable.

[Dorothy]

    Dorothy, other grass-fed frozen companies have dog-food, like US Wellness and I'm sure there are others when Slankers doesn't have.

Does US Wellness have ground whole animal delivered? Oh - that would be wonderful if I could find another supplier!!!

So many dog foods add fruits and vegetables and don't use the whole animal.

[RawZi]

Does US Wellness have ground whole animal delivered? ... So many dog foods add fruits and vegetables and don't use the whole animal.

    They do deliver, and they don't add fruit or vegetables to their foods. http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Categories.bok?category=Pet+Food

    These might help too: http://www.northstarbison.com/search.aspx?keyword=gland&category=Meat+Products&Scid=151&soption=1,

http://www.northstarbison.com/category.aspx?zcid=183,
http://www.northstarbison.com/Bison-Mountain-Oysters-Package.aspx ,
 http://www.northstarbison.com/search.aspx?keyword=ovary