Raw liver. Too much vitamin A?

[White shark]

I have just started eating raw liver. I have read that you shouldnt eat more than 200 gr raw liver a week, because you will get vitamin A poisoning, but is that true?

[TylerDurden]

It's only an issue if you are eating raw livers from arctic animals where, according to Stefansson, you might experience a bit of stomach-upset etc. I once did an experiment where I ate just raw organic/grassfed ox liver every alternate week, and I eventually found that my body stopped absorbing the liver and I just excreted it all out via diarrhea from the other end. There was no discomfort, it was just my body refusing to absorb such a high amount of nutrients from the same food.

[jessica]

i easily eat 1/2 lb a day, sometimes more, each body is different, eat how much you crave, when it starts to taste weird or you feel you want something else eat something else
i feel anemic without it though
i have had liver issues in the past and they seem to be clearing up the longer i eat raw paleoish

[White shark]

Ok, I dont think I need to worry about that. I eat maybe about 250 grams a week of beef liver.

[Polyvore]

Wow, jessica! 1/2 lb a day is a lot of liver! I would think that is dangerous... are you eating kidneys and SPLEEN? If not I would definitely recommend, they are high in iron, and spleen actually has vitamin C which has a big role in iron absorption! You might think you are getting vitamin c from fruits, but perhaps your anemic feeling is because the plant-based vitamin c is not absorbing well? Plant and animal vitamin types are very different but we need both types to function at our best.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2507689

[jessica]

kidney has vitamin c as well, and no.  i eat about a head of lettuce with each meal, i dont eat much fruit, maybe once a week ill have a piece if i pick it myself, so only in season, i dont buy fruit.  i love liver, i think it is a better source of energy for me than muscle, i havent lost a taste for it yet, but if i do i wont force it.  i was really pretty malnourished all last year, i am actually starting to grow the hair on my head back, started about two months ago, and things are really coming into balance for me.  i think it is less about the preciseness or perfection of my diet and more about overall balance in my life

[raw]

Wow! Jessica, we want to hear more about the story of ur hair growth. Usually eating too much of calf liver, make me little sick. But it is always fine to little bit everyday for me

[van]

I find if I pay attention the need for liver or the amount is clear.  I either find I want it, or I don't.  Mixing liver with other foods can disguise the stop though. 

[political atheist]

Is eating raw(or cooked) liver healthy?

Liver and kidneys are detoxing organs, which means that the ingested toxins(from chemtrails/heavy metals, pesticides, big pharma drugs, GMOs etc.) by the animal will be stored in its liver and kidneys. Mostly in the liver.

It is wise to eat it?

Even if its TRULY grass fed liver and kidneys, chemtrails are everywhere, falling on everything, one the very grass they eat, in the water.. also GMOs contaminate fields all over the world through the wind and big pharma drugs in the water...

[JeuneKoq]

I suggest quitting eating altogether then, since traces of Monsanto round-up pesticide's main substance, the glyphosate, has been found even in the backbones of animals living in the Arctic.

Also toxins are not only stored in the liver. They can be stored in fat tissues, and maybe elsewhere if the intoxication is greater. So no suet either.

Your concern is understandable, but the point is you'll never find perfectly pure food in this world, so might as well eat what does you more good than harm. If your body craves liver, I suggest eating some, from the best source available to you.

I think some foods can be replaced by others with a similar nutritive content, so if you really have a problem with liver and kidneys, you could try and find that alternative.

[TylerDurden]

JK, thank you for those words of wisdom! Alternative-health types all too often exaggerate various media-scares.

[Iguana]

…chemtrails are everywhere, falling on everything, one the very grass they eat, in the water..

Haha, chemtrails ! LOL !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory#Contrails_as_chemtrails
http://thevane.gawker.com/why-i-write-about-and-debunk-the-chemtrail-conspiracy-1581896346

Yeah, yeah, chemtrails, and the Earth is hollow, there is grass, trees, cows, Illuminatis/reptilians inside along with Hitler and other Nazis and there’s a sun in the center. The access is trough the North Pole by a secret hidden tunnel to go inside. Read the Yellow Book number 5, everything about it is explained:
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_vril04.htm 

[dariorpl]

I've heard that in Svalbard, where it is legal to hunt polar bears, people who hunt them bury the liver to prevent dogs from eating it and dying of vitamin A poisoning. Apparently they won't even eat the liver cooked. I'm interested in this because some day I would like to travel there and hunt things, among them possibly polar bears, and I don't want to die of vitamin A poisoning. Do you think this belief carries any merit, or is it just more scare propaganda from the mainstream medical establishment?

[TylerDurden]

I've heard that in Svalbard, where it is legal to hunt polar bears, people who hunt them bury the liver to prevent dogs from eating it and dying of vitamin A poisoning. Apparently they won't even eat the liver cooked. I'm interested in this because some day I would like to travel there and hunt things, among them possibly polar bears, and I don't want to die of vitamin A poisoning. Do you think this belief carries any merit, or is it just more scare propaganda from the mainstream medical establishment?

Stefansson, the arctic explorer and ZC diet exponent, mentioned that people who ate polar bear liver became violently sick and vomited  but did not die.

[dariorpl]

Ok, thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

I wonder if it would do the same to a long time raw paleo-er.

There are plenty of other cool things to hunt there, including reindeer, seals, walruses, etc. Maybe I'd stick to those. It's hard to imagine paleolithic humans hunting a bear unless they were desperate. Then again, they were a lot more healthy and strong, so it's possible they could've done it with their primitive hunting equipment. For average humans today, hunting a bear without a rifle or rifle equivalent is pretty much impossible.

[political atheist]

my main reason to eat raw liver is for its copper content...10mg per 100g(3.5oz)...