Hello, friends! Long time no chat 🙂 I am excited to be back and tell you all about this ‘superfood’ that I have recently incorporated into my daily routine. It is having a positive impact for my digestion, skin, hair, nails, mood, energy…the list goes on. You may think I will say spirulina, turmeric, goji berry, maca powder- essentially any colorful food you may find in the Whole Foods supplement aisle- but no…this item is technically a food, but it is freeze dried. It is contained in a little capsule to make it easy to take daily.
Without further ado, let’s chat about it. It’s Grass Fed Beef Liver. And before you judge or say Ew…hear me out!
Ancestral Supplements sells the best quality beef organ supplements on the market. Everything is grass fed and grass finished. The supplements are hormone, pesticide, and GMO free. The supplements are 100 percent freeze dried. It is essentially like you are eating liver itself, just in an easier format.
Benefits of Liver
I am shocked that most people do not know the power of grass fed beef liver. This food is one of the most dense sources of nutrition on the planet. It helps with detoxification, digestion, and much more. Liver contains Vitamin A, choline, folate, vitamin B12, iron and other important nutrients our body needs to function at its very best.
Beef liver is an organ meat from cows. It is rich in minerals and a great source of complete protein. Animal foods like liver contain all of the essential amino acids and liver actually has the highest protein content of all organ meats (source).
I have been learning a lot about the myriad of health benfits you can get from consuming high quality liver and other animal foods through Dr. Paul Saladino (his Instagram page, linked here and his website , linked here). You may have heard of him because he has been on several popular Podcasts, like Joe Rogan for example. Dr. Saladino used to have asthma and eczema. Since eating an animal-based diet, he no longer experiences these conditions. It is incredible.
Dr. Saladino is not a fan of vegetables and other plant foods. His main talk track is that plants develop defense chemicals in order to disuade animals from over-consuming them. These are in the plant stems, roots, and seeds which can be inherently harmful to humans. He eats mainly meat, raw eggs, fruit, honey, organs and raw dairy. He also gets a lot of sunshine and exercise of course, which contributes to how he is looking so healthy and fit.
What You Can Do
The message of this blog post is not: stop eating all vegetables and start following Dr. Saladino’s diet right away. It is likely unreasonable for most people and I’ve never been a huge fan of cutting out entire food groups. It makes going out to eat more difficult and I think can also cause general anxiety and stress about food, which is never a good thing. The point of this post is that knowledge is power, and I truly think most humans can benefit from incorporating these high quality animal foods into their diet, even if it is just a little bit, and even if it is just in the form of a supplement if eating raw meat freaks you out. I am still hesitant about the whole raw meat thing, but at some point in the future, I do hope to consume a bit of raw, fresh liver at least once a week! To give you a practical example of how I incorporated Liver yesterday- I made a smoothie using a Koia protein drink, Skyr yogurt, dates, half an avocado, bee pollen and emptied 6 capsules of the beef liver directly into the smoothie. You cannot taste the liver at all, but are still getting the incredible benefits of the food while drinking the smoothie.
Skin, Hair and Nails
My skin has been VERY clear recently and my nails are growing like crazy. Take a look below. Keep in mind that these results are from consuming liver consistently for just a week. One week! That tells you how powerful this food truly is for the human body. I have also noticed my hair feels stronger and healthier. I have struggled with dry, frizzy hair for a long time (I also get my hair colored; this contributes to the problem) so this is probably one of my favorite perks so far.
There are plenty of websites where you can order the liver online and it shows up right to your doorstep. You can also find a local butcher and get the liver + other organ meats from there. If all of that doesn’t sound great, I do recommend trying out the supplement. It is such a light lift and easy way to incorporate this incredible food. This supplement is a best-seller on Amazon with tons of 5 star reviews.
What about plant-based and vegan people?
This post is certainly not meant to offend vegans or people who follow a mainly plant-based diet. For me personally, veganism did not work. You can read about my experience trying a vegan diet here. A lot of people feel good on a vegan diet, and I think that is awesome. As I said earlier in this post, I have found going too far into one extreme doesn’t really work for me. Whether it be only eating meat, veganism, keto, paleo and the list goes on, I think at the end of the day, whatever diet you pick should be sustainable and should be a lifestyle choice that helps you feel good but also you can live your life and still enjoy food. I do have concerns about the environment like many vegans do, and that is why I prefer to find animal foods that are high quality, grass-fed and grass-finished + come from sustainable sourcing and farming.
If you have any questions on my findings or thoughts on this topic, be sure to leave them below! Have a great day and I hope you are all staying healthy and well.
Let me know what you think!