How much liver do you eat and how often?

#1

I have come to love liver. I eat a piece every single day, 7 days a week. Beef liver and lamb liver is what I’ve tried so far and love them both, I will also try chicken liver. But it has worried me that I could be getting vitamin A toxicity from eating all that liver, but according to Dr. Ken Berry, it’s safe to consume it 5 days a week. He never said anything but 7. But that’s just 2 more days, so probably doesn’t really make a difference. He did say there has never been a documented case of getting vitamin A toxicity from eating a domesticated animal or ruminant. But to not eat the liver of polar bear and puffer fish.

How much liver do you eat and how how often? Would you say eating liver 7 days a week is excessive?

#2

Quite little now. Not very long ago it was 500g per every 2 weeks, maybe more as 500g is more like a start of a single meal but I did my best to eat as little liver as I could…
But right now it’s barely any. I have phases and I am not so much into organs right now. I ate so, so much organs in the last half year, I had my liver, I bought very much pâté, one had lots of other organs in it, I had tongue… But I will fry some pork liver soon as I can’t just avoid liver when I have 2 kg in my tiny freezer… And I have problems with chicken liver at the moment, not pork liver.

It is safe to consume it for every meal too if you keep it low. It’s not about frequency, obviously but amounts… When I dislike liver (the kind I have at hand, at least. I never got bored of all kinds of liver), I can eat it any time, today I consumed 40g. When I inhale 400g in a few minutes and want more the next day, that is a different situation :wink:

Once I have read/calculated from data I have found online that 500g liver has Vitamin A for 2 weeks. So I try not to go waaaaaay over it. I eat plenty of Vitamin A from my other items (like the pâté I don’t count :D) so I am over above recommendations but who knows what my diet changes and anyway, there is a safe range somewhere and it can’t be tiny.

And today I watched a video though it was Vitamin D and it seems even massively overdoing it is fine for most people but if one has some kind of mutation (not even one type is possible) it becomes a problem. Maybe Vitamin A is similar, my body can handle it to a huge extent? Of course, better safe than sorry so if it’s easy not to overdo liver epically (it is), I won’t overdo it. If I would be utterly miserable without eating a lot of liver as often as possible, I would research or experiment more but I am quite glad I don’t need to do it.

Honestly I wouldn’t worry in your case yet, you probably will have enough of it soon if you consume a lot of liver.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

Beef liver isn’t as high in Vitamin A as certain other animal livers, so you would probably be safe eating a small amount each day. However, being a fat-soluble vitamin, Vitamin A is not easily excreted, so it builds up in our tissue over time, especially if we are not careful. The symptoms of Vitamin A toxicity are unpleasant and can be fatal. For example, eating a bear liver is supposed to cause death shortly after the meal.

How much are you planning to eat, each day? An ounce (28 g)? Or a whole pound (454.54 g)? It makes a difference.

#4

You’re probably right Shinita. I find my tastes and preferances change a lot, though am still mad on beef and lamb. I think I will, once I’ve finished up all the liver I currently have, have it 3-4 days a week, just to be on the safe side. Each pack I get from my butcher contains 4 liver pieces, the combined weight of which is about 500 grams. So I’ve been getting a couple packs, 500 grams each, beef and lamb which typically has lasted me 1 week. I’ll be buying some more meats from my butcher on Thursday, and will be focusing more on the minced muscle meats. As I read vitamin A isn’t that easy to expel from the body, and accumulating too much therefore could be a problem.

#5

500g a week sounded good to me too but I often eat some other organ so it didn’t happen every week though more often than every second one. Apparently heart and tongue has no Vitamin A (I just googled quickly) so it was a good, safe idea to eat them too. I naturally desire some organ meat once per week at most (and it lasts for days) and I really like heart and tongue, it’s just significantly easier for me to buy liver but the others aren’t very difficult either :wink: I just can’t buy them in each and every supermarket. This offered a nice variety for me and after 2 weeks I really enjoyed my liver again. It was vaguely 2 weeks, I am way more chaotic than that but it was good enough.

#6

Ah, I didn’t know that Shinita. I will look out for heart and tongue. I see kidney is quite high in vitamin A. And beef brain has some vitamin A but nowhere near as much as liver and is a good source of DHA. I’ll have to inquire if they sell beef brains, how on earth do you cook them though? Yes, I bought liver too because it was the easiest, and cheapest, even 100% grassfed. But I am taking vitamin A toxicity seriously. There can be too much of a good thing. I will still have to finish my ox liver, which means 4 more days of eating liver in addition to these 4 last days of eating lamb liver (1 piece a day) but I don’t imagine it will do much harm so long as I limit my consumption after this. And perhaps frying the liver extra well can minimise the vitamin A content? So I’ll fry up all 4 pieces tomorrow, keep them in the fridge, and then re-fry 1 up at a time and mix with minced meats and eggs, which is a mixture I’ve come to like. Never thought I’d become so fond of liver, but the carnivore in me is meat mad, though I already miss dairy. My SO made himself a pizza, I didn’t fancy it. But the cheese he left on the chopping board I did really fancy, and that was a weak moment though I didn’t eat any. I know I can handle a little grassfed butter, and raw milk, but if I began snacking on cheese, my skin would start to flare up like fireworks, for sure. Perhaps it would be different with raw, grassfed cheese and raw cream, but the prices I’ve seen online have been putting me off, and that’s excluding postage.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #7

Bumping this post.

I eat Lambs Liver most days!
I’ve got a taste for eating Liver 100g a day (in the form of Pate) I keep reading once a week is the max!
Hoping this is nonsense … but is it?
From Web MD
Vitamin A toxicity. It’s possible, and dangerous, to get too much vitamin A. Eating large amounts of liver can lead to symptoms of vitamin A toxicity, which happens when your own liver can’t process the excess vitamin A quickly enough. Most doctors recommend that people without vitamin deficiencies eat just one serving of liver per week.

#8

I eat a pack a week of lambs’ liver (Tesco pack…I think they are between 400 and 500 grams).
I would eat this either in one or two meals (a main meal then use some leftovers for brunch the next day).
I beleive beef liver has more nutrients including vit. A, but I prefer lambs’ liver anyway.
Great with buttery cabbage/sprouts, fried onions and bacon lardons.

They can keep their overrated Friday night pizzas…the pan fried liver is my idea of a treat on Friday night (if I’m not going out). Very good value too.

If I wasn’t wary of the vit. A toxicity I’d definitely have it more than once a week. Yum.

#9

For no particular reason, here is a gratuitous photo of my last lambs’ liver meal.
just accompanied with stir fried pepper, red onion, asparagus and mushrooms this time.
Roll on Friday night!

image
image.jpg481×640 144 KB

#10

So yeah- that’s how much liver I eat in a week (above photo).

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #11

Phew, that’s great news. Thanks coop … and once again you’ve got my mouth watering lol

#12

YUP!

Do what you like, but after a while get your levels checked, that’s the only real answer. There’s also the possibility or an Iron issue, RBC getting high and thickening blood, etc.

I highly doubt any studies are floating around out there that somehow singled out people that (only) eat liver every day and had no other sources of Vit A coming in. It’s not your only source of it, so you have to keep that in mind.

Easiest way for a while would simply be to track your intake, and see first hand how much Vit. A you’re getting in every day, every week, etc. That should be close enough to make a call as long as you’re not getting any symptoms of overload. If it’s really high, or you think you may have some of the symptoms of Vit A or Iron being overdone, just get your levels checked to confirm. Different people accumulate and then hold onto things at very different levels, gotta figure out what works / doesn’t for you specifically.

#13

Roughly this much per week (1 or 2 meals):

image

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #14

I eat about half that :arrow_up: in a week but I have a little most days.
Be a shame to eat 1/4 then throw the rest away

(Doug) #15

It depends on how much would be eaten each day, and there is wide leeway.

Hat tip to @Naghite who has previously mentioned a study where eating beef liver did result in toxicity. As I recall, this was consuming a pound or 400-500 grams a day for a long period, like one year.

In my opinion, it takes a lot, and for a long time before one need start worrying.

#16

Hats off to @Naghite…he enjoys eating certain beasts’ nut sacks as well as a whole plethora of other organs! Some raw.

I thought he was joking at the start…then he posted the meal photos, lol.