Vitamins, Minerals in Beef Organ Meats

#21

I don’t think micronutrient needs (i.e., RDAs) are based on epidemiology. Rather, they are based on clinical observations, and it used to be that health-conscious people criticized them for being the absolute minimum to avoid clinically observable pathology, like rickets, beri beri, childhood blindness, anemias, pellagra, etc.

(Megan) #22

Thankfully I quite like liver. Don’t mind kidney in small amounts. Not much else is available in the various places I shop. Where do you get all the “exotic” stuff @Naghite? Thymus, spleen, testicles etc.

(Michael) #23

I live in a city of one million. I started by calling every butcher, farm and abattoir within 100 km and asked what organs I could get. A few, mostly Halal butchers, had a few items and I buy what they have in each spot. I get testicles, thymus and spleen from one place. Tongues and cheeks from a different farm, Buffalo and beef hearts from a different farm etc. I have 4 or 5 regular places I get items from, and there are not many options. I still look regularly from more exotic items that I have never tried. My look list includes pancreas, thyroid gland, lungs, eyeballs, stomach, gall bladdder and andrenal glands. I occasionally get lungs, but not often.

(Megan) #24

Hey Michael @Naghite

Where are you getting your magnesium and potassium from in what you are currently eating? Do you think they are important micronutrients for people following the carnivore woe? Or do you think their importance is somewhat lessened on the carnivore diet (like Vit C seems to be)?

(Michael) #25

The spreadsheet I sent you has my food for the past month listed by date. You can see that I get 110% of the RDA for potassium a day, a little bit in all my foods adds up to normally between 100-130%. Magnesium is usually a little low at around 90% most days. Snails are my main boost here, 2 ounces a day. Not in my diet, but I also take mineral salt bath that will absorb some magnesium as well (if I am in need at least). I infrequently supplement magnesium.

I am not convinced that any vitamin or mineral should be ignored, but in general I think vitamin E is the one we can mostly ignore if you wish, and everything else should get covered off. While I do believe that we may not need as much Vitamin C, I prefer to get as much as I do, which is also on average close to 90% of the RDA (testicles, thymus and spleen all help here).

(Megan) #26

Thanks Michael. Yea I saw snails were pretty decent for magnesium. Not very geeky sorry, had to download a program just so I could open the spreadsheet :grin:

I make bone broth quite often which I understand is great for potassium.

What are your thoughts on a decent (real food sourced, not lab chemicals) multivitamin and mineral supplement, as a way of making sure all boxes are ticked?

It feels a bit weird to be even thinking about what I eat in this much detail after decades of just eating whatever and not caring what I was getting and not getting. I think, because I have fibromyalgia, I’d like to see what diet can do for my energy levels. It would be so amazing to have more energy than my usual low baseline.

(Michael) #27

I do not have any advice for multivitamins. I will be interested in hearing about some of you find any, but I have not looked myself.

#29

Just found this table, thanks for posting it.
I am curious about nutrients in organ meats other than beef now…

(Cindy) #30

Wow, thank you so much, Michael! Your tables are really helpful!!!

(Cindy) #31

Michael, you may want to really lower your Vitamin C dosage. If you’ve eaten any plant foods for any length of time, you’ll probably have oxalates in your body, and high-dose vitamin C makes them worse. I forget exactly what it does, but can look it up if it’s helpful. That’s why the recommendation is 250 mg per day max.

(Michael) #32

Hi Cindy. I dumped all my oxalates when I went carnivore 18 months ago. Bit late now I guess although I never noticed any issues other than itchy skin back then. Always love science papers if you have any to link in regards to Vitamin C. Have to admit, would be hard to give up thymus , I would eat more everyday if it had a better nutrition profile, love it mostly raw, as is and without spices.

(Bob M) #33

Interesting. You know, I’m a person for which taking vitamin C makes me feel worse. I have never been able to know why.

I’m hesitant to say that it’s oxalates, mainly because there’s no way to test this theory.