Liver is a shockingly potent superfood

Saturday, November 03, 2012 by: Ben Hirshberg
Tags: liver, superfood, vitamins

(NaturalNews) Many people have an adverse reaction to eating liver. They get grossed out when they hear of others consuming the organ meat and don't understand why anyone would actually want to eat liver. Similarly, it is commonly believed that fruits and vegetables contain the highest concentrations of vitamins and minerals, with levels superior to animal products. It turns out that liver actually contains extremely high levels of micronutrients, even higher than what is found in many fruits and vegetables.

Liver has been consumed all over the world for thousands of years, prepared raw or cooked. Recently, liver has been consumed for some specific purposes. Physicist Max Gerson used raw liver in his famous pancreatic cancer treatment. Dr. Nicholas Gonzales also uses raw liver in his cancer treatments. Dr. Whipple, Dr. Murphy, and Dr. Minot received a Nobel Prize for using liver to cure patients with anemia.

Many athletes today consume liver for its fatigue-fighting properties. This ability was shown in experiments conducted by Dr. Ershoff in 1951, when he fed rats either a basic diet, a basic diet with additional B vitamins, or a basic diet with powdered liver. The rats were then tested to see how long they could swim in a tub. The first two groups of rats swam for about 13 minutes before becoming exhausted. 75 percent of the rats that consumed powdered liver were able to swim for the full duration of the study, which was 90 minutes, before being pulled out of the tub even though they were able to continue swimming.

Liver is also incredibly nutrient dense. 380 mg of potassium, 18 mg of magnesium, 11 mg of calcium, 12 mg of copper, and 16.5 mg of niacin can be found in 100 grams of beef liver. Additionally, 100 grams of beef liver contains 53,400 IU of vitamin A and 111.3 mcg of vitamin B12. 100 grams of beef liver also contains 27 mg of vitamin C, which is about four times the amount that can be found in a small apple. In fact, when compared on a weight to weight basis, beef liver contains higher levels of every nutrient than apples and carrots. Apples and carrots are less calorie dense than liver, and are often eaten in higher quantities, but the weight by weight comparison illustrates truly how full of vitamins and minerals liver is.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/liver-files
http://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood
http://healthmad.com/nutrition/is-liver-really-a-healthy-food/

About the author:
Ben Hirshberg is a young author, health consultant, and entrepreneur from Seattle. He has a Personal Training certification from WITS and a Fitness Nutrition Specialist certification from NASM. His main topics of interest are positive psychology, behavioral psychology, personal finance, entrepreneurship, nutrition, and anything else health related. Ben likes to cook, meditate, read, party, and go trail running.

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