The Offal Truth: The Incredible Health Benefits of Eating Liver
- Alyssa Maycock
- Feb 15
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 24
If you had told me to try liver a few years ago, I would have run in the opposite direction as fast as possible! I had never tried it, but it sounded gross and it’s just part of the cultural zeitgeist to think liver is disgusting. Offal = awful, right? Who would eat such a nasty thing when we have much yummier cuts of meat?
Fast forward to a rough postpartum recovery. I knew something had to change, but I didn’t know what. I started learning more about nutrition – prenatal and otherwise – and realized I was almost certainly deficient in several key nutrients. To my dismay, liver was a food that came up again and again as a beneficial dietary addition to combat the deficiencies I was experiencing. Even once I knew the many health benefits of eating liver, I didn't think it was worth it.
Then I heard that liver was more palatable when it was hidden in a meal. Hidden liver sounded more doable than eating liver straight, so, reluctantly, I pureed a couple chicken livers and added it to a big pot of pasta sauce. When we sat down to eat dinner, my husband and I grimaced and cheers-ed to what we feared would be the most disgusting thing ever, then took a bite. We sat in silence a moment, then laughed. It just tasted like pasta sauce!
Over the next few months, we switched to beef liver and started adding more and more. We even eat it in non-hidden ways, like rumaki (bacon-wrapped liver) and liver & onions. Most shockingly, we crave it when we go more than a week without it. Who would’ve thought?!?
Now I make it my mission to teach people how to incorporate liver into their diets too!
Liver: The ONLY Real Superfood
In my opinion, liver is the only real superfood. Sure, kale has its benefits, but it doesn’t even come close to the benefits of liver. Consider that in a 100g serving of cooked beef liver, there is:
29g protein
1049% (9442µg/17,166 IU) of the RDA for vitamin A
263% (3.4mg) of the RDA for riboflavin (vitamin B2)
110% (18mg) of the RDA for niacin (vitamin B3)
142% (7.1mg) of the RDA for vitamin B5
78% (1mg) of the RDA for vitamin B6
63% (2532µg) of the RDA for folate (vitamin B9)
2941% of RDA for vitamin B12 (71µg)
12% of the RDA for vitamin D (1.2µg)
77% of the RDA for choline (426mg)
82% of the RDA for iron (6.5mg)
1587% of the RDA for copper (14mg)
48% of the RDA for zinc (5.3mg)
71% of the RDA for phosphorus (497mg)
66% of the RDA for selenium (36µg)
All for less than 200 calories. That’s way more vitamins and minerals than any fruit or vegetable (and more than muscle meats). The only close second would be bivalve shellfish (oysters, clams, and mussels). If you’re having trouble conceptualizing just how good liver is, the prenatal nutritionist Lily Nichols, RDN, has some great graphs on her website illustrating how it compares to beef heart and ground beef.
In fact, it was Lily Nichols that convinced me to learn to cook with liver. Her books Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Fertility left no doubt that moms (and everyone else!) desperately need the nutrients that liver delivers in spades.
What are the health benefits of eating liver?
While I started thinking about the benefits of liver when I was in the final weeks of my pregnancy, I was already several months postpartum when I finally got the courage to try liver. I wasn’t feeling like myself – nothing was clinically wrong, but I could tell that I was missing something. Once liver became a regular incorporation in our diet, I noticed that I had more energy, could think more clearly, and was generally happier.
It also helped my husband. He immediately found that his sleep improved – something he had struggled with ever since I met him a decade ago. And despite the many disruptions to our sleep from our sweet little boy, he also suddenly had more energy too – more than he has had in years. Coffee was no longer a necessity (though he still loves drinking it for the flavor).
These benefits make sense when you look at the nutrients that are more plentiful in liver than most other foods. Some ways it might help you are:
Improved energy (vitamin B12, riboflavin, niacin, and iron)
Smoother skin (vitamin A and zinc)
Enhanced fertility (vitamin A, vitamin B12, selenium, zinc, and folate)
Healthier pregnancy (vitamin A, vitamin B12, copper, folate, iron, and zinc)
Better attention, concentration, and memory (selenium, copper, niacin, and iron)
Brighter mood (B vitamins, including folate)
Eye health support (vitamin A)
Strong immune system (vitamin A, vitamin D, copper, and zinc)
How much liver is safe to eat?
Long answer short, I aim for 3-6 oz of liver per week (usually about 4 oz), which puts me no more than 4,080 IU per day. This is well within the safe limits. I also find that I don’t desire more liver than that (and I do notice cravings for it when I don’t have it)! This is one of the benefits of eating liver in meals rather than taking it as a supplement.
The longer answer…
The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of vitamin A is 2,100 IU for adult women, 2,700 IU for adult men, 2,250 IU for pregnant women, and 3,600 IU for lactating women.(1) At over 17,000 IU vitamin per 100g (about 3.5 oz) serving, beef liver is well over that. If that 100g serving is only consumed once per week (or consumed over the course of the week), the daily dose is only about 2,400 IU, which is right about the RDA. Remember that the RDA is not the maximum intake, but rather the “average daily level of intake sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (97-98%) of healthy individuals.”(2)
This is good news – you don’t need to eat much liver to ensure that you meet your vitamin A needs! Prenatal dietician Lily Nichols points out that a full 80% of women of childbearing age in the United States aren’t meeting the RDA and only half of mothers and 1.5% of infants were retinol (vitamin A) replete.(3) Why is this a problem? Because vitamin A is essential for the proper development of the baby’s organs, including their lungs, kidneys, heart, and eyes. Because too much vitamin A can cause birth defects, many women are told to avoid organ meats entirely, even though vitamin A deficiency can be problematic as well!
So how much is too much? For that, we look at the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), which is the maximum daily intake that’s unlikely to cause adverse health effects. The UL for preformed (retinol and retinyl esters – the type found in liver and other animal products) Vitamin A is 5,454 IU for all adults (pregnant/lactating or not).(4) It should be noted that this is set at a very conservative level – no adverse effects have been reported even at a level of 15,000 IU for women of childbearing age!(5)
With this in mind, a 100g serving of liver once per week is completely within the safe limits – you could even double it without issue! Keep in mind that vitamin A is present in supplements and other foods as well though.
Doesn’t liver contain toxins because it helps the body detox?
Nope! The liver filters toxins, but doesn’t store them any more than muscle meat. In fact, it stores the nutrients that the body needs for the functioning of our detox systems, as well as our cardiovascular, neurological, and reproductive systems through the process of methylation.(6) Methylation allows our body to produce bioactive vitamins, amino acids, neurotransmitters, hormones, red blood cells, DNA, RNA, and antioxidants(7) – all things that we need to live, grow, and thrive!
Does liver cause gout?
I’m not a doctor, so this is not medical advice – it’s just my anecdotal experience. However, my husband has suffered from gout flares in the past and he was terrified to try liver because everyone said that liver would cause a flare because it’s high in purines. However, he has not had a single flare since we started eating liver and other organ meats.
Looking more into the causes of gout, it seems like – at least for my husband – soda and beer were the real culprits due to the increased uric acid produced as a byproduct of the liver metabolizing the fructose and alcohol.
That being said, speak to your doctor about it and proceed with caution.
Where can I buy liver?
You are likely able to buy it at the grocery store, but I’d recommend that you contact your local farmers and butchers – you may be able to get higher quality liver (and other offal, like heart, tongue, kidney, and oxtail) for a similar or even lower cost! There are also online options, though I prefer to support my local farmers and butchers.
What’s the easiest way to start eating liver?
I think the easiest way to start eating liver is to add just a little bit of pureed chicken liver to a very flavorful, saucy dish with ground beef. I think it’s completely undetectable in my beef Bolognese sauce (our first hidden liver meal), chili mac & cheese, or chili.
Why start with chicken liver?
It’s a bit milder than beef liver. We started with chicken liver, then once we finished the pound of it (took many weeks as we gradually ramped up how much we added), we got some beef liver.
How small should I start?
While I now add 4oz of liver to each pound of ground beef, I started out with just a tablespoon! When you puree a batch of liver, freeze it in a specially marked ice-cube tray (since you probably won’t want to use it for ice cubes after putting raw liver in it – even if you clean it really well). Start by adding just one cube (about a tablespoon), then add more as you get more comfortable with it. Remember that even a very little bit of liver contains a ton of nutrients that will benefit you – and it’s much better than no liver at all!
Are you brave enough to try liver? Share your favorite ways to eat it below!
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