A few months ago, one of my son’s friends asked me what I thought of the “Liver King.” I had not heard of him, so I searched him out on YouTube. Apparently, he has more of a presence on TikTok, but I was able to find an interview of him being interviewed by another guy that I follow, Thomas DeLauer. The interview focused on the way of eating that the Liver King promotes.
Liver is King
It turns out that the Liver King is a guy living in Texas. He appears somewhat larger than life: donning a giant beard and mustache, no shirt, eight-pack abs, and always barefoot. He is also very outspoken about living “primal” or the way that hunter/gatherers live. On TikTok, he has hundreds of videos and thousands upon thousands of followers.
Of course, there is a lot of controversy around him as well – is he natural? Does he really live this way? Where did he make all his money? Are his abs real? Etc.
One thing for sure is that he is deeply passionate about the way we live, especially how we eat and that we should all be eating liver. This is why he calls himself the Liver King. He says that if he could eat only one food, it would be liver.
We Are Not Eating Like Our Ancestors
I have gone through special training in understanding dementia. Due to this, I have had the opportunity to speak at many independent living and assisted living facilities. The group is usually made up of people in their 70s, 80s and even 90s.
One topic we spend a lot of time on is the food we eat. I will always ask the group how many grew up eating liver. Almost 100% of them say they grew up eating liver. I then ask how many fed their kids liver. Almost every time, about 50% of the group will say they did. Finally, I will ask how many think their grandchildren are eating liver. Almost no one says they do.
In a matter of a couple of generations, most people in the United States are not eating liver (or other organ meats). People have been eating liver for thousands of years and many other countries still eat liver, yet in America very few people are doing so.
Why Do I Even Need a Liver?
The question then is, should you eat liver? Before I answer that question, I think you should understand what the liver does. The liver is involved in digestion by producing bile. It helps our body in numerous ways:
- Detoxifies the body
- Produces cholesterol (which is a good thing!)
- Produces and more importantly breaks down hormones
- Helps us to absorb vitamins, especially fat-soluble ones
- Stores iron, glucose and vitamin D
- Helps us convert vitamin D to its active version
- Helps us break down red blood cells
There is a reason it is called the liver: it plays a huge function in keeping you alive!
Should We Eat Liver?
There are some experts that say that one way to eat healthy is to eat the healthy thing you want. If you want healthy, strong muscles you should eat protein that comes from meat, which is muscle. If you want a healthy heart, eat heart from a healthy animal. And if you want a healthy liver, you eat liver from a healthy animal. This does make a lot of sense, although it is not the only way to get a healthy liver. In my opinion, eating liver is a healthy food to eat.
Liver is a very nutrient-dense food, meaning you really don’t have to eat lots of it to get many nutrients. The nutrients that are found in liver include Vitamin A, Vitamin D, B2, B9 (folate), B12, iron, copper, choline, and protein. You get a lot of bang for your buck, especially since most butcher shops just throw the liver away now.
Yuck!
If liver is so good for you, why aren’t more people eating it? Taste is definitely a factor. I think many of us grew up having at least tried liver and onions. Not a lot was done to make it taste great.
Another reason it lost its appeal is that people were worried about the amount of cholesterol in the liver. Most people do not need to worry about that as the liver does not contain a lot of cholesterol and the body breaks it down during digestion.
People are also concerned about the liver containing toxins. While the liver does a great job of getting rid of toxins, it does not store toxins in it. I would still encourage people who eat liver to eat the liver of an animal not being exposed to many toxins, as that animal’s liver will be healthier.
Finally, the amount of Vitamin A in the liver can be a concern. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning that you do store it in your body. Due to this, you can have too much Vitamin A in your body which will act like a toxin. Eating liver multiple times a week could create Vitamin A toxicity. Because the liver is so nutrient dense, you really do not need to eat it very often.
Just Eat It
In my opinion, the evidence is clear, people would benefit from eating liver. Of course, making the liver not taste nasty would be helpful. I personally find that liver from different animals has distinct taste differences. I prefer chicken or turkey liver over beef liver.
There are also many ways liver can be made beyond frying it with onions. There are liver sausages, liver pâte, mixed with bacon (pretty much anything with bacon tastes good!), ground in with hamburger, and many others. You can try these recipes. If, after you try these different recipes, you still can’t choke it down, then you can always take desiccated liver pills. While it is not fresh liver, it still gives you many benefits.
I’m a Vegetarian/Vegan
What if you do not eat meat? There are many things we can do to support our liver that do not involve eating liver. Whether you are a vegan, vegetarian, or eat meat, we can all benefit from things like milk thistle, dandelion root, cruciferous veggies like broccoli, garlic, prickly pear, turmeric and artichoke.
We can also all benefit from lowering our toxic exposure by choosing better cleaning supplies, personal care products, makeup, and eating organic foods.
As you can see, liver has many benefits and you should consider adding it to your diet. Personally, I do not think the liver is king. It is really important that we eat many different nutritious foods and hopefully we never come to a situation where we need to eat only one food.
