Could grain-fed beef liver be particularly nutritious?

There is a pervasive belief today that grain-fed beef is unhealthy, a belief that I addressed before in this blog () and that I think is exaggerated. This general belief seems to also apply to a related meat, one that is widely acknowledged as a major micronutrient “powerhouse”, namely grain-fed beef liver.

Regarding grain-fed beef liver, the idea is that cattle that are grain-fed tend to develop a mild form of fatty liver disease. This I am inclined to agree with.

However, I am not convinced that this is such a bad thing for those who eat grain-fed beef liver.

In most animals, including Homo sapiens, fatty liver disease seems to be associated with extra load being put on the liver. Possible reasons for this are accelerated growth, abnormally high levels of body fat, and ingestion of toxins beyond a certain hormetic threshold (e.g., alcohol).

In these cases, what would one expect to see as a body response? The extra load is associated with high oxidative stress and rate of metabolic work. In response, the body should shuttle more antioxidants and metabolism catalysts to the organ being overloaded. Fat-soluble vitamins can act as antioxidants and catalysts in various metabolic processes, among other important functions. They require fat to be stored, and can then be released over time, which is a major advantage over water-soluble vitamins; fat-soluble vitamins are longer-acting.

So you would expect an overloaded liver to have more fat in it, and also a greater concentration of fat-soluble vitamins. This would include vitamin A, which would give the liver an unnatural color, toward the orange-yellow range of the spectrum.

Grain-fed beef liver, like the muscle meat of grain-fed cattle, tends to have more fat than that of grass-fed animals. One function of this extra fat could be to store fat-soluble vitamins. This extra fat appears to have a higher omega-6 fat content as well. Still, beef liver is a fairly lean meat; with about 5 g of fat per 100 g of weight, and only 20 mg or so of omega-6 fat. Clearly consumption of beef liver in moderation is unlikely to lead to a significant increase in omega-6 fat content in one’s diet (). By consumption in moderation I mean approximately once a week.

The photo below, from Wikipedia, is of a dish prepared with foie gras. That is essentially the liver of a duck or goose that has been fattened through force-feeding, until the animal develops fatty liver disease. This “diseased” liver is particularly rich in fat-soluble vitamins; e.g., it is the best known source of the all-important vitamin K2.



Could the same happen, although to a lesser extent, with grain-fed beef liver? I don’t think it is unreasonable to speculate that it could.

Liver and meatballs separated by a wall of sweet potatoes

A commenter wrote here some time ago that she liked to eat rice because rice can be easily used to separate food items on a plate. One can just as easily use sweet potatoes to do that; preparing the sweet potatoes in much less time than the rice. This post explains how, with a simple recipe.

- Cut up half of a sweet potato as shown on the first photo below, adding coconut oil or butter to prevent the pieces from sticking to a microwave-safe saucepan.
- Microwave the sweet potato pieces in high heat for about 5 minutes.
- Use the sweet potatoes to separate food items as in the second photo below, showing beef liver and meatballs with their respective sauces.
- Cover the dish with a wet paper towel to prevent spilling, and microwave it for as long as needed to heat up the meats. In this case, 2 minutes in high heat was enough. That will further cook the sweet potato, but not to the point of burning it.

The above assumes that the beef liver and meatballs are leftovers that had been cooked before. In this example, we have about ½ lb of meat and ½ of a sweet potato. As far as plant foods are concerned, sweet potatoes are at the very high end of the nutrition density scale. This is a very nutritious and satiating meal (for me) with over 55 g of protein, as well as a great mix of macro- and micro-nutrients.