(Inspired by Chris Kesser)

What comes to mind for you when you hear the word “superfood”?

Do you think of fancy, exotic fruits like acai, chlorella, or greens powder?

Pomegranate? Green tea? Garlic?

All of those foods are certainly good choices and may even be worthy of the “superfood” label.

But what about liver?

I’ll go out on a limb and guess that liver does not pop into most people’s minds when they think of superfoods.

That’s too bad—because ounce for ounce, it’s nature’s most potent superfood.

Liver is a rich source of many nutrients that most of us don’t get enough of. These include:

  • Retinol, the active form of vitamin A, which is crucial for healthy skin, fertility and pregnancy, vision, and immune health
  • Choline,  critical for DNA synthesis, brain function, and a healthy nervous system. Some estimates suggest that more than 95 percent of Americans (!!) don’t eat enough of this nutrient.
  • B12 and folate. These nutrients are crucial for methylation, which affects everything from gene expression to the production of neurotransmitters to detoxification.
  • Zinc and copper. Zinc and copper work together to influence immune function, metabolism, and the nervous system. A single serving of liver provides enough copper for an entire week!

So, why isn’t everyone eating liver?

A few reasons.

First, it has fallen out of favor in our modern diet. Odds are, your grandparents (and maybe your parents, depending on your age) grew up eating this superfood. But these days, it’s far less common.

Second, there’s a lot of misunderstanding about liver being “full of toxins.” That’s just not true. The liver does process toxins, but those toxins are stored in the fat tissue—not the liver. There’s no evidence that consuming liver increases your toxic burden.

On the contrary, liver is packed with nutrients that are essential for healthy detox capacity, like B12, folate, and choline.

But the third reason may be the biggest one—especially for those that already know how nutrient dense liver is: they can’t stand the taste or texture.

Happily there are workarounds for this. Simply following a good recipe and learning how to properly cook offal foods (like liver) are a big help. Marinating in either milk/buttermilk or lemon juice really helps cut the bitterness. And sometimes we just have to hide it! For example, if I mix three ounces of ground/finely chopped liver with a pound of ground beef and season it all well, most people (kids!) cannot tell it is even there.

Some of my favourite liver recipes are here:

Beef Liver with Fig, Bacon and Caramelized Onions Compote

Chicken Livers with Mushrooms and Herbs

Grilled Chicken Liver Pate and Blackberry Crostini