Organ Meats: Does Offal Have to be Awful?

Eating organ meats is an important part of the ancestral health movement. Whether they’re paleo, primal, or clean-eating keto, nearly anyone who advocates eating according to our bodies’ biological needs rather than eating what industrial agriculture and flawed nutritional guidelines push at us will say that everyone should be eating organ meats.

Historically, organ meats were eaten often. When humans had to hunt for all their meat, of course they ate the organs. They wouldn’t waste a single bit of the meat they had worked so hard to obtain. Even as animals became domesticated, organ meats were considered a delicacy because they are not as abundant as muscle meat.

Traditional cultures often eat the organ meats first. They know from experience that eating them leads to improved health, and modern science has confirmed the nutritional superiority of organ meats over muscle meats. Organ meats are very dense in bioavailable forms of nutrients like zinc, iron, and B vitamins. Liver, in particular, contains more nutrients per gram than any other food. Organ meats also contain nutrients that are difficult to obtain from other foods, such as selenium, copper, CoQ10, and folate.

Another reason to consume offal is one of respect for animals. If an animal is going to die to become food for humans, many believe that it is more ethical to use every bit of the animal possible.

When industrial farming became common, there was a shift away from offal consumption. With more animals being raised in smaller spaces and more commercial slaughterhouses appearing throughout industrialized areas, meat became more available and less expensive. Organ meats are more delicate than muscle meats, and they have a shorter shelf life. This makes them more difficult to produce and sell at a commercial level.

One concern many have is that they may contain toxins. After all, some of these organs are the body’s natural filters. Fear not! While organs filter toxins, they don’t store them. Toxins in the body are stored in fat cells and in the nervous system. Organs do store large amounts of nutrients that help them get rid of the toxins. By eating these organs, you are providing your body with these same nutrients to help it get rid of its toxins.

Knowing that you should consume offal is one thing, actually doing it is another. In modern society there is a huge ick factor around organ meats that can be hard to overcome. They have different textures and smells than muscle meats. We may not know how to prepare them to make them taste good. Many of us, myself included, did not grow up eating offal, and sometimes trying new things is difficult.

For the next several weeks, I am going to be trying out some organ meats. I am very squeamish about eating offal, but I am willing to give it a try. I’ll share my recipes and let you know how I liked them throughout the course of this nose-to-tail experimentation. I hope to find some recipes to convince myself that offal doesn’t have to be awful.

To prepare for this endeavor, I purchased several types of organ meats from US Wellness Meats. Their products are 100% grass-fed, free range, pastured, or wild-caught, depending on the type. While I cannot afford to buy all my family’s meat from these types of sources, I feel that to get the most nutritional bang for your buck with organs, it is important that they are high quality. Additionally, I have a hard time finding organ meats in my local stores. I have seen beef liver, turkey livers, marrow bones and chicken gizzards locally, but no other organs.

What types of organ meats can you look forward to reading about in this series? I’m planning on eating: