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Why to Not Eat Organ Meats is also an article about why I personally stopped eating organ meats after many years, and how my health was affected by organ meats.
Because different organs have different nutrients, this article does not assume that all organ meats are unhealthy in the same ways. While one organ may be quite high in vitamin A, another one isn’t; but it may be high in copper.
Overall, this article espouses that most organ meats are not healthy, and looks at why.
Why organ meat is recommended
Organ meat is recommended by many health gurus because it is nutrient-dense in certain respects: iron, B vitamins as well as other vitamins, minerals and omega-3 fats (brain meat).
If some researchers have misunderstood the components in organ meats, they are also full of vitamins and compounds that are dangerous when eaten in large amounts: vitamins A, D, E, the mineral copper and purines.
Organ meats eaten in other countries
Which countries have the longest life spans in recent history? Hong Kong. Japan. Macao. Switzerland. Singapore. Italy. Some individuals in these cultures occasionally eat organ meats, but they are not staples of the diet.
What these countries’ diets have in common are actually restful mealtimes, plenty of clean protein, especially fish, refined grains (white rice and bread made without processed ingredients) and zero emphasis on “super-foods”. (These countries also have many lifestyle choices in common.)
Native cultures are often cited as being a good model for eating organ meats, but there is no evidence that they ate a lot of organ meat — that helped them live longer or without disease.
American doctors are not authorities on the subject of nutrition
The fact is: Americans are not healthy. (We rank 46th for life span.)
U.S. doctors should not be defining what is healthy, partially because we are too arrogant. We create diets for healing, and instead of calling them theories, we call them fact. The people who follow these diets are guinea pigs in an experiment that isn’t rightly defined as such.
There is no scientific data for “eating the rainbow” and lots of organ meat, how this affects patients long term … except for the fact that low oxalate and low vitamin A groups are full of people who became toxic eating this kind of “traditional” diet.
Countries like Finland, in contrast, have recommended their citizens avoid eating liver and other high sources of vitamin A to avoid the related health risks.
Most organ meats do not taste good
If most of these body parts do not taste like delicious food to most people, perhaps we have one more clue that most organ meats aren’t food.
Organs are now marketed to us in capsules, not only for convenience, but also because they are unpalatable for most people.
Why to Not Eat Organ Meats: My story
As someone who enjoys a mostly Ancestral diet — meaning no processed foods or refined sugars, whole foods grown without
pesticides, pastured meats, raw dairy and predigestion of certain ingredients — I started out eating organ meats and saw some energy benefits from the high dose of B vitamins.
But overtime, symptoms developed that I realized traced back to the organ meats I’d been eating for years: depression, kidney and thyroid problems, skin issues and newly developed autoimmunity.
Dangers of eating liver
Some of the symptoms I experienced are common side effects of organ meat toxicity.
Other dangers include liver damage, diarrhea, mental confusion, irritability, nausea, vomiting, inflammation, leg pain, blisters, hair and weight loss, skin peeling, reduced semen quality, headaches, obesity, growth retardation and orange tint to the skin. (sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
My main source of organ meats was liver pills. I took 3 to 6 pills a day for years. I stopped noticing any benefit from them energy-wise, but I continued because we’re told they’re: a great source of vitamins, minerals, amino acids — essentially the food form of a multivitamin.
Let’s look at dosage recommendations and what levels cause toxicity!
What dose of organ meat causes toxicity
As a study of 41 cases of vitamin A toxicity concluded, “The data also indicate that prolonged and continuous consumption of doses in the low ‘therapeutic’ range can result in life-threatening liver damage.”
Many wellness diets espouse eating large amounts of regular organ meat. What do we mean when we say large amounts? The surprising fact here is that individuals have varying tolerances. But certainly repeated doses over the course of weeks and years is toxic.
Standard recommendations have patients eating 3 grams of desiccated liver daily, which contains just under 1000 IUs of vitamin A, or 1 ounce of fresh liver.
Some sources recommend 20 grams of fresh organ meat daily.
Organ meat math
At the recommended dose, it only takes 22 days to eat a pound of liver. That means it only takes about 1/3 of a year to eat an entire 5 pound liver — the size of a small moose liver, which is known to be highly toxic.
The liver can not detox excess vitamin A fast enough to prevent toxicity — whether eaten all at once or taken in high supplemental doses over time.
Eating an entire liver causes acute vitamin A toxicity, can cause death, or require years of recovery.
Therefore, organ meat math says: it only takes about 4 months to consume toxic amounts of vitamin A as a regular daily supplement.
If you’ve eaten organ meat or supplemented for 4 months, it sounds to me like your liver is full of it and needs to detox. What happens if you don’t? The body continues to store vitamin A, but in new and surrounding tissues to protect you from it.
But eventually this consumption catches up with us.
Vitamin A toxicity
Let’s look more closely at the concept of chronic vitamin A toxicity.
I was taking the best organ meat supplements — not just liver, but also kidney, marrow and brain, to name a few. All from two great companies who source their animals well.
What I didn’t put together at the time is that just like someone can suffer from acute vitamin A toxicity, from eating too much liver all at once, a well-documented occurrence, chronic vitamin A toxicity is also a real and common danger. That might sound dramatic, but our liver is only so big, and it stores vitamin A. Once it’s full, the toxicity spills over to our other tissues.
Similarly, in order for the liver to “process” vitamin A, it actually detoxes it through the same means it detoxes glyphosate and other poisons. But it can only process it so quickly. If more is coming in than what’s able to be ushered out, you have toxicity.
As WebMD says,
It is possible, and even dangerous, to consume too much vitamin A. Eating large amounts of liver can lead to symptoms of vitamin A toxicity. Your own liver cannot process the excess vitamin A quickly enough, so eating a significant amount of liver regularly might lead to hypervitaminosis A.
The original rat studies on vitamin A showing it was important for wellness were based on one test poorly designed by scientists who didn’t understand the precursors of vitamin A. The rats were poisoned with high doses of vitamin A through precursors of it, and it was concluded they died from a lack of the vitamin instead of toxicity.
What happens to the body on the a low vitamin A diet
You can read more about the Vitamin A detox diet and the concept in general here.
I have spent the last three years detoxing vitamin A, and far from being dead like the rats, I am in my best health since having children — with renewed strength and all of my autoimmune diseases in remission (I’ve had 5, not to mention an incurable bladder disease, also in remission).
Interestingly, there are hundreds like me in low vitamin A support groups. These groups are full of people who became toxic from vitamin A while doing the Wahls Protocol, a Weston A. Price style traditional diet, the Carnivore diet with organ meats included, the GAPS diet, while taking Accutane (topical vitamin A medication for acne) or otherwise “eating the rainbow“.
Reduced thyroid function with long term organ meat intake
For me, one of the wonders of going on a low vitamin A diet was no longer needing thyroid medication.
Due to reduced stress and intentional living, I had already been in the process of putting Hashimoto’s into remission. But my doctor wanted me on small amounts of thyroid intermittently, especially during winter months. After starting the low A diet, my energy and mood increased, and I no longer needed the supplement at all.
Of course, this is in contrast to most people’s thinking, that vitamin A boosts the thyroid.
While organ meats may provide a temporary boost in energy, due to their high levels of B vitamins, minerals and/or iron, I would observe that vitamin A catches up with those strides — and ends up dragging energy levels back down.
Read more here about how and why vitamin A reduces thyroid function — and thus: organ meat reduces thyroid function.
Purines and uric acid from organ meats
It’s no longer popular in wellness circles to oppose the consumption of organ meats. They’re just so highly esteemed in the current paradigm for what are considered nutrient-dense foods.
That’s why when a functional medical doctor reluctantly advises cutting out organ meats, we ought to hear why.
Dr. David Perlmutter is a neurologist who now specializes in uric acid and its negative effects on the body. He zeroes in on alcohol, fructose and purines as the culprits. Purines are a food compound that raise uric acid in the body. His suggestion is to isolate foods that deliver a lot of purines and limit these foods:
… organ foods, organ meats like liver and kidney … (source)
Wellness advisors are very good at focussing on the benefits of organ meats, but they do not honestly look at the other compounds found in these tissues. So here we have one: purines, which can lead to high levels of uric acid.
Not enough wellness practitioners have yet admitted this controversy: their recommendation to increase organ meats contradicts the existence of purines and the damage they cause. Purines from organ meat can’t be disputed, so no one should eat them regularly.
Gout
How I discovered this concept was through a swollen, painful toe joint. I researched the cause of what some call arthritis and others call gout, and found that elevated uric acid is one culprit.
Elevated uric acid is now linked to these conditions: PCOS, blood sugar problems and diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s.
So then, why would we knowingly eat a food rich in purines, organ meat, when we can find plenty of B vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in good tasting, definitely safe foods? We do not need organ meats to get well, and in fact, I believe they are making us sicker.
Purines are one more reason why.
Copper toxicity
Liver, heart, kidney and brains are high in copper.
Copper is one controversial mineral. I won’t get into arguing with certain wellness practitioners who claim copper is needed for optimum health.
I will say that zinc is a copper antagonist: zinc balances copper. But when you have too much copper, it can undermine your zinc levels:
Unlike zinc, copper can readily accumulate in the body into toxic concentrations. In order to maintain adequate zinc levels, a higher dose of zinc compared to copper is required daily … proper intake of copper to zinc should be a 1:8 ratio. When properly concentrated in the right balance, zinc behaves like the bigger brother blocking copper in food and in the body from being absorbed. (source)
Zinc is incredibly important to the body, much like Magnesium. No one’s going to argue about taking these two minerals; they’re essential and for many people should be supplemented. (source)
So to keep the point simple: too much copper throws off one’s zinc levels = not good.
Eating a lot of organ meat — liver, heart or kidney — will raise copper levels in the body and throw off that 1:8 ratio.
Vitamins D and E in organ meats
Organ meats are high in vitamin D
The best way to get vitamin D is from the sun. The body knows how to convert sunlight into this nutrient so it is usable by the 
body.
When consumed through food or supplement, it raises levels of vitamin D in the blood. This signals the body to balance vitamin D levels with calcium. So calcium is pulled from bones to compensate. Foods high in vitamin D do not necessarily allow the body to assimilate the vitamin. (source)
While small amounts of vitamin D from foods is normal and fine, organ meats high in vitamin D may create weaker bones and an imbalance of vitamins and minerals in the body over time.
Organ meats are high in vitamin E
Regarding vitamin E, I am completely sharing the work and insights of Dr. Garrett Smith on this topic. His observations include:
- Vitamin E may protect the body from vitamin A toxicity by causing its storage in the liver (and so reducing its blood levels and symptoms temporarily).
- The body produces antibodies (a toxin response) to vitamin E used in shots. (source)
- Vitamin E depletes vitamin K. (source)
- This so called vitamin is detoxed and excreted through the same pathways as chemical toxins. It is treated as a toxin by the body. (source)
- Pectin, a known binder of toxins, grabs onto not only vitamin A, but also vitamin E, reducing levels in the body. (source)
Supplementing with vitamin E is much more serious, but eating regular amounts of foods that are high in vitamin E doesn’t seem advisable. Organ meats are touted as being an excellent source of vitamin E.
Eating a lot of organ meats = high vitamin E intake.
Why are organ meats bad for you
In conclusion, while organ meats do offer a concentrated source of vitamins, minerals and protein, they also contain concentrated amounts of compounds that are dangerous when eaten in large volumes:
- purines — Known to cause gout, purines in organ meats increase uric acid, endangering blood sugar levels, neurological and cardiovascular health and causing inflammation.
- vitamin A — Pulling out this one food compound from my diet allowed me to overcome depression, MCAS (extreme histamine intolerance), endometriosis and to fully put my Hashimoto’s into remission. Since going on a low vitamin A diet, my body has been able to restore itself. Excess vitamin A causes problems with skin, kidney, thyroid, mental health and more.
- copper — Too much copper is toxic to the body and reduces zinc levels. Zinc is needed for over 300 functions in the body.
- vitamins D and E — Consuming vitamin D hormone throws off calcium levels in the bones and may also cause potassium wasting. It is possible that vitamin E is a toxin, and the body treats it as such. Eating foods high in vitamin E may not be advisable.
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OTHER SOURCES: 1, 2, 3, 4
Kathy says
Megan, I marvel at the beauty and clarity of your explanations!
I’m wondering about your Hashimoto’s. It sounds like your doctor had you on a supplement rather than a medication. Is that true? So did you not have to wean off the medication or supplement?
Megan says
Hi Kathy, I’m so glad my writing comes across that way, LOL. I marvel and am grateful for that, since I feel the behind the scenes process, so thank you for your encouragement! 😉 I was actually on medication, Nature-Throid. She weaned me off, yes: reduced my amount, then did lab work, then had me stop. But, she advised me to start again at a low dose each fall and winter. After being on the diet, I did not need to go on meds again. I hope that helps to clarify.
Kathy says
So how long were you on the Nature Throid? Did your doctor rely on lab work to decide to wean you off it, or was it by symptom improvement? I have Hashi’s myself so I am very eager to heal as well —
Megan says
Hi Kathy, I was on thyroid meds for many years. Yes, my doctor relied on lab work to wean me off, but also symptom improvement. I think this doctor’s best strength as a practitioner is actually lab work. She has some great insights and understanding. I’ll be publishing a post in the next few weeks about how I put Hashi’s into remission, including what’s in this post, but more. I hope it’s helpful.
Kathy says
I will eagerly await your Hashi’s Story!
Megan says
Great, Kathy! Thanks. 🙂
Anne Summers says
I eagerly await your Hashi’s story, too! Thanks in advance for all the great work you will put into relaying your story! And thank you, in general and always!
Megan says
Hi Anne, my pleasure! Thank you for your kind words, and nice to hear from you! The article will likely publish this week (or next at the latest). 🙂
Katie says
Megan,
How incredibly informative and eye-popping. The information that caught my attention was the link with thyroid and supplements. My ND put me and my family on Thymuccin (Thymus) for immunity protection during a time of deep stress, adding doses if I we felt any illness coming on. I have kept that up for many years and now wonder if that points to some of the issues I’ve been having for years.
Megan says
Hi Katie, I took Thymus, too. I’m glad the article is helpful and hope it offers some insight on health issues. I agree; that link to the thyroid information is really good.
Deborah says
Wonderful article Megan! I was a big fan of liver pills until I had unexplained anxiety. My integrative doctor did some tests and sure enough I had a copper toxicity. I went off the liver pills, did a detox for the high copper (not fun) and am now fine. I also had trouble sleeping at night, even after doing EVERYTHING known to mankind to prepare myself for a good nights sleep. I had extremely high levers of B12. So my sleep improved greatly when I went off the liver pills. I felt so guilty at first that I wasn’t supplementing with liver pills. But, my body and my wallet felt so much better! Thank you for this article. Well researched, as usual. It makes me feel that I made the right decision!
Megan says
Hi Deborah, thank you for sharing your experiences with anxiety, copper toxicity, high levels of B12 and sleep issues and their link to liver pills. So helpful. Yes, I can’t believe how much money I spent on organ meat pills over the years, all to find out they were injuring my body. I’m glad the article helps you no longer feel guilty! 🙂 Great news about your improved sleep off liver pills!
Cathleen McMahon says
Thank you for this informative article! I am currently on the GAPS diet (Intro, Level 4) and have NEVER liked eating liver as a child. I did take my liver in capsule form, thinking I would try to attempt to eat liver in the near future. Now I am seriously questioning that line of thinking. Thank you for adding your experience to the equation. There is so much we can learn from each other if we allow ALL the information into the discussion. God bless and be well!
Megan says
Great, Cathleen, yes, as you implied: it’s so important for certain topics to be discussable, not off limits and already decided for us by certain practitioners or researchers. (A true truth-seeking researcher will be willing to totally reconsider his formerly held beliefs, no matter what is at stake, when he is presented with new information.) I’m glad the article is timely and helpful! God bless you, too!
d says
This does make sense. Thinking of nose to tail eating, there is only ONE liver, ONE tongue, ONE spleen, etc in ONE animal, so eating an over abundance isn’t natural.
Just curious though…how would one go about getting tested for uric acid? I was on GAPS for over 18 months to try and help with pain in my hands. Doctor said it was nothing (hmmm), but it was something, so I found a GAPS practitioner to help. Still in the same dilemma 2yrs later. I’ve completely given up on conventional doctors. (And you’re right about the arrogance issue.)
Anyway, just looking for someone GOOD and who actually knows what they’re talking about instead of either guessing or getting mad because because their “treatment” didn’t work.
Megan says
Hi D, so true, one organ for each huge animal, divided among so many people, (and no proof it was beneficial to eat it, just perhaps necessary to have the extra food). I don’t know about uric acid testing, but to reduce levels in the body it’s recommended to cut out alcohol, fructose and reduce purines, so that might be a good start. You’ll find a lot of information on Dr. Perlmutter’s website, or his new book Drop Acid, may be helpful enough to read: https://amzn.to/3k8c41N There are other compounds that might also be good to consider, like oxalates, nightshades etc. Best wishes! It’s comforting to know that there is always a cause for every symptom, so you just have to get to the bottom of the it.
tommykarate says
I believe a regular blood test will even uric acid levels. But to be sure, just ask your doctor to have uric acid levels included.
One thing that no one talks about is diuretics raising uric acid levels. I have heart failure so I’ve been on diuretics now for about 9 years. The last 4 years i started getting a pain in my foot about once a year. After a couple days i couldn’t walk for about 2 weeks! I finally figured out it was gout.
Well then i heard the theory of eating heart will give you the proper nutrients to heal your heart! So i started eating grass fed ground beef with hearts, but it always included liver and kidneys. After about a month of that i started getting a gout attack every month!!! This lasted for 6 months until i finally realized purines are much higher in organ meats! Gout actually went to my right knee which was the worst pain! I cut out the organ meats and lowered my diuretic dosage and kept eating grass fed beef. I went almost a year and a half without an episode! Until for some damn reason i heard that heart nutrients will give you the nutrients you need again! I thought just lowering the dosage was what did it. So i started eating beef hearts, liver, kidney, thymus and adrenals again!! A month later a gout attack! This time started in my left foot then 3 days into it my left knee was involved! The worst pain again. Finally i realized its gotta be the purines in the organ meat!! I’m still severely limping because my knee and foot hurt so bad since its only been 2 weeks. But then i happen upon this page! Why didn’t i see this years ago??? Thank you for sharing this knowledge! I will be looking into my vitamin a toxicity even though I’m hoping i didn’t come close to doing it long enough!
Megan says
Thanks for sharing, Tommy. I’m so glad you figured it out and are on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, most of us have vitamin A toxicity, so I’m glad you’re looking into it. Best to you!
Tommykarate says
Meant to say a blood test will show uric acid levels. Also are you the one who posted the good to eat on a vitamin a toxicity diet? I didn’t see cherries, are they high in vitamin a? They’re supposed to be good for gout and arthritis. Plus i love them lol
If it was you a list of foods high in vitamin a would be nice as well. But i can’t remember where i saw that list so maybe it wasn’t you. Thank you
Megan says
Yes, here’s the list: https://eatbeautiful.net/vitamin-a-detox-diet-free-printable-food-lists-avoid-eat-toxicity/ And, cherries are out, sorry! Many foods can have aggravating components (like aldehydes or phenols) even if they’re not high in vA.
Skye says
Fascinating! Thank you for this, Megan!
What do you think about supplementing with vitamin A only when sick (to prevent complications due to vitamin A being rapidly depleted during viral infections)?
And what do you think about supplementing vitamin D during the winter months?
Thank you!!
Megan says
Hi Skye, you’re welcome and happy to help. My view of vitamin A in general has changed. I no longer believe its effects on the body are beneficial. I’m not sure what complications you are referring to, but long-term there are bigger problems it will cause. Supplementing with vitamin A I would consider very deleterious to human health. The fact that vitamin A is depleted during viral infections points to the fact that the body is clearing it and the virus on purpose at the same time, fighting off and detoxing the body to restore health, amazing really. We have been told for so long that vitamin A is a vitamin that it is a big paradigm shift to reconsider. (I would read this article closely if you haven’t yet.) Re vitamin D, I have totally switched over to a sun lamp in winter, and real sunshine spring through fall. I use Sperti’s Fiji Sun Lamp for the most similar rays to the sun; you can see it here: https://www.sperti.com/?ref=2723 As this article talks about, I believe that vitamin D supplements taken orally raise serum vitamin D levels (levels in the blood) which then throw off a proper mineral balance in the body, which the body tries to make up for by pulling calcium from the bones. Safe use of tanning beds (I know, another paradigm shift) is another affordable option, which I talk about here.
K Lewis says
Did you do HTMA or ceruloplasmin testing to see if you were properly loading the copper into the cell? You mention Vitamin A but never retinol. I’m sure you know they are not the same technically as retinol is pre-formed and the majority of studies done on vitamin A toxicity are on beta carotene and synthetic vitamin A, not retinol itself.
Megan says
Hi K, my view is that no one should supplement with copper. I believe most Americans are copper toxic. Yes, there are many doctors who put forward very “scientific” information on why we are copper deficient and how to make sure it assimilates properly, but there is not enough space to respond to each of their claims. I believe they are wrong. Zinc supplementation, yes. Copper and copper-rich foods regularly, no. The content of the main article above didn’t have space to include a retinol discussion. If it’s helpful here, retinol is the alcohol form of vitamin A. Retinol is converted by the body’s alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) system into retinaldehyde. The aldehyde dehydrogenase system (ALDH) converts aldehydes to acids, so retinaldehyde into retinoic acid. The same system that detoxes regular alcohol from our bodies, detoxes retinol (as retinaldehyde). Contrary to some popular information available, retinol is NOT the main form of vitamin A in foods. Retinyl esters are the main thing we consume in vA animal foods, as they are the main storage form of vitamin A. Retinyl esters are toxic: if more than 5% of the vA in the body is retinyl esters, you have a diagnoses of hypervitaminosis A. Retinol, in contrast, is the form of vA that’s floating around in our blood; it is bound to Retinol Binding Protein to protect us from it, as free form retinol is toxic. We have been talking about the animal forms of vA. Plant sources are carotenoids (beta carotene). I hope this helps to clarify. I cite many studies here on the toxicity of retinyl esters, animal-sourced vitamin A, which is what you thought you were referring to with retinols; they are not synthetic, and they are toxic.
Skye says
Thank you for your reply and the extra info and links. I actually bought my mum that sunlamp for Christmas after your article about it! 🙂 I guess I need one for myself, too! (Or I’ll just use hers when I go around there!) A few years ago I used to use tanning beds for vitamin D, but in recent years I’ve slipped back into supplementing (mostly because of the data showing Covid complications and deaths were so much higher for the vitamin D deficient – what do you make of that?). I trust your research so I’ll return to getting my D from the sun (and/or lamps) only! Thank you. And now I need to do more research on vitamin A!!
Skye says
Sorry my reply/comment ended up in the wrong spot!
Megan says
No problem!
Megan says
Hi Skye, great about your mom’s gift! Re the data you mention, I believe we are less deficient from using lamps or the sun than using an oral supplement. Plus, we need the light. I markedly feel better after tanning sessions and during after sun exposure, too. Tanning, home lamps and the sun are better sources of vitamin D in my opinion, and more protective against viruses, than oral vitamin D, again, IMO. 🙂
Virginia Chai says
Thank you Megan, I appreciate you sharing your research. I agree that we seem to take theories as fact, what seems healthy for one isn’t healthy for all…thanks again for all the diligence, we all benefit from more information.
Megan says
My pleasure, Virginia, thank you. Yes, the humility of stating a diet is a working theory vs a factual path to wellness would be most welcome and perhaps save so many of us from years of “wrong diets” and new symptoms. In reality, most of the wellness diets are not even theories, they are hypotheses (one aspect of the diet might be correct, and another completely wrong). But scientific definitions have been forgotten by many doctors and scientists. Best! 🙂
Julie says
Can you expand more on the “eat the rainbow” part? Thanks!
Megan says
Hi Julie, sure. Some of the most popular wellness diets right now, including Wahls Protocol and the vegan diet, not to mention many in the Traditional diet category, believe we should eat as colorful of food as possible: kale, orange sweet potatoes, purple cabbage, matcha tea etc. These foods are high in the vegetable form of vitamin A which are carotenoids. Carotenoids are essentially converted into vitamin A in the body, or we could say they are in the vA family. So just like we have many cases of vitamin A toxicity from people eating organ meats, there are many stories of people dying or making themselves sick with foods like daily carrot juice. In fact, ancestral communities — or just trying to get back to what is a natural diet, really? — did not and could not force down this kind of colorful-dense diet. It is only in our wealthy modern world of importing produce and being able to get everything we want (including out of season) that we inundate our bodies with this kind of diet. It has not been tested on humans until now, and now is when we’re seeing these support groups rise up: low oxalate, low vitamin A and carnivore, by people who got sick on all the veggie compounds that are not natural for the body to process in such quantities. This new notion of super-foods is not proven to improve long term health (some people feel better initially after eliminating processed foods). Actually, a really gentle diet of well-raised meats, gentle grains or roots, some fruits and veggies, sometimes raw dairy or limited fermented foods, soaking, some legumes (for some people) seems to be the most natural diet, balanced for our bodies and providing all we need. Yes, we can supplement with certain minerals or B vitamins, but overall, we do not need and should not, in my opinion, “eat the rainbow” to get more nutrients. Because when we do, we are also getting more veggie compounds that are dangerous to our health.
Kassia says
Hi Megan…The kind of “natural diet” you’re describing is what I have been switching to recently, but including liver and oysters as well. Emphasis on fresh fruit and root veggies/some grains for carbs, and plenty of dairy. I am wondering if it’s possible that being on a low carb diet long term can actually damage the liver and make it unable to use vitamin a and copper properly…. I know you have said before you were on GAPS and other low carb diets for a long time…is it possible that the low carbs/high fat in it self could have been the source of the problems? These are thoughts I’m exploring for myself and it is upsetting to think about but as I change my diet to a higher carb ratio I feel so much better.
Megan says
Hi Kassia, I believe that both vitamin A and copper are toxic in large amounts. I too enjoyed renewed energy when I increased my carbs many years ago, but where I’ve seen renewal of liver health and wellness is with the omission of vitamin A foods and balancing of zinc, because it’s a copper antagonist (thus helps to detox it). (https://eatbeautiful.net/how-nano-particle-zeolite-zinc-help-copper-toxicity/) I have never read of any cases or studies where a low carb diet damaged the liver to make vitamin A and copper “unusable”; have you? Rather, the liver and many other tissues store excess vitamin A and copper. Feeling better on more carbs is a separate issue.
Livingstone says
Hi Megan, Thanks I bought some of the organ supplements and did not know this so grateful to find this out!!! What do you actually eat now on your low vitamin A diet? That would be helpful!
Thanks
Megan says
Hi, and you’re welcome. I’m glad for the timing. You can read this article or just scroll to see the food list: https://eatbeautiful.net/vitamin-a-detox-diet-free-printable-food-lists-avoid-eat-toxicity/ I eat a lot of pasture-raised beef, fresh white fish, gentle grains and homemade breads (which I never expected after 10 years of doing grain-free), a few veggies like peeled cucumbers and zucchini, and my kids love berries. There’s more than that, but as a quick snapshot.
Livingstone says
Thank you so much Megan! God bless you!
Megan says
Happy to help, and God bless you, too!
Joyce says
Hi
What do you think of the Mediterranean diet.
Also I was told by my functional medicine doctor I would never get off my thyroid meds because I had mono as a teenager. I have been on this journey over 5 years and still don’t feel well.
Am on tons of supplements for CIRS and nothing seems to change.
Your thoughts.
Thank you
Megan says
Hi Joyce, I highly recommend Dr. Smith and the low vitamin A diet. I am off all thyroid meds since going on the diet, and he’s an awesome advocate for every single patient he meets with: meaning, he’ll meet you where you are and do extra research if needed, to help you move forward. I also had mono as a teenager. I hope you’ll reach out to him. Best! Megan https://nutritiondetective.com/
Mary says
Thanks for a great article – eye opening!! Thanks for being so thorough in your explanation and research.
Megan says
Thank you, Mary, and my pleasure! 🙂
Gloria Lee says
My husband has what the surgeon calls silent acid reflux. The surgeon says” meds for rest of life” . I am wondering if you have any info on how to deal with acid reflux other than meds? As far as diet, herbs… Since his acid reflux is silent it makes it harder to deal with it? Thank you for your time Gloria L
Megan says
Hi Gloria, feel free to reach out to me for consulting if you need more support (email is [email protected]), but a good thing to start with and try might be Serrapeptase: https://amzn.to/38lmLvk It has many benefits and is used by the medical community after surgery to aid healing, but it is also a digestive aid, reducing inflammation and helping to break down proteins. It is very important to take it on an empty stomach or at least 2 hours after a meal AND 1 hour before a meal AND with at least 8 ounces of water. It can increase overall aches and pains when initially taken because it breaks down old scar tissue. (This is a natural supplement btw, made by silk worms.) Another option is gentian root digestive bitters, taken at the beginning of every meal, to help the valve shut between stomach and esophagus and create the right pH in the stomach, as well as stimulate bile flow, plus more. You can find it here: https://amzn.to/3KfKnPd Other than these two supplements, of course his exact diet could be looked at closely. Best wishes!
Gloria Lee says
Thank you Megan, I do want to look into these. My husband is currently taking a PPI med. for 6 weeks now. He doesn’t want to take this long term. Since his acid reflux is silent I wonder if he should be under a functional medicine practioner. Thank you for these suggestions. I may contact you later for more info.~ Gloria
Megan says
Sounds good, Gloria, and best wishes with your process!
Dorothy says
I read another article you had on vitamin A mentioning organ meats being unhealthy rather than something to eat or supplement with. Unfortunately, I have liver and multi organ supplements that I now know are not good to take. I even recommended them to other family members, who were taking them previously. My dh has hashimotis, but hasn’t been tested in a while. We both take a dessicated thyroid supplement we get online for hypothyroidism, though neither of us has been tested lately. Interestingly, I just got an email from another blogger about the best food for energy being liver. But I don’t think I’ll be going back to it again. Your article helps to clear the air on this subject.
Megan says
Hi Dorothy, I appreciate your process. I’ve certainly talked in the past about the benefits of liver, and regret that now. Thyroid medication can be taken, obviously, still, for hypothyroid. But going low A can be one way to help wean from the meds, if desired. I’ll publish later this week my article on putting Hashi’s into remission. I, too, still have leftover bottles of organ supplements LOL. I really need to throw them away; I’ll certainly never take them again. But the amount of money I spent on them makes them hard to put in the trash (too funny … maybe I’ll dump them today!). I’m glad the article helps to clarify. Liver is a go-to for most wellness folks now, but eventually I think most will come to admit they were wrong. We’ve all been misled, and now we know.
Dorothy says
We’ll be looking forward to your article, Megan, and we appreciate how you share what you’ve learned and experienced. 🙂
Megan says
Thank you, Dorothy! 🙂
Dan says
I really liked your article. You thought of many technical reasons why organ meats are not the best to eat. As far as I can tell, I’m am the only person on youtube that has made any real arguments against organ meats, except for a few interviews I saw on Nutrition With Judy’s channel. I made a couple of videos about the organ meat myth.
I actually saw a doctor named Richard Johnson on Dr Perlmutter’s youtube channel talking about how organ meats raise uric acid because of their high purine content.
I also saw another video on youtube with Arctic Explorer VilJalumur Steffanson who said that when he lived with the Eskimos, they rarely ate organ meats and fed them to their dogs.
This is how I figured it out, because I already understood that organ meats are not instinctive for most people to eat. I basically use more of an evolutionary argument combined with commons sense.
I don’t see how humans are any different than any other animal. Our instincts tell us what real food is.
Thanks for the excellent article!
Megan says
Hi Dan, thank you! Great that you’ve spoken about this, too. I’ll look for your (and Judy’s) work on the topic. It’s encouraging to spread the word and protect more people from false information (and thus, major health problems). Great insight about Vilhjalmur Stefansson. It is so helpful to hear what more native peoples have done historically. Best!
Barbara Geoffroy says
Oh my goodness! This is such an eye-opener! I plan to search your website for the vitamin A detox article. Having felt guilty for not eating enough of the rainbow and organ meats, I’m eagerly interested in your gentle grains and vegetables. Perhaps this explains my migraines when attempting to take collagen supplements! My thyroid tested very low last blood test. Oh my! My desire is to locate a reliable integrative practitioner that can guide my husband and me towards proper supplements and the best foods to enjoy! Your input would be greatly appreciated! Currently we take so many supplements!! Also looking forward to your article on Hashi. Thank you, again, Megan, for your courage and for using your research and education to help others!!
Megan says
Hi Barbara, I’m so glad the article is helpful. If you didn’t see it publish yesterday, here’s the new article on reversing my Hashimoto’s: https://eatbeautiful.net/how-i-reversed-my-hashimotos/ And here’s the low A diet article for easy access to it: https://eatbeautiful.net/vitamin-a-detox-diet-free-printable-food-lists-avoid-eat-toxicity/ I do recommend Dr. Smith. His knowledge is more accurate in my opinion than most, and more insightful. And he’s willing to do research for individual patients, as needed. Best wishes!
Joanne says
Hello
Thank you for the informative article. Did you have bloodwork done to assess your vitamin A levels or did you just stop eating organ meats and felt better. I have 2 children who are dairy and egg intolerant so I give them cod liver oil daily to help with Vitamin A as they don’t get alot in their diet. They both have various health issues such as thyroid, histamine and headaches. What is the best way to know if they are getting too much. The study mentions 25000iu/day and up but their dose would be less.
Thanks in advance
Megan says
Hi Joanne, I’ve come to the conclusion that any amount of vitamin A is toxic. I know that sounds “out there”, but the longer I do this diet and the more clients I work with, and the more people I meet, research I read, I do believe that cod liver oil is the wrong direction. I have overcome all thyroid issues by going on a low A diet (avoiding all cod liver oil, liver, red bell peppers, kale, salmon, spinach, sweet potatoes etc), after YEARS of trying the opposite. Years of the GAPS diet, high A foods, cod liver oil, liver etc gave me Hashimoto’s. What made me start the low A diet was my histamine intolerance. I read some article that linked them. I thought it was extreme but worth a try, and within two weeks, my histamine intolerance and MCAS were gone. I was able to reintroduce all the histamine foods. The low A diet is free of eggs and dairy, too, so it would compliment your children’s dietary intolerances. I’m going to link here to two other articles you may find helpful. I’m so glad you wrote, and I hope you find these super helpful and thought-provoking. In short, their symptoms are telling you that the supplements (like cod liver oil) are not working; we either don’t get well, or we get worse on these things. Sometimes, a brief paradox healing will happen, where we’ll briefly see an initial improvement on these supplements, but that does not last. There is a scientific explanation for what the body does that causes the paradox healing that I won’t go into here. To answer your final question. I did not, and it is not possible, to get an accurate test for vitamin A without having a tiny portion of the liver removed and tested. The reason is that how much vA is in our blood does not designate or reflect how much is in our liver, which is where vA is stored, as well as our other tissues. So yes, I just stopped, and all my issues resolved over time, some quite quickly (depression and histamine intolerance), then thyroid and other issues over time. Here are the articles I think you’ll find helpful, and let me know if I can help further: https://eatbeautiful.net/vitamin-a-detox-diet-free-printable-food-lists-avoid-eat-toxicity/ and https://eatbeautiful.net/mcas-histamine-lectin-intolerance-tips/ In my opinion, any amount of cod liver oil for your kids is dangerous and good to reconsider. I had my kids (who were still at home) on the low A diet for 3 years, and they can both now eat anything. I am so happy for both of them. Blessings, and happy to help!
Joanne says
Hello Megan
Thank you for all the information. I would like to give it a try to help them with their ongoing health issues however when I read about the diet in detail, I felt very discouraged. It felt like so many foods are eliminated. My children are unable to eat any dairy, eggs, corn, nuts and my youngest is very intolerant to potatoes (food sensitivity testing). Squash has provided a starch substitute, and leafy greens is to help with calcium. Where would your children get calcium as I remember reading that your daughter is off dairy as well due to asthma? We live in Canada and we cannot get sun exposure from October to May to make Vitamin D. I read in an article on your site re not taking Vitamin D and no vitamin C as well as iodine. My children take iodine daily as they do not receive any being dairy free and iodine is essential for brain development. I am feeling confused as what to do.
Megan says
Hi Joanne, I sympathize, as there’s so much misinformation out there, and it’s VERY confusing. Dr. Smith, who’s the foremost authority on vitamin A toxicity and has done a ton of research on optimum health needs is very concerned about the use of iodine as a supplement. He cites all his views, linking to multiple papers, and never makes assertions without loads of research for his patients to check his information. And vitamin C helps the body store vA in the liver, so it’s not used on the diet, or the body won’t detox vA well. Vitamin D is best gotten through a lamp during the fall and winter months. I just started using mine today for me and for my son. (If budget is an issue, you could save up for this, for a Cmas present or just a general purchase); it’s wonderful. Here‘s the one I have and that he recommends. Re calcium, we shouldn’t be taking it orally. We need to take Magnesium + oftentimes selenium, molybdenum and zinc, and then D from the sun or lamp, + vitamin K; then calcium takes care of itself. Taking vitamin D pulls calcium from the bones, as the body tries to balance the imbalance in the blood. Sometimes potassium is also helpful. For carbs, I started grain-free and used parsnips as a good carb. Before I knew it, I was so surprised and happy to be able to add in oats, after about a decade of Paleo!, not knowing I’d ever be able to eat grains again. This happens to almost everyone on the diet. I make wonderful waffles and other carbs, with oats being a primary carb, but there are other sources as well, depending on each person’s needs. Well, this has been a lot! I’ll leave it at that for now as you digest it. Blessings!
Wendy Stevenson says
Taking vitamin D3 does not pull calcium from bone. Yes, it can pull calcium from bone if you are overdosing daily on D3 and you would be very sick. There is an exception to that rule and that would be if you have an issue going on with your parathyroid. Another exception most people with Hashimoto’s thyroid have a tendency to dump calcium therefore a good Idea to low-dose ADK( mk4 and mk7) and 1000 mg calcium a day!
Megan says
Hi Wendy, we’ll agree to disagree, and I think you’ll find that not even functional medical doctors advise supplementing with calcium.
Joanna Sembecos says
Thank you for helping to clarify some of the confusion. I think I read in one of your posts that your children were able to resume eating all foods with no issues. Would that include gluten and dairy? How do you know when to stop the diet and resume eating healthy foods with a moderate amount of vitamin A?
Thank you so much.
Megan says
Sure, happy to help! The boys were done emotionally, one, after 10-ish years on wellness diets. But they were also well. No new health goals, no unresolved health issues (my oldest son has one tiny issue, but he needed to be done, so I let it go, and it’s something that can be addressed in the future if needed). Whereas with me, I can tell I’m not done. Yes, they can both now eat dairy and gluten. 🙂
Rachel Page says
Thank you for this article. I don’t take liver supplements. I love organ meats. I don’t eat them often, maybe twice a month. I saw a lot of mention in regards to organ supplements, but I’m curious based on your research, what is a safe amount of organ meat to eat a week or month? (liver,heart, gizzards). Thank you
Megan says
Hi Rachel, I understand. Good point that I talk a lot about supplements, but unfortunately, the same holds true for straight organ meats. Because they are one of the highest sources in these compounds, I would not feel comfortable eating them at all anymore. This is true of heart least of all. Heart eaten twice a month with a diet otherwise low in these compounds, if the body is otherwise detoxing well, should not be a problem, because our bodies can indeed handle some level of these compounds. But knowing they’re not good for us, it’s a funny dilemma.
Em says
I read your article with great interest. I have been sickly all my life (not from organ meats lol) and tried so much out there people wouldn’t even believe a fraction of it
Anyways, after having three very difficult babies, screaming a lot and on edge and very demanding, I have been nursing for over a decade straight, huge babies too, I took a vitamin during 4 th pregnancy and I would puke just it up. So I started taking these organs, a variety of them during pregnancy. I started craving dairy, I would take a few extra living bone and it would go away. Craving artichoke, I took more folate it went away. Long story short, my baby was the first of my babies with a super calm,.gentle demeanor, slept 6 hour stretches. Could be actually laid down to sleep at night. This baby’s nervous system is so different and well developed than my others, it is startling to others and they wondered what I took for vitamins. My baby is so brilliantly intelligent and mature that it is also highly unusual, even though my others are so smart. Remember too pregnancy and nursing severely depletes the body so I’m hesitant a mother should take nothing during these periods of severe depletion because “it’ll probably make you just an overdosed mess in a few years”. Maybe it won’t if the babies are sucking it out! We don’t have enough diagnostics to tell! I’m almost positive I read some other blog that said you can’t even test clinically for high vitamin a (or easily).
So while I appreciate everyone has issues and health problems they trace back to a legitimate source and it works for them, the thing that is saving someone is also the thing deteriorating another person somewhere else. It’s terribly confusing. My SIL is juicing stuff and lives off eggs and nuts and can barely bring herself to eat meat and is 10,000x healthier than I ever am or will be. She says I know, I’m deficient in protein and zinc so I supplement. So she seems like she uses a lot of protein powders. How doesn’t that catch up with someone, what’s in protein powders, should people be consuming so much processed protein isolates, so much natural sweetener stevia etc. it’s just another problem not vitamin a.
You’re absolutely right that organs could end up over consumed. However, in my mind I question what about any of the compounds we eat in foods of any kind. I am very very very certain after this long health journey I’m on, that given time and research everything we put in our mouths has a potentially serious problem associated. Some say eggs were very bad, then they say eggs are ok now, then soon I’m sure eggs will be bad again. Some say red meat is good others say not. Some say eating raw is good others say no. Some say eating phytic acid is actually helpful, others are soaking it out of their foods. People say intrinsically wheat is bad flat out, others say einkorn is ok but no other, others yet say it’s totally fine as long properly prepared. Some say dairy is only for babies, some say on raw dairy, some say only fermented dairy, some say fermented dairy with only low histamine strains.
Even though you feel excellent on the low vitamin a diet currently and I’m truly happy when someone suffering multitude issues finds The Key to getting past a health crisis (es), you may end up unintentionally imbalancing something else over the years or maybe it isn’t even know yet. Which means we are all perpetually in the same boat of swinging the wheel hard and over correcting them righting ourselves then doing it again. For someone who has in generally a weak constitution or predisposition to poor health, I’m convinced the entire life will be a tightrope walk and it won’t be solves by just “exercising, hydration, sleep, and good natural organic regenerative farm food”.
If there was zero purpose for vitamin a in creation, why did God create it?
People also need to solve immediate issues. Ie I don’t have Endo or anything like that but postpartum periods have become frightfully heavy, I’ve had big babies and the uterus doesn’t clamp down as good anymore.. Going around like you’re going to faint isn’t ok. So I take Blood Vitality. Sure it’s probably full of vitamin a, but the issue is high blood loss and period induced iron problems. Being frightened of the organ meats “just in case I eventually get vitamin a toxicity” vs just lying faint on the couch for days every month just seem imprudent to me. Actually if we don’t take anything out of fear I’m actually pretty sure at this point the alternative I would have had many years ago was to be on fistfuls of pharmaceuticals just increasing the amounts. Some people may have thyroid problems disappear on low a, and others not. So then the ones not have to just be on equally suspicious pharmaceuticals in case the thyroid glandulars cause vitamin imbalance? So I’m sure I make errors and learn things and adjust over the years, yet I find going swinging hard to one dire pendulum (unless acutely highly unwell, need answers ASAP type deal) is not a good way to live. Being pregnant and having low vitamin d is an autism risk, I’m not going to trust a lamp to bring my levels up and then find out it was very modest gains.
I think Interestingly is that in order to reduce your risk of vitamin a toxicity you have to become deficient or accept potential deficiencies in other areas. Which means you may have to up those isolates in a few years which could then spur other concerns of dangers in those substances. Ironically if we took nothing and just ate “good food”, that good food is still deficient due to soil depletion, butchering practices,, loss in preserving techniques, cooking destruction etc. so we are in a situation of needing to supplement and either taking synthetics or natural sources and natural sources seem to reside in organ meats. So that’s probably why people take them is to avoid bed pan bullets.
Trust me.i have my own livestock, I milk our own a2 cow for raw milk (which is probably also bad for us), I make our own yogurts and kefir soda, and we eat from scratch and organic, render tallow, make our own lotions (so is our lotion made of tallow, olive oil, and vitamin e toxic? )
Do you take nothing to support immune system? I mean c virus came along and trashed everyone out and continues to. Immune systems don’t function right anymore. Droves of people are going to my cousin who is a naturopath saying I used to be well and I’m never well anymore, I’m sick all the time. It seems the t cells have been destroyed or rendered malfunctioning. Should anyone take any compounds to support those? No bone marrow, colostrum, thymus, vitamin d or c, specifically be vitamin a free in diet, no anything ? Is it better to just be chronically sick like one gastro bug or respiratory bug after the other and hope you ride them out? Studies show specifically high dose vitamin a virtually cancels out just about any serious concern re measles complications. Why is that if it is just the body being poisoned. It’s a dilemma that requires prudence.
Thank you for your write up though! I just wanted to point out that everyone’s journey is unique and I don’t believe vitamin a or any vitamin or compound is meant to be just completely carved out of the diet and assigned a bad category. It’s good to be aware to not overdo it. I think we will moderate our intake long term of these organs though to make sure.
Megan says
Hi Em, thanks for writing and your perspective. It reminds of the points made by the one article that is written to combat the Low A Diet. Most importantly, “vitamin” A is not a vitamin. Anyone who seriously wants to think through this issue needs to read Grant Genereux’s books and listen to Dr. Smith’s insights. The original rat studies were wrong when they decided this compound was a vitamin (both sources go into all the details). Many compounds in foods are toxic when over-eaten. If we ate in balance like former cultures, before pesticides, conventional foods, fortified foods, vitamins and “eat the rainbow” type messages, then no problem including vitamin A containing foods in our diet. Our bodies can detox a certain amount of toxicity. Also, to clarify, I don’t have any deficiencies. In fact, I just keep making new progress (in how I feel and in my lab work). My latest accomplishment is reaching new hormone balance and being able to stop taking DIM for estrogen dominance. While everyone is different, vitamin A is always what it is by nature, and it is always detoxed in the body, from the liver, on the same pathway that the body detoxes alcohol and glyphosate. It is treated by the body as a toxin, because it is a toxin. I hope that helps.
Sue says
Great article! What are your thoughts on taking grass-fed collagen and grass-fed beef gelatin? Thank you!
Megan says
Hi Sue, good question. I do think they’re fine, as far as safety, but perhaps not as effective or essential for everyone as some people make them out to be. It seems some people get noticeable benefits, and others arguably none. The doctor I work with believes they’re over-rated, and that collagen is a bit like the sugar of the protein world, because it’s been broken down so much; and yet, he does feel it has a place, if for example, someone is very limited in the sources of protein they can consume, it is a gentle option.
Sue says
Thank you so much! I’m also curious how you feel about oysters/oyster supplements (such as OysterMax)?
Megan says
Good question. Unfortunately, oysters are very high in copper. They used to be my very favorite food (small, raw ones that taste of the ocean … and chocolate, which I think not coincidentally, is also very high in copper). From Dr. Smith I learned that most people are copper toxic. He’s observed this through years of patient lab work, and their symptoms, and now I’ve seen it from my own lab work and symptoms. Recovery is largely from copper toxicity, and each person learning how to add in the right amount of zinc and molybdenum, copper antagonists, as their body regains the right balance and detoxes. So, sadly, oysters are out.
Wendy Stevenson says
Very interesting information. No one in the past would have ever eaten that much organ meat. Organ meats were prized back in the day ….because they are very nutrient-dense! If you were lucky you would have probably had them once a week. That would have been a great way to supplement the diet with nutritious food. I believe a good rule of thumb with everything…. especially nutrition would be moderation!
To completely eliminate organ meat is not necessarily a good choice looking at the whole spectrum of food we eat and laying out a well-balanced diet including organ meats is probably a much healthier approach!!! Using a whole food approach and looking at what your body may need per season would also be a good idea. For example, your body needs to stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. What foods can help support this body process?
John says
I have just started taking Ancestral Supplements which seem to make my joints hurt. Having read your article I am going to cease taking them!
They made me feel good for a while but now my joints hurt there’s little point.
Megan says
Thanks for sharing, John, a helpful testimony! Liver pills made me feel good at first, too.
John Martyn says
The one Ancestral Supplement I still take is their colostrum. My joints have calmed down now I’ve stopped taking the organ meat supplements.
Megan says
Thanks for sharing!
Justyn says
Eat as our ancestors did, and that includes organs. Simple and time tested. Just don’t overdose on liver pills. That may be a problem ha.