The most nutrient-dense food on the planet for strong immunity and resilience!
Becca Crawford
Did you know that livers from pastured chickens (the key ingredient in chicken liver pate) are the most nutrient dense food on the planet bar none? Gram for gram pastured livers are packed with more micronutrients than any other food! Precisely why they were the most highly prized part of the animal for our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Did you know that nutrients are precisely what our body runs on and the more nutrients we have, the more the structure, functions and systems of the body can work optimally? This includes our immune system!
Livers are packed with vitamins A, D, E and K2 and these vitamins are key for building strong immunity and resilience. Vitamin A is important not just for strong immunity but also for glowing skin and is known as “the concertmaster of foetal development” because it is responsible for giving babies a beautiful broad face, high cheekbones and wide dental arch. A broad face and wide dental arch are not simply aesthetic – they also bring numerous functional benefits especially in terms of optimal breathing, jaw development, and teeth formation and placement. In addition, livers are the highest food source of iron, B group vitamins (including folate!) and other trace minerals. No wonder it was one of the potent fertility foods to be eaten by both men and women in traditional societies who wanted to have a baby.
While many turn their noses up at eating livers, the French nailed it with a creamy spread or dip called pate which is a very convenient and palatable way of consuming livers (and for some the only way of consuming livers). We have a truly wonderful ongoing supply of our organic artisan sage & thyme chicken liver pate at Broth Bar & Larder and via our online store for delivery to all of Sydney, Wollongong and most of NSW.
If you’d like to learn how to make your own pate (it’s very simple!) and other organ meat dishes (both in sneaky form, and presented loud and proud!) check out my online organ meat workshop.
Whether you buy it or make it, I recommend you consume livers at least once a week (and more so if you’re pregnant, want to fall pregnant, breastfeeding, anaemic or have low immunity). I love pate on cucumber rounds, apple rounds, with veggie sticks, or smeared on quality sourdough or sprouted bread.
Like all food, not all liver or pate is created equal so ensure you are choosing livers and pate from pastured poultry and preferably certified organic.
And in case you’re wondering, no the liver is not a storage house for toxins - it is a storage house for nutrients. In a well functioning body, toxins pass through the liver and are eliminated through normal elimination means (or are stored in fatty or nervous tissues) as opposed to being stored in the liver. Another myth that is often bandied around in conventional dietetic circles is that livers can cause vitamin A toxicity. Vitamin A toxicity can only occur un the absence of vitamin D. In a whole food form these micronutrients are perfectly synergistically balanced.
Learn more myth busting and nutritional theory (along with loads of recipes) in my online organ meat workshop!