In the hills and valleys of northern Tanzania lives a tribe called the Hadza. This modern hunter-gatherer group of about 1,300 individuals offers a glimpse into the way humans have lived for tens of thousands of years.
Considered one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes in Africa, the Hadza survive by foraging edible plants and hunting wild game with hand-made bows and arrows.
What intrigues researchers most about the Hadza is their health. Unlike other modern cultures, they enjoy a high level of vitality right up until the very end of their lives.
What’s Hadza’s secret for such exemplary health and vigor?
Some suspect their lifestyle – and diet – play a significant role. After a hunt, the Hadza consume what they consider the most valuable parts of the kill right in the field. They reward their hunting dogs with the intestines, while the heart, liver, lungs, spleen, kidneys and pancreas are roasted on the open fire and shared amongst themselves.
According to the local lore, the internal organs, or the “epeme,” must be shared among all the men of the tribe. If a hunter refuses to do so, bad luck will fall upon the tribe.
In the animal world, predators always consume the organs before the muscle meat. The alpha wild canine or feline eats the liver and heart first, and leaves the muscle meat for the rest of the pack.
It’s not just our hunter-gatherer ancestors and wild animals who hold organ meats in high esteem... so do many traditional cultures around the world. For those who don’t favor organ meats, it’s too bad, as they’re truly the superfoods of the animal kingdom.
Eating Nose to Tail: Why You Need Organ Meats
Our ancestors wasted nothing – they consumed the animals they hunted in their entirety, from nose to tail. They ate the organs along with the muscle meat and made good use of all the other parts, too. Out of necessity, they couldn’t afford to waste any part of the animal.
This kind of eating – nose to tail – is not only a healthy way to eat, but it’s also the most sustainable and environmentally-friendly.
But here in the Western world, people accustomed to the plastic-wrapped muscle meats in grocery meat cases – steaks, hamburgers and chicken breasts. People rarely buy organ meats. In fact, sometimes you can’t even find organ meats for sale in grocery stores because of the low demand.
This is unfortunate for several reasons...
Organ meats are some of the most nutritionally dense sources of valuable minerals and fat-soluble vitamins. By consuming organ meats along with muscle meat, you receive the proper balance of amino acids.
Take methionine for example – an amino acid found in rich supply in lean muscle meat. While methionine offers nutritional value, the amount found in most Western diets is too high because of meat intake. Higher intakes of methionine can potentially:
- Boost homocysteine production, which increases your need for vitamins B6, B12, folate, betaine and choline.
- Create inflammation in your body.
- Interfere with healthy thyroid function.
- Deplete levels of the amino acid glycine, which helps buffer the harmful effects of too much methionine in your body).
Rat, mouse and fruit fly studies all show that excessive intake of methionine actually shortens lifespan – and restricting methionine extends it.
Including organ meats in your diet can help balance the nutritional shortcomings of muscle meats by supplying your body with betaine and folate, which generate glycine and neutralize homocysteine.
In simpler terms, if you’re currently consuming muscle meats, you need the balancing effects of organ meats.
The Most Important Organ You’re Probably Not Eating
Of all the organs you may not be eating now, liver is likely the most important. Why is that? Liver is one of the most nutrient-dense foods available, and its special combination of peptides, amino acids and some other hard-to-find nutrients make it a truly unique food. Some call liver “nature’s multivitamin.”
Here are just some of the important nutrients in raw beef liver:
- Retinol – A preformed type of vitamin A essential for immune function, vision, skin health, reproduction and communication between cells
- Folate – A B-vitamin needed for your body to make DNA and for the proper division of cells
- Choline – Essential for healthy cell membranes, it’s also used by your brain and nervous system to support memory, mood and muscle control
- Vitamin B12 – An energy vitamin found in quantities 17 times higher in beef liver than ground beef
- Niacin (B3) – Essential for brain health and cognition, mood and energy production
- Copper – Required for enzymes like super oxide dismutase (SOD), which plays a key role in protecting against damage from excessive oxidative stress
- Selenium – An important mineral for immune health, cellular defense and thyroid function
- Ergothioneine – An amino acid that supports the body’s detoxification processes and cellular health
- Heme iron – A type of iron critical for energy, performance, immune function and brain health
- Carnosine, taurine, L-carnitine and anserine – Nutrients that support muscle recovery as well as brain, immune and cardiovascular health
- Liver expressed antimicrobial peptide (LEAP-2) – A peptide, or amino acid-based messenger molecule, that’s involved in glucose metabolism and immune response
Liver is a powerhouse for B-vitamins. In addition to vitamin B12, folate and niacin, liver is also an exceptional source for biotin and riboflavin. A misconception exists about the liver... Many people view the liver as a filter and a “dirty” food, but it’s not.
As a key player in your body’s detoxification processes, your liver prepares chemicals and unwanted compounds for excretion in your bile or urine. So, rather than storing toxins, it transforms them into a form your body can dispose of.
How Heart, Kidneys, Pancreas and Spleen Support Health
Four other key organs in their raw state – heart, kidneys, pancreas and spleen – also provide important nutrients for health. Here are some of the highlights:
- Heart is considered both an organ meat and a muscle meat, but it contains twice as much riboflavin as regular muscle meat. Heart is an excellent source of coenzyme Q10, which supports heart health, blood pressure and fertility. It is also a nutritional powerhouse for your mitochondria and energy production.
- Kidney provides naturally occurring, highly bioavailable selenium and B12, as well as properly balanced copper and zinc. Containing a rare amino acid, L-ergothioneine, it also supports optimal kidney and urinary health. Plus, it promotes healthy detoxification, immune and thyroid health as well as histamine metabolism.
- Pancreas provides a natural source of enzymes the optimal functioning of your pancreas, healthy blood sugar signaling and digestion.
- Spleen is a concentrated source of heme iron, vitamin C and pantothenic acid (B5) to support metabolic, immune and allergy health. It is also notable for its ability to support healthy blood cells.
High quality raw beef organs provide all the fat-soluble vitamins – A, D, K and E – in highly absorbable forms and supply the essential nutrients folate, copper, zinc and chromium.
Your body requires nine essential amino acids, and raw organ meats contain all of them. Organ meats’ high-quality protein supports a healthy metabolism and can help build muscle mass.
Choline is another important nutrient supplied by raw organ meats. Often deficient in many individuals, choline is crucial for a healthy metabolism and for supporting brain, nervous system, heart and liver health.
In summary, the amino acids, vitamins and minerals in raw beef liver complement those found in muscle meat.
Could Consuming Organs Support Your Own Organ Health?
Containing more than two dozen important vitamins and minerals, organ meats are the most concentrated source of nearly every nutrient important for human health. As we’ve seen, they contain nutrients crucial for cardiovascular health, brain health, mood and cognition, gut and immune health, skin health and so much more.
Nutrients aside, traditional peoples, Native Americans and early ancestral healers, hold an even deeper appreciation for what organs offer for human health. They believe that eating the organs of a healthy animal can strengthen and support the health of the corresponding organ in the individual.
For example, in their traditional practice, these healers utilize the:
- Heart to support cardiovascular and mitochondrial health.*
- Liver to support healthy liver function, metabolism and energy production.*
- Kidneys to support healthy, normal detoxification processes as well as urinary, kidney and immune health.*
- Pancreas to support healthy blood sugar signaling, digestion and pancreatic health.*
- Spleen to support healthy blood and immune function.*
Many alternative practitioners today continue to use organs in a similar manner with their patients. Now, in an exciting discovery, research at the University of Scotland supports these beliefs and practices...
In radioisotope labeling studies with animals, organs and glands did indeed deposit in the corresponding organs and glands in high concentrations when consumed by mouth.
I can’t emphasize more – the health of the donor animal is critically important. For both safety and optimal results, the animals must meet two criteria:
- Be absolutely healthy.
- Be sourced from the cleanest environment possible.
Today, most organ meats come from conventionally raised animals that fail miserably at meeting both criteria.
What Conventional Beef Producers Don’t Want You to Know
When many people think about where their meat comes from, they picture cattle grazing on green, country pastures.
Imagine how surprised these individuals are when they learn that most food animals today are not raised on these types of farms. Maybe they were 50 years ago, but no longer is that the case.
Today, more than 70% of cows are raised in factory farms, not sprawling green pastures.
Even though cows are naturally suited for grazing – and are one of the few animals that can eat and digest grass and turn it into fuel – they spend most of their lives in crowded animal factories known as confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
In the American beef industry, a young cow spends its first few months out on the pasture with its mother, nursing and nibbling grass. At age six months, it is removed from its mother and put in what’s known in the industry as a backgrounding pen.
This is when it begins its unnatural diet of grains – mostly genetically engineered corn and soy that’s often treated with chemicals like glyphosate (“Roundup”), 2,4-D, and atrazine, a proven hormone disruptor in the human body.
When a cow eats grains, problems can develop because a cow’s rumen, or stomach, isn’t designed for grains. Rich, starchy foods like corn disturb the animal’s digestion.
Antibiotics are routine for CAFO cows – they’re typically administered for the animal’s entire life to treat and prevent disease from stress and their unnatural diet. While outlawed in the European Union (EU), hormones are still allowed in American beef.
Another Reason Why Green Pastures Matter
I believe bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease as it is commonly known, is a man-made plague created by the CAFO system. This is a fatal disease that slowly eats away at the cow’s brain and spinal cord.
Humans can’t get the same form of mad cow disease as cattle, but they can get a variant of it called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) if they eat food contaminated with the diseased tissue of sick cattle.
One of the main ways BSE is transferred among cows is by feeding them bone meal and waste products from other infected cattle. While it’s no longer legal to feed beef-based products to cows, CAFO cows are still fed dead cow remains through chicken feed.
An animal feed product known as broiler or chicken litter is permitted. This mixture of chicken feces, bedding, spent feed and feathers has been used in beef production for more than 40 years.
Broiler litter can contain antibiotics, heavy metals, pathogenic bacteria and even dead rodents, according to Consumers Union. And because it’s allowed to be fed to chickens, it can contain cattle waste.
The U.S. FDA may have banned the practice of feeding the remains of dead cows to cattle in 1997, but it never prohibited the feeding of deceased cows to poultry. So, by consuming chicken feed, cows indirectly ingest the remains of dead and potentially diseased cattle.
Why You Should Not Eat Organs From CAFO Cows
To review, cattle raised in a CAFO are:
- Crammed together and treated inhumanely.
- Routinely fed glyphosate- and atrazine-treated, bioengineered grains and grain byproducts.
- Administered antibiotics to prevent disease from stress and an unnatural diet.
- Given synthetic hormone and steroid “implants” to promote growth.
- Fed animal wastes that can promote the transmission of mad cow disease.
And that’s not all...
A recent USDA inspector’s report revealed that beef sold to the public was contaminated with 211 different drug residues. And it’s estimated that as much as 20% of the drugs administered may remain in the meat.
Considering that what an animal eats – and is given – affects the quality of its organs, do you really want to eat organs from CAFO animals?
Organs that come from 100% grass fed beef are a whole different story. Not only don’t they come with all these drawbacks, but they are also ethically produced.
When organs come from grass-fed animals, they are safe to eat and contain an abundance of nutrients – everything from amino acids to high-quality fats, vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin A, conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, and choline.
In fact, products from grass-fed animals contain up to five times more omega-3 fats, compared to conventional grain-fed meat.
Animals that are truly 100% grass fed are raised without antibiotics (except for bona fide illness), synthetic hormones and steroid implants, pesticides, herbicides, glyphosate and bioengineered grains.
Plus, cows that are exclusively grass fed receive no chicken feed or any kind of animal waste.
Get the Organs Your Body Needs
With Grass Fed Beef Organ Complex
I realize that most people don’t want to cook animal organs at home, even if they can find a suitable source.
For that reason, we’ve found an easy and convenient way for you to benefit from the organs of healthy animals – without having to seek them out and prepare them yourself.
Grass Fed Beef Organ Complex contains five key organs – liver, heart, kidney, pancreas and spleen – from free-roaming, healthy New Zealand cows with year-round access to grasslands.
Plus, our product is 100% freeze dried to preserve biological activity that can be disrupted by high heat-processing methods. Freeze drying preserves the heat-sensitive vitamins, minerals and co-factors of components, leaving the nutrients in the same balance found in nature.
For assurance of both safety and quality, our supplier provides traceability back to the farm source and processing plant, and retains control of the product throughout every step until delivery. During this process, the product is tested for heavy metals.
Finally, to avoid any contamination from CAFO cows, we use plant-derived capsules for Beef Organ Complex.
Regular bovine gelatin capsules can contain ingredients from factory-farmed cows, so it only makes sense to use a vegetarian capsule.
All About the Animals
For the healthiest, cleanest organs, you must start with the best animals raised in the purest environment.
New Zealand stands apart from other meat-producing regions in the world because its moderate climate allows the grass in the pastures to grow green and fresh year-round. This provides the cows with the most natural and healthiest diet possible throughout the year.
Grass Fed Beef Organ Complex is made from animals born and raised in New Zealand on free-range ranches. Because of their year-round access to grass, they’re raised without genetically engineered feed, growth stimulants or hormones.
Instead of taking a young calf from its mother at six months of age, a lifetime grazed cow remains on grassland for its entire life. It eats only grass and forages, and is fed no supplemental grains.
So what about the potential for prion and wasting diseases?
These New Zealand herds are free of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) diseases such as chronic wasting disease in deer (CWD), scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the prion disease in animals associated with the human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Because New Zealand has never had BSE or CWD and has been free of scrapie since 1954, I believe New Zealand animal-sourced ingredients are superior for human health products.
New Zealand takes the health of its livestock – and the well-being of the environment seriously... Strict government licensing, auditing and certification procedures mean that New Zealand freeze-dried products can be used with complete confidence in their origin, safety and efficacy.
Tap Into the Secret of Your Ancestors’ Nose-to-Tail Diet Today
Now, you, too, can enjoy all the potential benefits of quality organ meats – without having to locate and prepare them yourself. Grass Fed Beef Organ Complex contains five of the most valuable organs – liver, heart, kidney, pancreas and spleen.
Whether you want to help balance your healthy diet of lean muscle meats, or simply take advantage of all the potential benefits that only grass-fed organ meats can offer, Grass Fed Beef Organ Complex provides a simple way to do it.
Experience for yourself what your ancestors and ancient healers have known for centuries, and order Grass Fed Beef Organ Complex today.