Earlier, meat, more specifically organ meat was considered to be a meal for ‘poor people. But during World War II, campaigns were run to show that meat, especially organ meat, was healthy and should be included in the diet. These campaigns were backed by research. The aim was to make the ‘organ meat’, a ‘food of a patriot’, and make a place for organ meat at every dinner table. Let’s discuss ‘Where does Liver meat come from?’.
Where does liver meat come from?
Liver meat is one of the variants of organ meat, which comes from various animals such as lamb, beef, bison, chicken, duck, goose, and veal. Among these the most common, tastier, nutritional is the beef liver. These are in trend because they have much higher nutritional value than any other food, such as plant-based food.
Even though the United States of America infused the trend of eating organ meat among its people back in history, it is still not among the top countries which consume organ-based meat. Instead, it is his neighboring country Mexico which consumes organ meat more than any other country in the world. China, the Philippines, is among the top organ meat consumers of the world.
The liver has been designated as a ‘super-food’ because of various reasons, such as it is dense in iron, which makes it taste a little intense. Unknown cooking methods were one of the reasons why earlier people were refraining themselves from consuming organ meat along with its intense taste. But over time people have developed a unique cooking method, which makes beef meat not just highly nutritious but also among the tastier liver meat. Liver meat is treated as among the healthiest food available. Among the healthiest liver meat present and consumed, chicken and beef liver meat are healthier.
Pros:
- It has the highest concentration of minerals such as iron, copper, phosphorus, zinc, selenium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium.
- The iron present in them helps in maintaining the required amount of hemoglobin.
- copper present in it helps in maintaining the connective tissue, proper functioning of heart and brain also helps in activating the immune system, maintain and regulating the blood pressure and heart rate.
- Zinc present in the liver organ helps in healing the external cuts and wounds; zinc keeps away fertility-related issues, helps in boosting cognitive function.
- Phosphorus is needed to make healthy bones and teeth.
- Selenium is important for thyroid patients, helps in reducing asthma symptoms, is important in fighting heart-related disease, and helps prevent mental disease.
- It has vitamin A, B, B12,
- It has the highest protein among all other organ meat, which is 20.4 grams per 100gm.
Cons;
- Since liver meat contains lots of protein and is very less in calories as compared to other food items, it is advisable to use it moderately as provided by Dietary Guidelines for America, it should not be taken more than 100- 250 grams a week.
- Also, research shows that 54% of people who consume meat-based protein have higher chances of having fatty liver than others. In the case of liver meat, it is because liver meat has an abundant amount of vitamin A, which sometimes becomes uneasy for the body to digest, and that restores as a fatty
- It is often said that pregnant women should avoid liver meat, due to its access to vitamin A, but it is a half-baked truth. Anything in excess will lead to the problem. Since women who are pregnant, their body tend to store excess vitamin A, it is advisable not to eat liver meat twice a month, excess vitamin A can be harmful to the baby.
- Another reason why pregnant women are advised to avoid this meat is that often they are not cooked well, and contains harmful bacteria, which can cause problems to both baby and mother.
- Earlier also people were refraining from eating organ meat, due to several factors such as its storage, whether it is well cooked or not, also there was a myth of eating raw meat to get more nutrients, which was among other reasons why people were advised to avoid organ meat.
Conclusion
During the mid-1930s, there was a sudden rise in meat consumption by Americans, by the middle of the 19th century it rose further. Kidney and liver became staple food. It took fifty years for Americans to recognize organ meat as the emblem of comfort from ‘food of poor people. Even though the 19th century started the trend of organ meat, it was consumed traditionally worldwide, the difference between organ meat of those time and nowadays is that earlier the animals from which the organ meat was extracted, were domesticated naturally in their habitat, but nowadays most of the organ meat than we consume are not extracted from the animals which are grown up in their natural environment and feed up naturally.
