Why you should eat offal
Tasty, delicious, nutritious and good for your bones, body and brain - offal is where it's at if you want to fuel yourself with nutrient-dense food that's light on your wallet but great for your health.
Sure, you might think lamb's brains or liver pate a little unsavoury but, as every good chef knows, the tastiest bits of the animal are often the cheapest cuts. Liver derived from quality, grass-fed and pasture-raised animals, for example, is one of the most nutrient-dense foods in existence.The reason I consume organ meats from grass-fed, organically raised animals is simple - it's one of the best things I can possibly do for the health of my body.
Eating organ meats like liver, heart and brain is a natural way to load the diet full of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other compounds - vital for health.
Liver has been highly prized throughout history for its nutrient-dense profile and is the organ predatory animals choose to eat first. Remarkably, in nature, most animals instinctively eat the organs of their prey and save the muscles for later because they are choosing the most nutrient-dense food source first.
So what exactly is offal?
Offal - which literally means the bits that fall off the carcass when it's butchered - is all the consumable parts of an animal that are not skeletal muscle.
Make friends with a good local butcher, the meat seller at your local farmers' market or source a reputable online supplier because it's really important to get hold of the best quality offal/organ meats you can if you are eating them to achieve optimal health. Never eat offal from an animal that hasn't had an optimal diet; for obvious reasons.
Embrace everything from the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, marrow (our favourite) and other abdominal organs. Once you're brave enough, there's also lots of nutritional value in the feet, brains and tongue.
Consuming a little organ meat regularly will reap major health benefits for the body because it's packed with key vitamins and nutrients that humans need to combat disease and degeneration.
Modern scientific research is now confirming the groundbreaking studies by US dentist Dr Weston A. Price in the 1930s about the incredible nutritional profile of organ meats.
Organ meats are full of vitamins A, D and K2 and it was Dr Price who first identified these crucial fat-soluble activators which encourage the body to absorb more minerals.
Liver contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food. It has high levels of iron and is the best source of copper, folic acid, cholesterol and purines. In fact, beef liver contains three times as much choline as one egg. Liver is also well known among athletes to contain a mysterious anti-fatigue factor because of its incredible energy-giving qualities as it helps to filter the toxins out of the bloodstream.
Try not to be squeamish. Eating organ meats is one of the best things you can do for your health. If you do need to ease your way into it, add approximately 10 per cent of liver, heart or your choice of offal into a simple bolognaise, meatball or hamburger patty to start with. You won't really be able to taste it and it is a way of slowly getting used to the flavour and texture until you are ready to go the whole hog. You'll be cooking up a bowl of chopped liver and having that for breakfast - which is something we do regularly and absolutely adore it - before you know it.
I'll eat to that!
Cook with love and laughter,
peteevanschef.com
