Organs are really important to our health. And since our organs clean the body (liver and kidneys, pancreas) or work very hard making things for the rest of the body (most of the other organs) or pump blood around to get those things to and out of the body (heart), we should do everything we can to feed them and keep them going strong.

Eating organ meats makes sense. In the old days, people ate liver once a week, made kidney pie, ate sweetbreads and heart, etc. People used to use all of the animal, and for a reason. The organ meats have the same protein, fats and minerals that our own organs need, and in similar concentrations. Muscle meats just don’t have the same concentration. They are good for protein, and for fats and even carbs, since the muscles store some glucose and glycogen (a slightly different form of glucose). But the heart has 2000 mitochondria (energy production units of the cell) versus 200 mitochondria in the muscle cell. And for those who want CoQ10, the heart is chock full of it. The liver has a good amount too.

Each organ has a lot of the minerals and proteins they need stored for use to work or produce hormones, and just in their own cells. These are all available for our organs when we eat them.

Hunters always used to eat the liver and heart right away after they killed the animal. And for good reason! They are incredibly delicious then, sweet from the glucose there for the two most active organs in the body, and buttery, bursting with energy. Live cells are truly the most beneficial for our own consumption.

Even a few days later, liver can be incredibly tasty. By a week later, it tastes like liver. And cooked, it definitely does.

Obviously, I am advocating eating organ meats raw. If you don’t like them straight, you can blend them into a soup with raw vegetables (really good) or a purée, with tomatoes or milk, or both. Butter too.

Even cooked you get a lot of benefit from organs. Liver Pate is a favorite of many cultures.

Some members eat any or all of the other organs too, once a month, or more often if they are trying to rebuild the body.

Organ meats and Green Vegetable juices are the supplements of the Primal Diet, and should be the primary supplements of any diet. The vitamins and minerals are more available, as opposed to 10% absorption or so with pill and most liquid supplements. They are already in the form needed for the body, and so conversion by bacteria is not necessary. Just a little bit of raw food vitamins far outweighs the activity of dead, processed vitamins.

I’m alternating heart and liver every other week, and back to drinking juice every day. I am seeing a definite improvement, and need far less of the supplements I am taking to improve my energy and healing.

I know a lot of people have dropped down or out on the juicing, due to the time and bother, or the cost. Several  members who have done this have had some severe incidents: kidney stones, and heart damage for two. Since most of us will still not take processed supplements, this leaves a big hole, unless you have a really varied diet, lots of fresh herbs, and food from all over the country or world. Of course, it would be best to get your juicing vegies from various sources too, in case one area has soil deficiencies. That’s where herbs help, as they can concentrate important nutrients.

Read and study. First, We Want 2 Live, then various herbals and Food is Your Best Medicine, by Henry Bieler, books like that. Ann Wigmore. Watch for the common sense advice, like from Paavo Airrola. Don’t go off the deep end to fad diets. Sometimes they can be a short term thing, but usually are not good long term.

Eat what your healthy family members eat, or especially the ones who have similar body type. Look to your family history, see where your genes come from. The Primal Diet is based on what we all ate 10,000 years ago. And with evolution taking a long time, that is really not enough time for much evolution of our bodies to adjust to things like lots of grains and sugars. Milk, meat and plants you can eat raw. That’s what we are built from. And yes, our color vision indicates we should eat ripening fruit. We need a lot of vitamin C, but a good amount of that can come from raw meat, particularly liver and heart. Hmmm. We need hardly any to avoid scurvy, but we need a lot to be truly healthy. Other animal bodies make vitamin C, but we don’t.

So, eat your way to health. That’s the ticket. Read. Learn. Take classes. And read what Aajonus wrote, because he debunked most of the lies we are fed. As a biologist, veterinary, medical and naturopathic student, nutritionist and teacher, mother and with a few years behind me, I can tell you that he was right. The current health system is driven by the pharmaceutical companies, and he said to do the opposite of what they say to do. I’m afraid I’ve found that to be true a number of times. They are still handy for putting bones back together and keeping you alive if you are bleeding out or your heart stops. But unfortunately, most of their solutions are chemical, and you have to really study to understand the side effects and when they are (rarely) necessary and when they are trouble. Some side effects can be caused by deficiencies created by the chemicals. So those can be overcome. But there are food answers for almost everything. Read, learn, keep notes in an alphabetical reference.

Use a dictionary, and the dictionaries online or Wikipedia are amazing. You can learn anything if you look up every word you cannot instantly define. Test yourself. Can you immediately state the definition of each word you are reading? If not, you may not have the complete definition, or there may be more than one definition, and one you don’t know. I looked up ten words yesterday while studying. Not all of them were hard. I just couldn’t say what it was for absolute sure. Or didn’t know at all.

Well! That was definitely a Marilyn’s Musings!
Have a great week!
Marilyn At Ra