Zero Carb Keto: Importance of Organ Meats

Zero Carb Keto

Importance of Organ Meats

After finding that I had zero vitamin C in my nutrient blood test, I thought some more about the importance of organ meats on zero carb / carnivore. Although fatty grassfed red meat can provide all nutrients to some degree, there are definitely higher concentrations of nutrients in organ meats.

Take for example vitamin C. I have read that fresh meat (as opposed to preserved or dried meat) contains antiscorbutic properties. So although it may not register as containing much or any vitamin C, it prevents scurvy. 

However, to get higher amounts of vitamin C, one could enjoy sauteed calf or lamb sweetbreads, which according to the French nutrition database, contain as much vitamin C per 100g as orange juice (39.4g per 100g)! And unlike juice, meat will not have the problem with glucose / carbohydrate competition for vitamin C. Freshly steamed clams also have vitamin C, at 22g per 100g.

Another good source of vitamin C in the meat world is liver. Again, according to the French database, cooked chicken liver contains as much vitamin C as raw tomatoes and lemon juice (28g per 100g)!

So I have decided to try and make a point of eating some chicken and turkey liver on a regular basis. I might also stock up on beef sweetbreads as well! The chicken and turkey livers at my local health food market come in plastic tubs, but they are #1 plastic and recyclable, and there is no plastic seal. So that is better, at least, than plastic bags that must just be landfilled.

Another interesting vitamin to note is biotin. Many nutrition databases do not offer data on biotin, but it is a very important nutrient for hair and skin health. In the Italian nutrition database, chicken liver is the highest food item for Biotin (210ug per 100g)! It is far and above all other foods. Egg yolks are another meat source but much lower than chicken liver (50ug per 100g). And it is important to note that raw egg whites compete with biotin assimilation. Beef liver is also a good source of biotin, at 33ug per 100g. Clams, steamed or canned, have 7ug biotin per 100g.

Of course animal liver is the top food source for vitamin A, in its most bioavailable form, retinol. The French database shows that cooked turkey liver contains 10,800ug per 100g of retinol, and cooked chicken liver 3,980ug. This is far and above even ghee, which has 824ug per 100g.

Another interesting nutrient is coenzyme Q10, which is found in high amounts in animal heart and liver (over 50mg per kg), and in lesser amounts in muscle meat. Since I enjoy beefheart very much, I was not surprised to find my coenzyme Q10 levels were very high.

I do think that fresh muscle meat which is fatty and grassfed can provide all basic nutrients, but organ meats can really provide much higher quantities. Depending on a person's needs, that might be important!