Excerpt from a Ben Greenfield podcast interview with Eileen Laird (May 21, 2016) discussing whether eating liver introduces toxins. Eileen explains that toxins are primarily stored in fat, not the liver, and that liver supplies nutrients needed for detoxification. They also discuss preferring organic or lean meats and organic bones/bone broth when possible, particularly on an autoimmune protocol.
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I get this question a lot. I'm curious what you think about it, but, but the liver is a detoxificant, right? It's, it's one of the body's filters. So by eating liver, wouldn't you theoretically be also eating a lot of toxins? Like you upregulated your, your liver intake on something like an autoimmune protocol, Would you not introduce yourself to more toxins?
It makes sense that people think that, but it's not true. So where the body stores the toxins is in the fat primarily, and the liver is filled with all of the nutrients we need to detoxify. So that's one of the reasons it's so recommended on the autoimmune protocol is we do want to safely detoxify our body and give our body the nutrition it needs to do so. And liver is just a powerhouse for doing that if you want to watch out for toxins. That's why, I guess if you can't afford it, organic meats are ideal. If you can't afford it, go with lean meats. If you're eating conventional meats, okay.
So it's really the fats in the meats. And if you're eating non organic or you, for example, find yourself in a situation where you're not eating like a grass fed organic, either organ meat or regular meat, you'd want to go for as low fat as possible because fat is where the toxins are going to be stored.
Yeah, exactly. And if you're eating high quality organic grass fed meat, that fat is actually really healthy. But yeah, in a conventional animal, not so healthy. And my understanding is the same is true for the bones. So if you're making bone broth, which is recommended on the autoimmune protocol, that's a good place to invest some of your money in organic.
Okay. So the liver processes toxins, but it doesn't store toxins is basically what it comes down to. All right, gotcha. That's a very important clarification because I know a lot of people get concerned about organ meats and toxins.
Another thing, speaking of detoxification, you actually talk about during the autoimmune protocol, gentle ways to detox the body. You talk about three gentle ways to detox the body. Can you get into those?
