Health Benefits of Beef Liver Supplements

Beef liver supplements are a great way to get B vitamins, copper, retinol, folate, choline, and other essential vitamins and minerals into your body. Keep reading to discover all the amazing health benefits of beef liver supplements.

I recently wrote an entire post on the health benefits of beef liver – which is sort of like part one of this post.

If you want to learn about the history of beef liver, how to incorporate fresh beef liver into your diet, and the importance of vitamin A (retinol) then I highly recommend you read my previous post – health benefits of beef liver.

Instead of talking about how amazing fresh beef liver is, in this post I wanted to share the health benefits of beef liver supplements and address some of the questions people often have about beef liver supplements/pills.

Is Taking Beef Liver Supplements Good For You?

Beef liver supplements can be very good for you. Beef liver is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. It is quite literally nature’s multivitamin and much safer and more effective than a synthetic multivitamin.

Beef liver supplements are an easy and convenient way to get the benefits of beef liver without having to consume fresh beef liver.

Although the nutritional profile of beef liver supplements varies from brand to brand, they typically contain high amounts of vitamin A (retinol), choline, folate, copper, B vitamins, bio-available iron, and more.

The nutritional profile above is what you’d expect to find in about an ounce of fresh beef liver that you’d get from your local farmer.

Health Benefits of Beef Liver Supplements

The health benefits of beef liver supplements are the same as consuming fresh beef liver. The vitamins (specifically vitamin A) and minerals in beef liver pills can help to improve your health in the following ways.

Beef Liver Pills May Improve Eye Health

The vitamin A in beef liver pills may help to improve eye health. Vitamin A helps to protect the eye. It can help to reduce the risk of vision loss and macular degeneration.

Vitamin A deficiency can cause dry eye, night blindness, and even complete blindness. Vitamin A is essential for eye health.

Beef Liver Pills May Help to Improve Thyroid Function

The vitamin A in beef liver pills may also help to improve thyroid function. There have been many studies done on the connection between vitamin A and thyroid function.

Vitamin A is required for the activation of thyroid hormone receptors and has been shown to regulate thyroid hormone metabolism.

Beef Liver May Help to Improve Liver Function

Beef liver pills are beneficial to the human liver due to their abundance of B vitamins. 

B vitamins are needed for phases 1 and 2 of liver detoxification and B vitamins also help to protect the liver.

Beef Liver Pills May Help to Improve Various Skin Conditions

If you want clearer, healthier, younger skin then you need beef liver pills! Vitamin A is an antioxidant and it helps to protect skin cells from oxidative stress.

Beef liver pills are also amazing for other skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and acne. 

Accutane, which is used to treat acne is a synthetic form of vitamin A. It definitely helps to combat acne but unfortunately not without very negative side effects.

Addressing the issue with real vitamin A is a much safer solution.

But keep in mind that some skin conditions like acne can get worse before they get better when beef liver pills are first introduced.

Beef Liver Pills May Help to Increase Energy

Beef liver pills are loaded with B vitamins which convert food energy into chemical energy for your cells.

Beef liver pills contain B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, and B12. Supplementing with beef liver pills is a safe and natural way to increase your overall energy.

Beef liver pills can also help to strengthen your bones, promote healthy hormones, strengthen your immune system, and so much more!

Beef Liver Supplements VS Fresh Beef Liver

Many people don’t like the idea of consuming fresh beef liver and I don’t blame them. I felt the same exact way about consuming beef liver when it was first suggested to me.

I consumed beef liver pills for about a year before I gave fresh beef liver a try. So let’s discuss the differences between fresh beef liver and beef liver supplements.

Price

Beef liver supplements are typically more expensive than fresh beef liver. You’ll get more bang for your buck if you consume fresh beef liver.

The beef liver supplements I used to consume (and still consume from time to time) are around $35. They contain 180 capsules and one serving is 6 capsules.

There are approximately 30 servings in one bottle and each serving is equivalent to one ounce of fresh beef liver. So that means each serving (1 ounce) is around $1.16.

Fresh beef liver is around $12 for a pound/16 ounces. So that makes each one ounce serving $.75.

Not a huge difference but it definitely adds up over time. Especially if more than one person in your household is consuming beef liver on a regular basis.

Convenience

Beef liver capsules are an extremely convenient way to get the health benefits of beef liver. There’s no cooking and no mess of any kind involved. You can also take them with you easily whenever you are on the go or traveling.

Fresh beef liver involves prep work and/or cooking. It’s definitely not as convenient as beef liver pills and you can’t really take it with you when you are on the go.

Taste

Many people do not like the flavor and/or texture of fresh beef liver. Beef liver supplements are a great option for those people.

In my opinion, beef liver supplements don’t have much of a taste at all.

Fresh beef liver can be an acquired taste for some – although there are people who really enjoy it.

With that being said, I consume fresh beef liver and I don’t taste it all.

I cut the raw beef liver into very small pieces and freeze it. When I’m ready to consume the beef liver I thaw a few pieces in cold water in the fridge. After it fully thaws I swallow it like a pill and wash it down with some OJ.

You can click here for step-by-step directions on exactly how I do it.

Health Benefits

In my opinion and experience, there is no difference in health benefits from taking beef liver supplements vs fresh beef liver.

I started out just taking beef liver supplements and I didn’t notice any difference in the health benefits (either good or bad) when I switched to fresh beef liver.

I switched to fresh beef liver because I thought I would experience more health benefits but I honestly didn’t notice any difference.

I stuck with fresh beef liver because it saved me money.

Freeze-Dried Beef Liver VS Desiccated Beef Liver

When shopping for a beef liver supplement you might notice some are labeled as freeze-dried and some are labeled as desiccated. And some are labeled with both.

Desiccated typically means the beef liver is dehydrated with heat. The heat can break down the nutrients which is obviously a bad thing.

Instead of using heat, freeze-drying uses cold temperatures to dry out the liver. This helps to retain the majority of the vitamins and minerals that are in the beef liver.

But with that being said, some beef liver supplement brands use the term desiccated to simply refer to dried liver. Not necessarily beef liver dried with heat.

So if the brand uses both terms to describe its beef liver you can rest assured that it was freeze-dried and no heat was used.

How to Choose a Beef Liver Supplement

It’s really important to choose a high-quality beef liver supplement. Below is a list of things to consider before purchasing a beef liver supplement.

• liver should come from cows that are grass-fed and grass-finished
• liver should come from cows that are pasture-raised
• the pasture the cows graze from should be pesticide free
• liver should come from cows that are free of hormones and antibiotics
• liver pills should be free of fillers/additives
• liver pills should be 100% freeze-dried
• liver pills should be third-party tested for purity

Any company that is honest and trustworthy will be transparent about the liver that is sourced for its liver supplements. This type of information should be easily found on their company website or the product page.

Best Beef Liver Supplements

Below are several brands that meet the criteria above and that I have personally used and that I highly recommend.

• Ancestral Supplements