top of page
Rooted Nutrition Logo
Search

Choosing The Best Grass-Fed Beef Liver Pills: A Complete Guide

Beef liver is very popular right now, and for good reason. It is one of the most nutrient-dense foods, and that’s important since most people are not getting the vitamins and minerals they need.

Beef Liver Capsule

Beef Liver Supplement Benefits


Beef liver is packed with nutrients. An ounce of beef liver contains:


Vitamins:


  • Vitamin A: 1408 mcg (156% DV)

  • Vitamin B6: 0.3 mg (24% DV)

  • Vitamin B12: 17 mcg (700% DV)

  • Riboflavin (B2): 1 mg (60% DV)

  • Niacin (B3): 4 mg (23% DV)

  • Folate (B9): 82 mcg (21% DV)

  • Choline: 94 mg (17% DV)

  • Vitamin C: 0.4 mg (0.4% DV)

  • Vitamin D: 0.3 mcg (2% DV)

  • Vitamin E: 0.1 mg (1% DV)

  • Vitamin K (as mk-4): 1 mcg (1% DV)


Minerals:


  • Iron: 1 mg (17% DV)

  • Copper: 3 mg (307% DV)

  • Potassium: 89 mg (2% DV)

  • Phosphorus: 110 mg (16% DV)

  • Selenium: 11 mcg (20% DV)

  • Zinc: 1 mg (10% DV)


Very few foods contain that much nutrition in just one ounce. Just one ounce a day is a great addition to your diet that can help make it much easier to meet your nutritional needs. 


Vitamin A and Beef Liver


Many people are afraid of eating liver because they have been told they can overdose on vitamin A. 


Much of this belief started because some explorers in the Arctic ate polar bear liver and got sick. It was assumed that because liver is high in vitamin A, it is what made them ill. In reality, it is because Polar Bear livers are super high in cadmium. The explorers got cadmium poisoning, not vitamin A toxicity. You should not eat the livers of carnivorous mammals, only herbivores. The best are grass-fed beef, lamb, mutton, bison, buffalo, elk, and venison. 


In theory, you could overdose on liver, but you would have to consistently eat very large amounts of it over a long period. 


There are many reports in medical literature of people getting vitamin A poisoning from supplements or excess vitamin A in supplements, causing problems during pregnancy. If you read the full studies and literature, it is from synthetic and isolated vitamins. We could not find any reports, studies, or case reports showing an overdose of vitamin A from liver or other whole food sources. Many people take synthetic vitamin A supplements in dosages far exceeding amounts you would ever find in a normal amount of liver, which can be problematic. Please be aware that there are a lot of vitamin A supplements that claim to be natural, from fish liver oil, when that is not at all what they are. Ingesting excess vitamin A without copper can cause problems, but liver contains copper, so there is no worry about that issue when consuming liver.


Here is one example of a case of vitamin A toxicity:



One ounce of beef liver contains about 3500 to 5000 iu (1060 to 1500 mcg) of vitamin A (it varies from batch to batch like all nutrients in food do). This means to get to the amount of vitamin A making that woman sick one would need to eat about twenty to forty ounces of beef liver a day. No one in their right mind would eat that much beef liver every day, and we certainly would not recommend eating that much. You can get too much of any food or nutrients. Vitamin A toxicity risk really comes from synthetic and isolated vitamin A supplements or people doing crazy things.


Some people have had their skin temporarily turn orange from eating too many carrots or orange vegetables. Fun fact: this happened to me as a baby when I ate too many carrots in a short period. This is caused by excess beta-carotene consumption, not vitamin A. This also clears up when those people take a break from eating those vegetables. This has nothing to do with liver, as liver contains vitamin A, as retinoids, not beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A. 


Does Beef Liver Have Toxins?


One of the most common misconceptions that we hear about beef liver is that you should not eat it because the liver stores toxins. That’s simply not true. The liver filters out toxins but does not store them. 



Toxins that are not excreted are stored in adipose tissue. So when you buy beef liver, it is not full of toxins, no matter what the internet says.

Beef Liver on cutting board
Beef liver is not full of toxins.

Where can you buy beef liver?


Knowing the source of your beef liver is very important. As with other foods, we recommend connecting with a local farmer. Look for liver that is grass-fed and grass-finished, as well as regeneratively farmed. Here is a great map to find a farmer near you.  If you can’t find it locally, here are some places that will ship it right to your house:



How to eat beef liver


There are several ways to get beef liver in your diet.


  • Cook with it.

    • If you soak liver overnight in milk before cooking, it will reduce the mineral taste.

  • Cut it into small pieces, freeze it, and then swallow it like a vitamin. We only recommend doing this if you know the farm it is coming from and that they have good practices to avoid foodborne pathogens. Don’t eat it raw and don’t do this with regular liver from the grocery store. Always freeze liver before doing this. 

  • Take a beef liver supplement.


Beef Liver Pate Recipe


Beef liver Pate is one of the simplest and easiest ways to enjoy beef liver.


Yields: About 1 cup Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound beef liver, sliced

  • 1/2 cup butter, divided

  • 1 onion, chopped

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

  • 1/4 cup heavy cream

  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Soak the liver: Place the liver slices in a bowl and cover with milk. Let soak for at least 30 minutes to help remove any strong flavors. Soaking overnight reduces the minerally taste significantly. 

  2. Sauté the aromatics: In a large skillet, melt 1/4 cup of the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened.

  3. Cook the liver: Remove the onion and garlic from the pan and set aside. Add the remaining butter to the pan and increase the heat to medium-high. Add the liver slices and cook for 2-3 minutes per side or until browned but still slightly pink inside.

  4. Blend the ingredients: Transfer the liver, onion, garlic, and any pan juices to a food processor or blender. Add the heavy cream, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth.

  5. Chill and serve: Transfer the pâté to a container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow it to firm up. Serve with crackers, toast, or crudités.

Tips:

  • For a smoother pâté, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve after blending.

  • Try adding herbs like thyme or rosemary to the pâté to add more flavor.

  • Pâté can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Other great ways to enjoy liver include:

  • Classic beef liver and onions

  • Meatballs with beef liver

    • Make meatballs with 80-90 percent beef and 10-20% beef liver.


We know eating beef liver isn’t for everyone, and if that’s you, then a beef liver supplement is a great way to get the great nutrition of beef liver without having to cook it.  


Beef Liver Pills


As with buying beef liver, it’s very important to know the source of your beef liver supplement and how it was made. There are a ton of companies selling beef liver supplements right now, and most of them have nothing to do with the manufacturing process except having their name slapped on the label. You want a company that does the whole process themselves, from farm to bottle.


What to look for in a beef liver Capsule


First up is ethics. The vast majority of beef liver supplements are made from ingredients sourced from South America. Cattle ranching in South America is a leading cause of rainforest deforestation (about eighty percent), and slave labor is often used. In addition, Native peoples are often killed and pushed off their land, and often killed, to clear more space for cattle ranching. It’s to avoid beef liver supplements from South America. Check out our blog to learn more about it. Due to the mixing of beef liver different farms and the lack of traceability, it is nearly impossible to guarantee that an a beef liver  supplement from South America is ethically produced. Plenty of companies, like JBS, who supply the raw materials, claim to produce ethical versions, but their actual actions are quite different from the marketing. One of the best things you can do for the environment and native peoples is to boycott all beef products, from meat at the grocery store to supplements, from South America.


Next up is animal welfare because how the animals are raised and treated matters greatly for the planet, the health and well-being of the animals, and your health. 


They should be genuinely regeneratively raised, grass-fed, pastured, and free-range. Unfortunately, because of a lack of proper regulations, companies use these terms without actually following the spirit of what those things should mean. 


Regenerative Beef Liver Supplements


When most people think of grass-fed, they imagine cattle leisurely walking across huge open fields, munching various grasses and plants, and having a pretty relaxing time. That would be how all grass-fed cattle are raised in an ideal world. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. 


In the US, all cattle start on grass and are either grass-finished or grain-finished in feed lots. As demand for grass-fed beef has increased, many companies have found a way to produce truly grass-finished beef by confining the cattle to feedlots and feeding them alfalfa pellets instead of grazing on fresh grass. While this may be allowable under the current rules and regulations, it very much defeats the spirit of grass-fed. In addition, a lot of alfalfa is grown in drought-prone areas and requires massive amounts of water to grow.


Another issue that arises is that a lot of grass-fed beef is produced in a very destructive way. It is poor practice to just let a whole bunch of cattle out in the same area repeatedly. This causes overgrazing, which can lead to a deterioration of the land and increased pollution from runoff. 


Ideally, cattle should be regeneratively raised, using rotational grazing, to allow the land time to recover. It creates grassland with deeper roots and soil with more nutrients because their manure adds so much to the soil. It helps to improve the environment by storing large amounts of carbon in the soil, improving the water table, reducing runoff, and improving the local water cycle. Real regenerative agriculture does not spray pesticides onto the grass, allowing the microbes and healthy soil to keep the grasses healthy. It also makes for healthier animals as they get sick far less often, meaning fewer antibiotics and fewer medications are needed. The animals also get to spend their time outside enjoying the fresh and sunshine, rather than being confined to feed lots. It also creates food with much higher levels of nutrients, which is better for us. It's a win-win overall. 


Our friends at White Oak Pastures are a great example of how all farming should be done.

All farms should strive to follow their model.

Of course, with the increasing demand for regeneratively raised meat and ingredients, there are many companies claiming to sell regenerative products that do not. This has become an enormous problem in New Zealand, especially. 


Large suppliers in New Zealand are putting too many animals into too small of a space, which leads to overgrazing and lots of runoff into the water supply. Instead of changing to properly done regenerative and rotational grazing, they are spraying the pastures with lots of pesticides and importing tons of nitrates, which are spread on the fields, to speed up the grasses' growth. However, this is causing tons of run-off in their water supply, which is creating huge amounts of water pollution. This is not regenerative agriculture, but unfortunately, ingredients produced this way are being sold with claims of regenerative agriculture on the packaging. Real regenerative agriculture improves the water quality around. It is also where a huge amount of the raw materials that go into a lot of big brands of beef organ supplements come from. It is frustrating to see so many desiccated organ supplement brands with regenerative agriculture claims in their marketing and on their products that use these materials that are anything but regenerative. Real regenerative agriculture leaves the land and the environment better than before. It does not make things worse. It’s important to choose organ supplements made from truly regenerative farming.


It’s also important to look for beef organs from countries with strict government monitoring for diseases such as BSE (mad cow disease).


Beef liver pill manufacturing


The next important step in creating great beef liver supplements is the manufacturing of the raw materials. What happens to the fresh organs matters a great deal in ensuring you get the best product.


Most desiccated liver supplements are made with high-heat drying methods, such as spray drying, which can damage the fragile compounds and nutrients in them.


The best method for drying beef liver supplements is freeze-drying. However, not all freeze-drying methods are created equal. If the freeze-drying process is done too quickly, which is cheaper for companies, it can degrade the raw material. When freeze-drying beef liver, it’s important to use a slower, gentler freeze-drying method. Ideally, this process should take place over forty-eight hours.


After the liver is dried, it must be milled into a powder. Traditional milling creates a lot of heat and friction, which can damage the important bioactives in liver. Cryo-milling, which is a cold process, is the method that should be used. This method is much more expensive, so most companies use traditional milling methods. Since most companies don’t make their own raw materials or liver supplements, they usually don’t know what type of milling is used. 


Once the liver is milled into a powder, it should be put into a container and sold as is or encapsulated. A good beef liver supplement should contain no fillers, binders, or excipients. Filling capsules without them is more time-consuming and costly, but it creates a better finished product. We recommend choosing beef liver supplements in beef gelatin capsules rather than vegetable cellulose capsules because they protect the organs better from stomach acid and provide gelatin, which is great for gut health, hair, skin, nails, joints, etc. In addition, many vegetable cellulose capsules contain unwanted ingredients, often not listed on the label. 


It’s best to choose beef liver supplements in capsule or powder form. Other formats, such as tablets and gummies, require lots of processing methods that can damage important compounds and nutrients and add lots of unwanted additives to the product. Look for powders that are just the pure organs, without added sweeteners, flavorings, and fillers.


Beef Liver Pill Testing


Beef liver supplements should be tested at several points during manufacturing for various contaminants, including bacteria, fungi, heavy metals, pesticides, and more. Look for companies that also use third-party testing on the finished product of each batch.  


It can be nearly impossible to know if companies do all of these things correctly unless they do all of it themselves, including getting the fresh organs directly from the farmers, then making the raw material and bottling the product. Look for companies that do all of these steps themselves. Unfortunately, most companies get raw materials from a middleman and have a contract manufacturer slap their name on the label. That is the exact opposite of what you want. 


How to take beef liver supplements


Capsules: Take six capsules (500 mg) in the morning with a large glass of water with breakfast. It is best not to take liver too late in the day because it can be too energizing and affect sleep.


Powder: Take ½ a teaspoon in the morning with breakfast. It can be mixed into a food or beverage of your choice. 


Beef liver supplements should be stored in a cool, dry place away from moisture and sunlight.


The Best Beef Liver Pills


Finding a beef liver company that met all the criteria we were looking for was not easy. Many companies had great stories, especially some of the biggest, most well-advertised ones, but they did not make or produce any part of the product, having outsourced the whole process.


We wanted a company that did everything themselves so we could verify every step involved in producing the product. We wanted beef liver supplements that had a farm-to-bottle approach. If farm-to-table is ideal for our food, we should also strive to apply it to our supplements.

100% Traceable Supplements
Knowing exactly where your beef liver pills come from and who made them is essential.

NXGEN Wholefoods Beef Liver Supplements


Thankfully, after much time and research, we found a beef liver supplement company that’s doing everything right, NXGEN Wholefoods.


NXGEN Wholefoods provides organic, regeneratively farmed, grass-fed, grass-finished beef

liver (pills and powder) and lamb liver sourced from Australian farms. They are the only company globally with over fifty years of meat industry experience and qualifications to harvest and collect the perfect quality liver. They have the most extensive range of beef organs and glands to choose from and are leaders in glandular therapy.


Their beef and lamb liver are sourced from the ancient and untouched soils and

land of Lake Eyre in South Australia, where the ranches are as large as Texas.

The cattle thrive on native grasses and roam freely for thousands of miles in an area

where no cropping occurs. There’s no glyphosate spraying or pesticide drift from

neighboring properties. Far too many companies get liver from cattle that graze on pastures that were heavily sprayed with pesticides. It isn’t good for the environment, the cattle, the people spraying it, and your health. Proper management of pastures makes that completely unnecessary, but unfortunately, too many companies put profits above all else. The cattle are not given mRNA vaccines, Bovaer, synthetic feed additives, hormones, or antibiotics. The farms they source the liver from are incredibly clean and provide the benefits of unique, natural peptides, vitamins, and minerals. The farmers use the exact farming methods you think of when you imagine regenerative farming, not the greenwashed fake versions that are all too common now.  Check out the video below to learn more.

This is the kind of farm that your beef liver pills should come from.

NXGEN Wholefoods is vertically integrated, meaning they have full control of all parts of

the sourcing and manufacture from farm to capsule. They buy restaurant-grade organs and

glands and inspect them firsthand; they own and operate the freeze-drying technology, using a slow forty-eight hour method. They use cryogenic milling, so it is safe from the heat and friction of traditional milling methods. Their products are non-defatted, which means they retain the fats, which contain important compounds not found elsewhere. Many companies remove the fat from their organs, because it makes them cheaper to produce, but it is a harsh process that removes a lot of important bioactives. Always buy beef organ supplements that are non-defatted, so you get the full range of benefits these nourishing foods have to offer.


The final process of encapsulation and packing is done in their state-of-the-art

factory in NSW, Australia. They manufacture small batches for freshness, and each

capsule is equivalent to eating the raw organ and gland without the mess, but with the

convenience of knowing food safety and food quality is the best. All batches are third-party

and tested for purity.


We are so proud to partner with NXGEN Wholefoods, which is setting the standard for what all beef liver supplement companies should strive for.


Beef Liver Supplement Questions and Support


For more information on beef liver supplements, check out our Nose-To-Tail Center, where you can learn all about the benefits of organ meats.


If you have questions about beef liver and beef liver supplements, please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com, and we will be happy to answer them!


bottom of page