 Thomas DeLauer made a video on organ meats last week and missed a few very important points. So we are going to go through his video and help people optimize the incorporation of these foods into their diet. With keto being all the rage right now, a lot of people are starting to eat all kinds of cuts of meat, right? They're eating the dark meat, they're eating the white meat and people are even starting to explore eating more of the organ meat. So let's dive in a little bit and talk about where organ meat comes into play on a ketogenic diet. Because believe it or not, it plays a huge role and you can have some huge, huge, huge advantages when you start consuming the organ meat. But it's not for the reason that a lot of people will have you believe. Organ meat is not high in fat. In fact, it's really not high in fat at all. What we're looking at with the organ meat is more of the superfood qualities when it comes down to the vitamins, both water soluble and fat soluble and of course the minerals. Some organ meats actually have quite a high fat content, some don't. It really depends on what you consider organ meats. If we are talking about the organs specific to the torso, to the abdominal cavity, yes, most of them are lean. But the intestines and the kidneys do tend to carry fat on them and have a higher fat content than the other organs in that area. If we were talking about brains, bone marrow, tongue, the head, which are usually considered oval or organ meats, those foods are incredibly high in fat. So he's being a bit misleading here. Should have been specific on the terminology of what he means by organ meats. Okay, so let's take a quick look at organ meat for a second. Is it keto-friendly first and foremost? Yes, it's absolutely keto-friendly. Very, very low carb with the exception of a liver. You just need to be a little bit concerned with liver because we have to remember the liver holds carbohydrates. You see, we store what's called glycogen, carbohydrates that are in their storage form in the liver. So sometimes you can have a liver that has more carbs in it than other times. Now, it's never gonna amount to any significant amount, but if you're looking at like a 200-gram serving of liver, you could have upwards of 10 grams of net carbohydrates. So just be cognizant of that. I don't know where people are getting the idea that liver contains carbohydrates. All meat and fat, every tissue on the animal contains enzymes. And when the animal is slaughtered, these enzymes change the profile of the meat. Glycolytic enzymes turn the glycogen that would have been in the liver into lactic acid after the animal is deceased. So unless you're butchering the animal yourself on the spot, the liver is not going to have any significant carbohydrate content. So what we're gonna do in this video is we're gonna focus on the main three organ meats that you're gonna find at least here in the United States. That's gonna be the heart, that's gonna be the kidney, and that's gonna be the liver. So let's break down why these are actually beneficial and what you should be focusing on the most. First off, the heart. Okay, so the heart's gonna contain around 115 calories for a 100 gram serving. It's gonna contain about 18 grams of protein, about four grams of fat, and a negligible amount of carbohydrates, like literally 0.1 grams of carbohydrates. The main benefit that we're getting from the heart has nothing to do with the macronutrients whatsoever. It comes from the coenzyme Q10, more commonly known as CoQ10 or ubiquinone. You see the whole idea behind CoQ10 is to actually take energy from the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that we consume and deliver it through what's called the electron transport chain to create energy. So the heart uses a lot of this CoQ10. That's why when you buy a CoQ10 supplement, it says it's good for your heart health because it allows the heart to work a little bit more efficiently because it uses a lot of it. So this means that it's creating a lot of energy. So when you consume something like heart, you're getting a very, very, very bioavailable form of Coenzyme Q10. Now CoQ10 also does an interesting thing as far as electricity goes in your body. You see, in the mitochondria where we actually create energy, it creates what is called a proton gradient. A proton gradient is a more complex way of saying it's creating some friction that creates energy. So by creating an electrical gradient, when things transfer across this gradient, they trigger an electrical charge that allows us to create what's called ATP, which gives us energy. This is happening in the heart every single time it beats, but it's also happening in all your muscles every single time you contract them or flex them or relax them. So very, very important, especially on a ketogenic diet because you wanna have that nerve signaling really working well. Okay, so heart is definitely a good one, but probably not the best when you look at the other organ meats. I wouldn't really consider heart an organ meat from a nutrient standpoint. The profile of vitamins, minerals, elements and fatty acids is most similar to actual muscle tissue. And most organs in the body have CoQ10. Even muscle meat has plenty of CoQ10. So I guess the question here is, is getting a small amount of extra CoQ10 from heart going to do anything? I don't think so. I'm actually thinking about doing an experiment, consuming a large amount of heart for several days and seeing if that makes a difference. But unless you were consuming heart as your sole source of energy, I can't imagine that this would make a difference. And you'd have to figure out what the threshold is, how much CoQ10 can your body use if it had an unlimited amount. Heart has the same health benefits as eating muscle meat in general. B vitamins, elements like iron, zinc and copper, but it's definitely worth mentioning that iodine is a bit higher in organs such as the heart. So let's take a look at the second best. This is gonna be kidney. Kidney isn't one that's super popular in the US. It's a little bit of a weird texture and it's honestly just not that popular overall. But kidney does have some very powerful benefits when it comes down to the water soluble vitamins of B12 and B2. Now you might be thinking, I just go and get a B12 supplement. Why do I need to go bearing through actually eating kidney or organ meat? Well, we have to make it very clear. There's a huge difference between taking any supplement, even the highest quality scientifically backed supplements and getting it from true legitimate food sources. So bioavailable true water soluble form of vitamin B12 is significantly important on a ketogenic diet. When you're on a keto diet, you lose a lot of water. That means you're losing a lot of the minerals and the water soluble vitamins and you're losing them fast. Okay, and vitamin B12 is critical for making red blood cells. Red blood cells deliver oxygen, they deliver energy, so obviously very important on any kind of diet protocol, but even more importantly, they allow the building of what is called the myelin sheath. The myelin sheath is that outer layer of a nerve and that's what allows that transduction, that signaling to occur. So if you ever notice on a ketogenic diet that maybe you're not able to get as good of a muscle contraction when you work out or maybe you just feel a little bit disconnected from your body, it's not because you're low on carbs, it's usually because your minerals are out of whack and therefore your nervous system isn't sending the right signals. So if you consume the right amount of B12, your nervous system can function properly. The other thing we have to remember is vitamin B12 is critical for the pancreas' beta cells. These beta cells are what produce insulin and even though you're not producing a ton of insulin on a ketogenic diet, you still need to be taking care of it. So again, something you're not gonna get from a supplement form of B12. So yeah, sure, you can get it from a supplement but is it gonna really do everything that you want it to do? There's one other thing that B12 is very critical for and that's actually recycling our neurotransmitters. See, we have another thing in our body known as SAME, S-adenosylmethionine. Okay, maybe you've seen SAME on the shelf of your vitamin store before. Okay, the thing is this is naturally occurring within the body and B12 combines with that to help what is called the reuptake of neurotransmitters. So things like serotonin, things like dopamine that actually require a recycling and a reuptake. If we didn't have the B12 to work with the SAME, we'd feel in a funk all the time. So again, another thing that might feel out of whack. You ever feel a little bit depressed or a little bit down in the dumps or in your low carb diet? It's probably because your B12 or your SAME stores are a little bit lower. Thomas DeLauer really missed the opportunity here to talk about the importance of fat soluble vitamins, how they play a role in how every single molecule in our body functions, and especially with kidneys. Kidneys are 10 times higher in vitamin B12 than muscle meats, and they have a complete nutritional profile, very similar to liver. B9 folic acid is definitely worth mentioning. But more importantly, vitamin A, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, all of the minerals and elements. Kidneys are notably high in selenium, and there is fat around the kidneys that stores even more of these fat soluble vitamins. When you're missing, the concept out of food has literally everything your body needs to thrive. Let's believe that he didn't really look too much into these things. All right, now let's talk about the major one, liver. This is the one that you can most commonly get your hands on. It's not hard to get liver. You can get turkey liver, beef liver, whatever. But by far, we wanna go with beef liver whenever possible. It's got the highest amount of what is called bioactive retinol A. This is the preformed version of vitamin A. Vitamin A is important, but if you take regular vitamin A, your body has to start assembling things to actually create it and utilize it. When you get it from the liver, you're getting it in what is called a preformed version. This preformed means that it's already formed. It's already bioavailable. That retinol allows your brain to literally create new brain cells. It's called neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. So you're on the ketogenic diet, you're already flooding your brain with a bunch of ketones, which allows your brain to operate at its best. But imagine being able to add an additional layer to it to truly create new brain cells and really look and feel amazing. So retinol A is not only good for your brain, but it's also gonna boost your eyesight. It's also gonna help your skin and your complexion a ton. And I don't just mean like a little bit. Like if you consume a tiny bit of beef liver and get a good amount of vitamin A, you're gonna notice a giant difference in your complexion and how you look and feel. We're talking 27,000 IUs of vitamin A in literally just a three ounce serving of beef liver. Okay, that is phenomenal. He says that beef liver is the highest in vitamin A, but that's not true. All liver is very high in vitamin A. What changes is when you have certain animals that store fat in their liver, like fish and migratory birds, the vitamin A content lowers slightly in favor of other fat soluble vitamins and omega fatty acids. Overall, liver is very similar to kidney, but with a higher B12 content and drastically higher vitamin A content, selenium is a little bit lower. He touched on some important aspects of vitamin A, but it's necessary for every single tissue in the body. So he's saying, yes, it's good for your brain cells. It's good for your skin cells, but it's every single tissue in the body. There is beta-carotene in plant foods and that needs to be converted to vitamin A, but the USDA is allowed to label beta-carotene as vitamin A on foods, so people are very confused. The plant form of vitamin A doesn't really absorb in the body that well, and when it's made into a supplemental form, it's actually going to damage the liver because it's not something that our bodies are meant to process, but the animal form of vitamin A is what our body prefers and utilizes properly. Now, the only thing that you need to be concerned with when you're consuming copious amounts of beef liver, which quite honestly, you're probably not going to be consuming copious amounts of it, is gonna be vitamin A toxicity. So you've probably heard of the drug Accutane before. It's used for acne. That's like a mega dose of vitamin A and obviously you can see what it does to skin. It clears up acne, it clears up a lot of skin issues, but it's extreme and it's toxic. So if you were to ever take Accutane or whoever prescribed it as a teenager or knew someone who has prescribed it, you know that their body was under a pretty toxic load. Well, that's what high amounts of vitamin A can do, but the benefit of consuming liver and consuming retinol in a bioavailable vitamin A form is the body can actually utilize it, so it doesn't have to go through as much of a toxic process where it has to prioritize the formation of vitamin A. So when it comes down to it, if you're choosing an organ meat, I recommend going for the liver. It will make a difference in how you feel, it will make a difference in how you look and you get to be a little bit more sustainable when it comes down to using all the cuts of the meat. But let's not forget bang for the buck. It's usually dirt cheap. Usually the butcher shops and the grocery stores and everything just throw out the livers. So you can get the livers really, really cheap like pennies on the dollar and you're still getting a good amount of protein, you're still getting a good amount of fats and you're getting vitamins and you would not be able to get anywhere else. He really shouldn't be comparing Accutane to liver. It's not the same form of vitamin A. The form of vitamin A in Accutane is straight poison. It is a plant extract and has been shown to cause liver damage in people. I did a video several months ago about vitamin A toxicity showing many cases of liver failure from plant form vitamin A supplements. So he's misleading people on something that doesn't actually happen. Vitamin A toxicity from liver does not exist. What does exist is copper and zinc imbalance. If you consume a lot of liver, you're going to throw your copper to zinc ratio off as liver is incredibly high in copper. So unless you're balancing liver with oysters or a high zinc food, a zinc supplement, you could run into some issues with high levels of liver consumption. As we said, the main thing that Thomas DeLauer has missed is the fat soluble vitamin importance as well as vitamin synergy. Vitamins A from liver and vitamin D from the sun are incredibly antagonistic and synergistic. If you consume liver in large amounts, you need to be getting sunlight or supplementing vitamin D3 because when your vitamin A goes up, your vitamin D3 will go down. All of the vitamins play a role here and we need to have high amounts of all of these fat soluble vitamins in the amounts that they occurred in nature in order to be in optimal health. And this also includes the water soluble B vitamins, vitamin C, all of the elements, even fatty acids are required to keep our bodies in balance. And he didn't miss out on some other organs like brains for omega-3, ovaries or fish eggs for omega-3 as well as female fertility. And then you have testicles or milk for male fertility, spleen for vitamin C, stomach and intestinal tissues for choline. These organs would contribute to overall nutrient density and synergy in your diet. And of course, there are a bunch of other glands and tissues on the animal that can be discussed. The adrenal gland, the thyroid gland, really a lot to talk about in this video. I did do another video where I took every single organ on a lamb for the most part and I talked about their benefits. So you can check that out at the end here as well. But thank you guys for joining me. If you could please like the video, subscribe, hit that bell icon and share the video if you can. If you guys would like to check out Frankies for your range of meat, we are offering high quality nutrient-dense animal foods at an affordable price. Frankiesforyourrangemeat.com to see grass-fed beef, raw cheeses, organ meats, high quality nutrient-dense animal foods. I also have Frankies Naturals, minimal ingredients, minimally processed, hygiene and cosmetic products ranging from fluoride-free tooth powder to aluminum-free deodorant. FrankiesNaturals.com, thanks again so much for joining.