Organic Multi Beef Organ

Organ supplements are a food that can contain a medicine-sized amount of vitamin A. These are the questions our naturopaths ask in store before you start.

A good fit if

• You want nutrients from food, and you understand it's a food rather than a tested supplement
• You'll check the vitamin A content on the label and count it with everything else you take
• You're choosing between organs, and heart or a blend suits you better than liver on its own

Check with us first if

• You already take a multivitamin, a vitamin A supplement or cod liver oil. Vitamin A from every source counts towards one upper limit.
• You drink heavily, or have liver disease, high blood fats or severe protein malnutrition. Australian guidance says these groups may be especially sensitive to the side effects of vitamin A.
• You have gout. Eating more meat was linked with a 41% higher risk of gout, and organ meats are generally treated as high in purines.
• You're watching your cholesterol. Kidney contains 400 mg per 100 g, and liver 257 mg.
• You take any prescription medicine. There's no interaction data for organ supplements, so ask your prescriber.

• Beef liver. Best known for: The most nutrient-dense organ: B12, vitamin A, copper and riboflavin. Absorption: No study specific to dried liver. Typical use: The one with the vitamin A ceiling problem. Count it against everything else you take.
• Beef heart. Best known for: Protein, riboflavin, niacin, B12 and iron, with about 3% fat. Absorption: No study. Typical use: The organ to choose if you want an organ supplement without liver's vitamin A load.
• Beef kidney. Best known for: Riboflavin, B6, B12, copper and iron, with less vitamin A than liver. Absorption: No study. Typical use: The highest in cholesterol of the three, at 400 mg per 100 g raw.
• Beef spleen. Best known for: Marketed as the organ highest in iron. Absorption: No data. Typical use: We found no composition or clinical data at all, so we won't quote a figure.
• Multi-organ blends. Best known for: Liver, heart, kidney, pancreas and spleen together. Absorption: No blend has been tested in a trial. Typical use: Dilutes liver's vitamin A, but makes your vitamin A dose harder to work out.
• Freeze-dried vs desiccated. Best known for: The industry's main selling point. Absorption: We found no study comparing them. Typical use: Treat it as a manufacturing preference, not a proven advantage.
• Grass-fed, NZ or Australian sourced. Best known for: Sourcing and animal welfare. Absorption: We found no study comparing their nutrient content. Typical use: A reasonable preference to have, just not one backed by evidence.
• Cod liver oil. Best known for: A liver product that's an allowed listed-medicine ingredient. Absorption: Not applicable. Typical use: Capped at 3,000 µg of vitamin A a day, with required label warnings. Organ powder has neither.
• Homoeopathic organ preparations. Best known for: Placenta, thymus gland and pig-derived items on Schedule 1. Absorption: Not applicable. Typical use: Allowed only as homoeopathic ingredients, which is a different kind of product entirely.

Reference values. There's no recommended intake for organ meat, because it's a food, not a nutrient. The limits that matter are for the nutrients liver contains. Adults need 2.4 µg of vitamin B12 a day, and there's no upper limit for it. Adults need 1.2 mg (women) or 1.7 mg (men) of copper a day.

Typical supplemental range. This hasn't been established. We haven't been able to confirm a typical Australian label, so we can't give you a usual capsule dose. Freeze-drying removes water, so dried powder is more concentrated per gram than fresh liver.

Upper level. Vitamin A: 3,000 µg a day for adults, counting all sources together. Children's limits are much lower: 600 µg a day for ages 1 to 3, 900 µg for 4 to 8, 1,700 µg for 9 to 13 and 2,800 µg for 14 to 18. Copper: 10 mg a day for adults and 1 mg for children aged 1 to 3.

Worth knowing. Look for the vitamin A content on the label and add it to what's in your multivitamin and any cod liver oil. If the label doesn't state it, you can't work it out. What you need depends on your age, diet and health, so talk to one of our naturopaths.

Food first, where the diet allows it.

• Fresh beef liver, per 100 g raw: 11.9 mg copper, 3.38 mg riboflavin, 14.1 mg niacin, 5.7 mg pantothenic acid, 257 mg cholesterol
• Fresh beef kidney, per 100 g raw: 0.48 mg copper, 400 mg cholesterol
• Fresh beef heart, per 100 g raw: about 3% fat, 116 to 128 mg cholesterol
• A note on these figures: they're from US beef, analysed in a laboratory. Australian values weren't available to us

If any of these sound like you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before you start.

• You're pregnant or planning a pregnancy. Better Health Channel says liver 'is not recommended for women who are, or could be pregnant, because of its high vitamin A content.' In a study following 22,748 pregnancies, more than 15,000 IU a day of preformed vitamin A was linked to a 3.5-fold higher rate of cranial-neural-crest birth defects.
• You already take vitamin A. NHMRC says the upper level 'is for preformed vitamin A (retinol) from all sources.'
• You drink heavily, or have liver disease, high blood fats (hyperlipidaemia) or severe protein malnutrition. NHMRC says these groups 'may be particularly susceptible' to vitamin A's adverse effects.
• You have Wilson's disease, Indian Childhood Cirrhosis or Idiopathic Copper Toxicosis. The copper upper levels specifically don't apply to these groups, and liver is very high in copper.
• You have haemochromatosis or iron overload. Haem iron is absorbed by a different route from plant iron. We couldn't verify a figure for how much more is absorbed.
• You have gout. The highest meat intake compared with the lowest carried RR 1.41 in 47,150 men over 12 years. That study measured meat, not offal specifically.
• Children. Vitamin A upper levels start at 600 µg a day for ages 1 to 3, and there's no data on organ supplements in children.
• You take prescription medicines. We found no interaction data specific to organ supplements, so ask your prescriber.