Organic Multi Beef Organ

Organ supplements are a food with a medicine's worth of vitamin A in them, so here's the triage our naturopaths run before anyone starts.

A good fit if

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

Check with us first if

• You already take a multivitamin, a vitamin A supplement or cod liver oil. Preformed vitamin A from every source counts against one upper limit.
• You drink heavily, have liver disease, high blood fats or severe protein malnutrition. Australian guidance says these groups may be particularly susceptible to vitamin A's adverse effects.
• You have gout. Higher meat intake was linked with a 41% higher gout risk, and organ meats are generally treated as high-purine.
• You're watching your cholesterol. Kidney carries 400 mg per 100 g and liver 257 mg.
• You take any prescription medicine. No interaction data for organ supplements was found, so ask your prescriber.

• Beef liver. Best known for: The most nutrient-dense organ: B12, vitamin A, copper, 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, about 3% fat. Absorption: No study. Typical use: The organ to pick if you want the category 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: Highest cholesterol of the three, at 400 mg per 100 g raw.
• Beef spleen. Best known for: Marketed as the highest-iron organ. 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 trialled. 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: No comparative study found. Typical use: Treat it as a manufacturing preference, not a proven advantage.
• Grass-fed, NZ or Australian sourced. Best known for: Sourcing and welfare. Absorption: No comparative nutrient study found. Typical use: A reasonable preference to hold, just not an evidence-backed one.
• Cod liver oil. Best known for: A liver product that's a permitted listed-medicine ingredient. Absorption: Not applicable. Typical use: Capped at 3,000 µg of vitamin A a day, with mandatory label warnings. Organ powder has neither.
• Homoeopathic organ preparations. Best known for: Placenta, thymus gland and porcine items in Schedule 1. Absorption: Not applicable. Typical use: Only permitted as homoeopathic ingredients. A different product class entirely.

Reference values. There's no Nutrient Reference Value for organ meat, because it's a food, not a nutrient. The limits that matter are for what liver carries. Adults need 2.4 µg of vitamin B12 a day, and no upper level has been set for it. Adult copper needs are 1.2 mg (women) and 1.7 mg (men) a day.

Typical supplemental range. Not established. We haven't verified an Australian label, so we can't give you a typical 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, counted from 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 your multivitamin and any cod liver oil. If the label doesn't state it, you can't work it out. Your needs depend on your age, diet and health circumstances. 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

This list is the part of the page we will not shorten. If any of it applies to you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before starting.

• Pregnancy and planning a pregnancy. Better Health Channel: liver 'is not recommended for women who are, or could be pregnant, because of its high vitamin A content.' In a prospective study of 22,748 pregnancies, more than 15,000 IU a day of preformed vitamin A was linked with a 3.5-fold higher rate of cranial-neural-crest birth defects.
• Anyone already taking vitamin A. NHMRC: the upper level 'is for preformed vitamin A (retinol) from all sources.'
• High alcohol intake, liver disease, hyperlipidaemia or severe protein malnutrition. NHMRC says these groups 'may be particularly susceptible' to vitamin A's adverse effects.
• Wilson's disease, Indian Childhood Cirrhosis and Idiopathic Copper Toxicosis. The copper upper levels expressly don't apply to these groups, and liver is exceptionally copper-dense.
• Haemochromatosis and iron overload. Haem iron is absorbed by a separate route from plant iron. We couldn't verify a figure for how much more.
• Gout. Highest vs lowest meat intake: RR 1.41 in 47,150 men over 12 years. The study measured meat, not offal specifically.
• Children. Vitamin A upper levels start at 600 µg a day for ages 1 to 3. There's no paediatric data on organ supplements.
• Prescription medicines. No interaction data specific to organ supplements was located. Ask your prescriber.