In the AMC series American Horror Story, Jessica Lange’s character brings animal offal to her neighbor, Vivian, to support Vivian’s pregnancy. She says that parts such as brain and liver are critical to having a healthy baby. We watch Vivian’s horror, but see her gamely take a bite of each dish as it is presented to her over several days. In spite of her initial disgust, Vivian ends up polishing off each organ with gusto, even going so far as to scrape the bowl to get the last of the raw brain.
I admire the writers of that show for including traditional nutrition that most of the world knows, but that many Americans have forgotten: organ meats (liver, brain, intestines, heart, etc.) contain far more vitamins and essential fatty acids than any other part of the animal. These parts have been critical to human health through millennia, especially to ensure that women have hearty, strong babies. Fruits and vegetables have important nutrients, but they also have a lot of water and sugar. They’re important for things like vitamin C, but we need fat to process fat-soluble vitamins like A, D and K. These nutrients are best absorbed from animal foods like dairy, meat and organs.
Dr. Catherine Shanahan’s Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food makes a case for how our body parts are nourished by the correlating body parts of animals. Eating cartilage is good for building cartilage, eating eyes gives you excellent nutrients for healthy eyes, etc. Gram for gram, organs like heart and liver contain more vitamins, folate and magnesium than an equal amount fruits and vegetables. These are the nutrients critical to a healthy body, especially for women considering pregnancy. Fetuses need this stuff, so start eating it now.
I recently discovered that Brown’s Chicken sells fried livers and gizzards. Foods fried in vegetable oil aren’t good for us because vegetable oil is a chemically produced, toxic fat, but Brown’s might be a place to at least taste gizzards. A friend promises to take me with her to a taquería that sells tacos de sesos (brain) and tacos de lengua (tongue). I can’t wait. I’m proud to have left the population that turns up its nose at the healthiest part of the animal. I’m happy to have joined the global majority that knows that animal offal helps to maintain strong bones, joints and healthy tissues.
Thanks for the validation, I had heard there are some micro-nutrients in offal but did not have a good source. We are lucky to be able to purchase chicken parts ( liver, hearts, gizzard) at our local farmers market from this Fiesta Farm, based out of Watsonville. fiestafarm.net/ You should see the difference between factory organic livers and pasture raised. For same size chicken they are about 3 times in size, have much richer color.
Maybe just the organs of the fetus, Dave (jk). Actually I understand that for humans, human flesh isn't a good food source, so I can't answer this question and I'm not interested enough to find out. But thanks for raising it!
So by this argument, pregnant women should eat fetuses, preferably human 🙂 Not that I disagree with the offal argument, I just enjoy taking the shock value to the next level. Personally I find offal awful. I have no taste for tongue, no courage for heart, and can't even think about brains. I certainly couldn't see eyes either. Call me American. I have been able to connect with cartilage, so there is some hope for me.