Why Ray Peat was against eating kidneys (but was pro liver) ?

[food fortunato]

it was already causing me bad symptoms within months of starting to eat liver but it was not just right after eating it, so I did not make the connection.

I suspect that no amount of liver is healthy to eat.

What bad symptoms were you experiencing and where did you get your liver from?
Also, liver is very delicate and should either be eaten immediately or frozen. It should not be left in refrigerator to thaw too long. And once thawed, it should also be cooked and eaten immediately. Did you handle your liver this pristinely?
Finally, i only eat a couple small bites of liver twice per week. And i don’t eat it too close to coffee bc it draws way more out of the liver (therefore i only eat liver with dinner). Did you eat such a similar small amount, away from coffee?
Thanks!

 

[Nick]

How is your general health and Thyroid health? Do you know what RDA you were hitting with your former diet. I have ready too many stories like yours to ignore it.

Health was generally good before, temperatures always good until the last few years I started needing thyroid to keep them up (I think due to retinol toxicity). I don't know what my total retinol and carotene intake was in IU or micrograms sorry.

What bad symptoms were you experiencing and where did you get your liver from?
Also, liver is very delicate and should either be eaten immediately or frozen. It should not be left in refrigerator to thaw too long. And once thawed, it should also be cooked and eaten immediately. Did you handle your liver this pristinely?
Finally, i only eat a couple small bites of liver twice per week. And i don’t eat it too close to coffee bc it draws way more out of the liver (therefore i only eat liver with dinner). Did you eat such a similar small amount, away from coffee?
Thanks!

Liver sources varied but it was usually frozen beef liver or venison liver eaten on the day of death. I don't think this matters so much any way since I believe the retinol and copper content are the issue.

The worst symptoms were insomnia (from the beginning) which would get worse during periods of more liver eating and better when I didn't eat any. Over the years I became much more sensitive to EMF from the copper, as well as more and more sun intolerance from the retinol (I have always gotten healthy amounts of sun exposure). I also gained ~20lbs of fat (to store the retinol one my liver storage was full) that I entirely lost in ~2 months after cutting out liver as well as 90% of retinol and carotene from my diet (I did not reduce calories). There have been many other symptoms that are harder to explain as well that I think indicate toxic bile and mild cholestasis and are already improving. At some point I'll post a comprehensive description, I believe there is a dedicated thread of low-vitamin-A diet results.

 

[Kyle970]

No other food raises my temp like small amounts of liver. Possibly copper deficiency or Bs, not sure yet. Notice a big difference in quality of farm/soil. Have not tryed fresh kidney, only powdered supplements and felt no benefit. Interested in the dao in kidney, supposedly.

 

[Peater]

Health was generally good before, temperatures always good until the last few years I started needing thyroid to keep them up (I think due to retinol toxicity). I don't know what my total retinol and carotene intake was in IU or micrograms sorry.

Liver sources varied but it was usually frozen beef liver or venison liver eaten on the day of death. I don't think this matters so much any way since I believe the retinol and copper content are the issue.

The worst symptoms were insomnia (from the beginning) which would get worse during periods of more liver eating and better when I didn't eat any. Over the years I became much more sensitive to EMF from the copper, as well as more and more sun intolerance from the retinol (I have always gotten healthy amounts of sun exposure). I also gained ~20lbs of fat (to store the retinol one my liver storage was full) that I entirely lost in ~2 months after cutting out liver as well as 90% of retinol and carotene from my diet (I did not reduce calories). There have been many other symptoms that are harder to explain as well that I think indicate toxic bile and mild cholestasis and are already improving. At some point I'll post a comprehensive description, I believe there is a dedicated thread of low-vitamin-A diet results.

What is sun intolerance? Sunlight helps the body use vitamin A so if you're not getting the light exposure Ray recommended then that could be why it has adverse effects for you.

I have eaten a lot of liver in the past and absolutely adore being out in the sun. I've never noticed anything I can definitely correlate to liver consumption, obviously my health isn't perfect or I wouldn't be here.

 

[Nick]

What is sun intolerance? Sunlight helps the body use vitamin A so if you're not getting the light exposure Ray recommended then that could be why it has adverse effects for you.

I have eaten a lot of liver in the past and absolutely adore being out in the sun. I've never noticed anything I can definitely correlate to liver consumption, obviously my health isn't perfect or I wouldn't be here.

As I said I've gotten plenty of sun exposure, consistently and rarely too much, for at least the last 10 years. Retinol and the other compounds it detoxifies into (especially retinoic acid) are well established to cause sun sensitivity when present in the skin in too great amounts.

Edit: I didn't have the issue with reduced tolerance to sun until after 7-8 years of eating liver and a good bit of other high-A foods. I think at some point my liver and other storage tissues got too full and could not contain all the retinol.

 

[food fortunato]

As I said I've gotten plenty of sun exposure, consistently and rarely too much, for at least the last 10 years. Retinol and the other compounds it detoxifies into (especially retinoic acid) are well established to cause sun sensitivity when present in the skin in too great amounts.

Nick, by chance were you eating lemons/lemon juice, and/or using lemon juice on your skin?

 

[Nick]

Nick, by chance were you eating lemons/lemon juice, and/or using lemon juice on your skin?

No