Liver: An Excellent Fertility Food

Liver is the king of organ meats and nature’s multivitamin! By this I mean it’s the richest in nutrients. In fact it’s the most nutrient dense food I know of and that’s exactly why it’s been prized by our primal ancestors for thousands of years.

Nutrients are crucial for the function and health of every system in our body, therefore the high nutrient content of liver means that it helps support many tissues and functions in our body!

Liver is an especially great fertility food! Many traditional cultures, studied by Dr. Weston A Price, had a special diet for men and women to follow before they conceived a child. Liver played a big role in this diet for many of these cultures. (1)

It’s now known that the nutrients in liver help increase the quality of sperm and eggs, aid in fetal development, promote a healthy pregnancy, and lead to healthier children. Consuming liver helps women to build up their nutrient stores preconception to ensure they have enough to nourish both their baby and themself during the nutrient demanding process of pregnancy. Note that 10% of a mother’s nutrient stores go to building her baby during pregnancy therefore eating nutrient dense foods preconception, during pregnancy, and after is extremely important!

A few notable nutrients from liver that promote a healthy pregnancy are vitamin A, vitamin B12, folate, and choline.

Vitamin A:

According to Lily Nichols author of Real Food For Pregnancy, In a Dutch study of over 1,700 women, those who ate liver almost always consumed adequate vitamin A, while an astonishing 70% of women who avoided liver failed to meet the RDA.” (3)

“Vitamin A helps regulate gene expression and fetal growth with specific roles in the development of the heart, eyes, ears, limbs, and immune system. Lack of vitamin A can lead to serious malformations, including improperly formed craniofacial structures, limbs and internal organs.” (3)

Several animal studies of pigs, rats, cattle, sheep, frogs, and dogs have shown pregnant animals deficient in vitamin A to give birth to dead, eyeball-less, deaf, clubbed foot, cleft palated, or otherwise deformed babies. (1, 4, 5, 6) This implies that vitamin A plays a crucial role in proper fetal development.

Vitamin A also helps support female fertility by regulating cycles and ovulation, aiding egg health maintenance and maturation, supporting progesterone production, supporting egg implantation, and placental development and maintenance. (7) Vitamin A is also crucial for male fertility, as it’s important for the production of both testosterone and sperm. (7)

Vitamin B12:

Vitamin B12 is required for methylation, a process which is involved in gene expression, cell differentiation, and organ formation. It also helps to prevent neural tube defect and miscarriage. (3, 8) Vitamin B12 also helps support both men and women’s fertility. In women it supports healthy ovulation, regulates irregular menstrual cycles, and supports successful implantation. (8) In men it supports sperm count, supports sperm motility, and prevents testicular damage. (8)

Folate:

Folate is well known for preventing birth defects like neural tube defect, but it’s also important for progesterone production, ovarian health, and DNA production. (9) It’s especially important to get folate from food sources (like liver, black eyed peas, asparagus, or avocado) instead of supplementing with folic acid because 40-60% of people are unable to convert folic acid to folate due to the MTHFR gene. (3, 10)

Choline:

Choline is best known for its importance in aiding fetal brain development and preventing neural tube defect. (4, 11, 12) In fact babies of women with low choline intake are at 4X risk for neural tube defects. (11) Choline is also important for placental function, formation of cholinergic neurons and synapses, memory and learning functions of the developing child, methylation, myelin sheath formation, and nerve function. (3, 11, 12) The best sources of choline are liver and eggs.

How To Incorporate Liver Into Your Diet:

• Make liver pâte and have 1-4 tbsp a day (Click here for my recipe)
• Incorporate liver into meals (One of my favorites recipes for this is sautéed liver with steamed broccolini, roasted carrots and onions, and pesto)
• Mix liver in with ground beef in recipes
• Take desiccated liver supplements (this is basically just dried liver ground into powder) (I suggest Ancestral Supplements or Heart And Soil)
• Eat liver crisps like those from Carnivore Crisps or Carnivore Aurelius

* While eating liver is an amazing thing you can do to increase fertility, prep for conception, and support your baby while pregnant, there’s a lot more that goes into properly preparing your body for a healthy pregnancy. So if you want to have an easy time conceiving, an easier pregnancy with minimal symptoms, a quicker recovery postpartum, and have the healthiest child possible, then click here to watch my YouTube Video on 8 Ways To Prepare Your Body For Conception, Pregnancy, And To Have Healthy Children!

Works Cited

1. Price, Weston. “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” California: Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation. 2014. Print.

2. Nutrition Data Self. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://nutritiondata.self.com/

3. Nichols, Lily. “Real Food For Pregnancy.” 2018. Print.

4. Mellanby, E. Vitamin A deficency and deafness. Biochem. J. In press.

5. Wald G. (1935). Vitamin A in Eye Tissues. The Journal of general physiology, 18(6),
905–915. https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.18.6.905

6. Mason, Karl E. (1935). Foetal death, prolonged gestation, and difficult parturition in
the rat as a result of vitamin A‐deficiency. American Journal of Anatomy, 57(2),
303–349. https://doi.org/10.1002/aja.1000570204

7. De La Cruz, Lauren. “Vitamin A Is Essential For Fertility.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/irregular-menses-irregular-periods-irregular-periods-treatment-irregular-periods-and-pregnancy-miscarriage-symptoms-miscarriage-causes

8. De La Cruz, Lauren. “Vitamin B12 & Fertility.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/vitamin-b12-deficiency-vitamin-b12-healthline-vitamin-b12-benefits-vitamin-b12-foods-vitamin-b12-deficiency-symptoms-vitamin-b12-supplements-vitamin-b12-levels

9. De La Cruz, Lauren. “5 Sources of Folate.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/where-to-get-folate-sources-of-folate-sources-of-folic-acid

10. De La Cruz, Lauren. “40-60% of the Population May Not Be Able to Properly Convert Folic Acid.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/mthfr-gene-mutation-symptoms-supplements-test

11. De La Cruz, Lauren. “4 Sources of Choline.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/neural-tube-defects-how-to-prevent-them-with-food

12. Sanders, L.M. Zeisel, S.H. (2006). Choline: Dietary Requirements and Role in Brain Development. Retrieved from: https://europepmc.org/article/med/18716669.