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The traditional food used to remedy exhaustion in healthy, ancestral societies, the research that supports this superfood in the diet and easy ways to get it on the home menu in a convenient and budget-friendly manner.
Energy drinks are the new norm in our exhausted society today. A mind-boggling array of cans or shots are available at gas stations, supermarkets, and health food stores alike.
These beverages are frequently marketed as nutritional supplements, which removes the limit to the amount of caffeine they can contain.
Some brands contain such excessive levels of caffeine that people have ended up in the ER after consuming them.
Some parents are resorting to energy drinks for their exhausted young children on the way to school or athletic events!
Exhausted and stressed college students take it to the next level.
Illegal procurement and abuse of the ADHD drug Adderall helps them stay awake to study and gives them an “edge”.
The Journal of Medical Internet Research produced two major revelations in its six-month study of Adderall:
- It is mentioned most heavily among students in the northeast and south regions of the U.S.
- Tweets about Adderall peak sharply during final exam periods.
Lead researcher Carl Hanson, Professor of health science at BYU, had this to say:
“Adderall is the most commonly abused prescription stimulant among college students. Our concern is that the more it becomes a social norm in online conversation, the higher risk there is of more people abusing it.”
Why Are People So Exhausted?
Seesawing blood sugar from the modern diet loaded with sugar-laden, highly refined carbohydrate foods is no doubt part of the problem. Dr. Ronald Hoffman MD, author of Intelligent Medicine, writes:
Americans love to “carbo-load.” We are a society in love with carbohydrates — and it shows in our poor health standing versus some of the other industrialized nations of the world. In essence, hypoglycemia is low blood sugar, and it is increasingly prevalent in our society. Hypoglycemia can cause an array of symptoms, including dizziness, fatigue, mood changes, PMS, sugar craving, headaches, difficulty concentrating, tremors, temperamental outbursts, depression, excessive sweating, hot flashes, palpitations, cold extremities, abdominal pain, and panic attacks.
While a return to a whole diet where traditional fats are embraced and refined carbs and sugar are kept to a minimum no doubt helps resolve many issues with exhaustion, even those who eat an excellent Traditional Diet and follow a healthful exercise regimen can still suffer from occasional to extended bouts of fatigue.
A friend of mine recently came to me with this exact scenario. A healthy Mom of normal weight who has been eating an excellent Traditional Diet with plenty of blood sugar-stabilizing, healthy fats for years and exercises regularly confessed that she was exhausted and couldn’t figure out why.
Traditional Food for Exhaustion
What to do in those situations?
If the blood sugar is steady and a traditional diet is being followed, are coffee, energy drinks, or some other form of artificial stimulant the only options to get oneself off the couch?
Absolutely not!
When exhaustion is sucking the life out of one’s life, the tried and true remedy is plentiful quantities of liver, the planet’s #1 superfood, known for its mysterious and legendary anti-fatigue factor which science has yet to identify.
A July 1951 article published in the Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine describes this factor and a study that attempted to identify it.
Benjamin K. Ershoff, Ph.D. divided lab rats into three groups.
- The first group of rats ate a basic rat diet, fortified with 11 vitamins.
- Group 2 ate the same rat diet as group 1, with the addition of supplemental vitamin B complex.
- Group 3 ate the same rat diet as the first two groups but instead of vitamins or B complex, they received 10% of their ration as powdered liver.
Anti-Fatigue Factor
The results of this unique experiment?
A 1975 article in Prevention magazine described the results of the experiment in the following words:
“After several weeks, the animals were placed one by one into a drum of cold water from which they could not climb out. They literally were forced to sink or swim. Rats in the first group swam for an average 13.3 minutes before giving up. The second group, which had the added fortifications of B vitamins, swam for an average of 13.4 minutes. Of the last group of rats, the ones receiving liver, three swam for 63, 83 and 87 minutes. The other nine rats in this group were still swimming vigorously at the end of two hours when the test was terminated. Something in the liver had prevented them from becoming exhausted. To this day scientists have not been able to pin a label on this anti-fatigue factor.”
Exhaustion Post-Covid
Knowing about the above research for many years, I applied it to resolve my fatigue after our family’s bout with Covid in the summer of 2021.
I consumed 6 capsules of desiccated liver powder (equates to roughly 1/2 ounce of fresh liver) every day for a few weeks.
Fatigue was completely resolved in short order and my previous strength levels returned!
But Wait! What About the Cholesterol!
A common objection to frequent consumption of liver is the high amount of cholesterol.
The truth is that numerous studies show no relationship between diet and cholesterol levels.
In addition, there is no evidence that saturated fat and cholesterol-rich foods like liver contribute to heart disease.
In fact, as Americans have cut back on cholesterol-rich foods in recent decades, rates of heart disease have actually gone up! This is according to Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, Ph.D., author of The Cholesterol Myths.
5 Easy Ways to Eat Liver (even if you hate it)
Should we all wait until science identifies liver’s legendary anti-fatigue factor or start benefiting from this superfood’s ability to raise the exhausted and fatigued of the world off the couch and back into the game of life right away?
Have no fear. Here are several ways to eat liver that are either painless or flat-out delicious. I personally eat a minimum of 4-6 ounces of liver each and every week – many weeks much more than this amount as needed.
Liver and Bacon pate
If strong-tasting beef liver and onions turn your stomach as it does mine, try my recipe for milder tasting liver pate made with chicken livers and bacon that is an excellent dip or spread on toast.
This inclusion of bacon pureed with the liver makes the flavor well accepted even by children.
Liver and rice
Just before you put a pot of soaked rice on to cook, mix in one or two spoonfuls of grated liver.
The liver will impart a wonderful flavor to the cooked rice and your family won’t know the difference.
Note that brown rice works better than white rice for this trick.
Frozen liver “pills”
Chop up raw, grass-fed liver that has been frozen for 14 days or more (eliminates parasite risk) into small pieces. Then, swallow a few each day whole with a glass of water, milk, or juice.
Over the span of a week, you will consume several ounces and no doubt be feeling much more energetic.
Desiccated liver powder
Perhaps the easiest and most convenient way to get your liver is through a freeze-dried, grass-fed, desiccated liver supplement.
I use this when we haven’t been eating enough pate or I’m out of liver to mix with ground beef.
You can take the powder in capsule form or sprinkle it into homemade soups and sauces for a boost of nutrition.
This brand and this brand are clean and tested to be glyphosate-free.
Hide Liver in Ground Beef
An easy way to get liver into your family is to hide it in the ground beef you will use for making burgers or dishes like grassfed meatloaf.
The trick is to keep the amount of ground liver you use small so that no one can taste it. I suggest no more than 20%. For those with very keen taste buds, 10% is better.
Anecdotal Evidence
Will liver really work for you to eliminate exhaustion and fatigue problems? It worked for my friend mentioned earlier in the article.
After I suggested that she start eating liver, she went home and started eating it several times a week.
The next time I asked her about it a few weeks later, she reported that she felt so much better and was experiencing normal energy levels once again.
Will it work for you too? What have you honestly got to lose? Humans have eaten and revered liver as a sacred superfood for millennia.
If you’ve never eaten it, why not try it now?
References
Adderall use as college study aid ‘trending’ on East Coast
Monster Energy Drinks Killed 5 People: Report
Hypoglycemia
Nourishing Traditions
Myths and Truths about Cholesterol
The Liver Files
I am starting a liver regime after being in the hospital for a few months after my appendix burst (I didn’t know it had burst) and I tried to get over it at home for a week, and ended up in very bad shape and on lots of meds for pain and infection after three surgeries. I am struggling to recover my former good health and energy. How much is too much with liver? I have no issue eating it every day, I love it.
No more than once or twice a week. You CAN eat too much liver. Do not overdo.
Hi Sara, thanks for your article. I’ve tried Ancestral Grass-fed Desicatted Beef Liver in the past. The first go around, I felt more energetic. A few years passed, and I bought it again. The second go around was awful. It gave me a very uncomfortable pins and needles feeling all over my body, so, I had to discontinue it. What do you think the reason was for the reaction?
No idea unless the second batch was contaminated with a large amount of glyphosate residue perhaps? This brand is not third party independently tested and verified to be glyphosate free, what what I know. I will not take a liver or collagen product unless it is independently third party tested for purity. Just too much glyphosate contamination everywhere these days even in grassfed products.