Feb 21, 2013 2:17 AM GMT
I know organ meats are loaded with cholesterol, but they are so cheap and apparently a quality protein source. What are your thoughts?
organ meats (veal kidney and liver): good or bad for bulking up?
-
Feb 21, 2013 2:17 AM GMT -
Feb 21, 2013 4:55 AM GMTThis would be in the bottom five percentile for healthy ways to gain weight.
All you need are calories. You're probably eating enough protein. Go with soy protein to get protein that lacks cholesterol. It's high quality protein, has fiber, lacks cholesterol, and reduces your risk of various diseases. -
Feb 21, 2013 5:22 AM GMTThey're a good way for me to loose weight. Because I just look at the plate and I'm not hungry any more.
One time I was bicycling through Switzerland and stopped in at the Adler brewery cafeteria for lunch. Yeah, so my Deutsch is somewhere between "sucks" and "Hogan's Heroes." I thought I was ordering a sausage with "the works." Instead, they brought me a huge steaming platter of... organs.
I looked around and realized that I was the smallest guy in the place, and all these guys are chowing down on similar piles of entrails. 
I just got back on the bike, rode to the next town, and tried again.
-
Feb 21, 2013 5:25 AM GMTI think I am going to vomit -
Feb 21, 2013 5:31 AM GMTBoth delicious -
Feb 21, 2013 5:35 AM GMTYeah... I'm thinking we're leaving out the fact they are HELLA gross. Soy isn't the answer either. Eat egg whites and chicken. Pork is a good alternative. If you're exercising and not running your blood glucose high your cholesterol will go down anyway. -
Feb 21, 2013 5:47 AM GMTLiver is very high in iron.
Kidney is harder to cook (but don't worry about urine, that has been washed away pretty thoroughly by the time you get it).
Pancreas is yummy but hard to find.
Heart is basically muscle, so is tongue.
Tripe can smell funny if not cooked correctly (I do like spicy menudo).
Chicken feet make a great chicken stock loaded with collagen.
Back when folks were poor, these were a lot more popular. They still are in developing countries.
Basically these are all animal tissues, and as such contain all the macro nutrients that you'd expect. It all gets broken down in your small intestines into the basic building blocks of amino acids and fats. I wouldn't eat them every day though, since (as I mentioned above), trace elements can vary in them. Eat too much liver and you can get iron overload for example. Oh and stay away from polar bear liver! -
Feb 21, 2013 5:53 AM GMTyourname2000 saidI'm a fan. Liver, kidneys, heart....even tongue. All good (if you know how to prepare them....they can be tough.)
Yeah they're high in cholesterol, but I personally don't think cholesterol is a problem if you're on a low carb diet....carbs tend to cause inflammation and cholesterol is the body's poly-fila....used to quickly patch such inflammation. It's those patches that lead to the hardening of the arteries, etc.
Carbs don't cause inflammation. -
Feb 21, 2013 5:54 AM GMTbluey2223 said
yourname2000 saidI'm a fan. Liver, kidneys, heart....even tongue. All good (if you know how to prepare them....they can be tough.)
Yeah they're high in cholesterol, but I personally don't think cholesterol is a problem if you're on a low carb diet....carbs tend to cause inflammation and cholesterol is the body's poly-fila....used to quickly patch such inflammation. It's those patches that lead to the hardening of the arteries, etc.
Carbs don't cause inflammation.
Sugar causes inflammation, and that's a carb. -
Feb 21, 2013 5:58 AM GMTBro science. -
Feb 21, 2013 6:22 AM GMTMy cat hangs out by the stairwell and does that. (If you don't high-five him, he slaps your head.)
Back when we did whole animals, we had the butcher put all those "extra" bits into the hamburger and sausage. Now, I don't even want to deal with it. Just gimme the steaks and chicken breasts, and the rest can go to McNuggets. -
Feb 21, 2013 5:20 PM GMTIn College we had to mash up rabbit liver and mix it with other meats to make a kind of paté mouse and it smelled and tasted disgusting!! -
Feb 21, 2013 5:44 PM GMTSomeone mentioned for you to use Soy.
Soy is bad for men it has Isoflavones are very similar to the hormone estrogen, which is not found in large amounts in men. When large amounts of soy are ingested it may affect testosterone levels. When testosterone levels are lowered, there are many adverse effects on men. This can include weight gain, lower sperm count, lack of sex drive, and erectile problems. Testosterone levels in men lower after the age of 30 naturally. Adding large amounts of soy to a man's diet may not assist with maintaining healthy testosterone levels. -
Feb 21, 2013 5:50 PM GMTStephan saidSomeone mentioned for you to use Soy.
Soy is bad for men it has Isoflavones are very similar to the hormone estrogen, which is not found in large amounts in men. When large amounts of soy are ingested it may affect testosterone levels. When testosterone levels are lowered, there are many adverse effects on men. This can include weight gain, lower sperm count, lack of sex drive, and erectile problems. Testosterone levels in men lower after the age of 30 naturally. Adding large amounts of soy to a man's diet may not assist with maintaining healthy testosterone levels.
Will soy give you moobs? -
Feb 21, 2013 6:04 PM GMTStephan saidSomeone mentioned for you to use Soy.
Soy is bad for men it has Isoflavones are very similar to the hormone estrogen, which is not found in large amounts in men. When large amounts of soy are ingested it may affect testosterone levels. When testosterone levels are lowered, there are many adverse effects on men. This can include weight gain, lower sperm count, lack of sex drive, and erectile problems. Testosterone levels in men lower after the age of 30 naturally. Adding large amounts of soy to a man's diet may not assist with maintaining healthy testosterone levels.
This is not true. Phytoestrogens are not compatible with the human endocrine system. Similar isn't good enough when it comes to the human body.
Not to mention that soy isn't even that high in phytoestrogens. Flax has significantly higher levels, and people consume that in huge doses for its omega-3s without issue. -
Feb 21, 2013 8:09 PM GMTI don't know how they are for bulking up but organ meats are very dense nutritional sources. -
Feb 21, 2013 8:13 PM GMTThanks for all the comments. I guess they should be eaten in moderation. -
Feb 21, 2013 8:27 PM GMTxrichx saidBro science.
I find these forums offer very little broscience. At least broscience is typically grounded on real studies and facts. Head to any serious bodybuilding forum and you'll see way more actual citations than you'll get here.
These forums are afloat trendy diet BS that has very little to do with science. -
Feb 21, 2013 8:35 PM GMTuoft23 said
xrichx saidBro science.
I find these forums offer very little broscience. At least broscience is typically grounded on real studies and facts. Head to any serious bodybuilding forum and you'll see way more actual citations than you'll get here.
These forums are afloat trendy diet BS that has very little to do with science.
Are there studies on organ meat?
A lot of the so called studies I see on BB forums are really fancy advertisements for the supplement market. -
Feb 21, 2013 8:42 PM GMTZinc said
uoft23 said
xrichx saidBro science.
I find these forums offer very little broscience. At least broscience is typically grounded on real studies and facts. Head to any serious bodybuilding forum and you'll see way more actual citations than you'll get here.
These forums are afloat trendy diet BS that has very little to do with science.
Are there studies on organ meat?
A lot of the so called studies I see on BB forums are really fancy advertisements for the supplement market.
I'm not talking about fitness articles which yes, are often copied right out of mens health and are utter crap. I'm talking about actual discussions between members about nutrition and diet. Not to say there isn't some misinformation there but in my experience the informed out number the misinformed.
My only complaint about the info you get there is its great for bulking/muscle growth but they usually care very little about how much sodium or red meat they eat. But at least its grounded in fact. -
Feb 21, 2013 8:49 PM GMT
My only complaint about the info you get there is its great for bulking/muscle growth but they usually care very little about how much sodium or red meat they eat. But at least its grounded in fact.
Facts are always open to interpretation.
In nutritional science, facts aren't even very stable. -
Feb 21, 2013 9:03 PM GMTZinc said
My only complaint about the info you get there is its great for bulking/muscle growth but they usually care very little about how much sodium or red meat they eat. But at least its grounded in fact.
Facts are always open to interpretation.
In nutritional science, facts aren't even very stable.
Good point. Many of these studies have serious shortcomings that cause them to oxidize quickly. -
Feb 21, 2013 9:34 PM GMTVeal is NOT an organ meat.
As for the rest of the topic... I came but was very disappointed.
-
Feb 21, 2013 10:11 PM GMTGWriter said
Zinc said
My only complaint about the info you get there is its great for bulking/muscle growth but they usually care very little about how much sodium or red meat they eat. But at least its grounded in fact.
Facts are always open to interpretation.
In nutritional science, facts aren't even very stable.
Good point. Many of these studies have serious shortcomings that cause them to oxidize quickly.
In science there are no facts if we want to mince words....only prevailing theories which leads back to my original point. Studies > conjecture always regardless of how unstable the existing theories are. -
Feb 21, 2013 10:27 PM GMTyourname2000 saidErr...just noticed "veal" in the title (which I missed the first time around). Can't say I'm a big fan of veal. Those poor little calves don't have much of a life --really it's just a torture of an existence until they're killed. I'd avoid veal myself...I just can't enjoy it knowing where it came from.
I'm fine with (and enjoy) organ meat from cows and chicken/turkey though. Chicken liver/kidneys especially are easy to work with and relatively cheap.
Gotta say though, this stuff used to be a LOT cheaper (at least in my neck of the woods): it used to be this was all byproduct of your local butcher --they were happy to get anything for it, pretty much. Now most of the meat in my local stores is packaged up in massive packaging plants hundreds of miles away, so the organs go to different uses (animal feed, probably). Not many butchers around here who are pulling in whole animals and processing them on site....and the few that do probably don't have much problem selling off the organs, since they're so hard to find elsewhere.
I little tip if you like Whole Foods, they will sell you fish heads for $1/ lb (salmon, grouper, snaper, etc). Many times you actually can get a fair bit of fish meat from these heads, and make a broth with the rest.
Certainly we can agree on the nutritional value of fish!
