How much goose liver will kill you?

General Questions
#1

There’s old trivia fact that polar bears’ livers contain enough vitamin A to kill any poor Polar explorer who tries to feast on them. But how much goose liver would be lethal? I can easily eat one of those little jars of pate in a sitting, am I risking my life? :wink:

UnuMondo

#2

Mortality from vitamin A toxicity is quite rare. Generally if you keep your dose under 300,000 IU of vitamin A, you will not be at risk.

Acute toxic reactions are seen after consumption of more than 25,000 IU/kg. Chronic toxicity may result from daily consumption of more than 25,000 IU over an extended time.

Google “vitamin A” and “Toxicity” and you’ll get lots of useful info.

#3

You can get the vitamin A data here

433 IU/13g

= 33 IU/g

25,000 IU = 750g

If you eat 750 g (over a pound and half) of goose liver pate a day, you run a risk of poisoning yourself. IANAD, but would recommend you eat less than this amount.

#4

And for the record, 750g of pate is around 3500 calories and contains 5 times the daily recommended saturated fat. :eek:

#5

To say nothing of the cholesterol. Yech! Organ meats are so unhealthy!

#6

Does this include cow liver? Because I always thought that was pretty healthy, but the “gout episode” of King of the Hill got me wondering.

#7

Any organ meat is very high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Livers may be high in trace toxic compounds, as one of the liver’s many jobs is to detoxify the blood.

So yes, this includes cow’s liver.

#8

And here is cow liver. Not bad except for the cholesterol (one slice = 92% RDA). And it’s normally better to not from medical opinions from cartoons. :wink:

#9

Well it all depends on the velocity and mass of the goose liver. Traveling at 1200 fps with about 250 grains of mass it would probably go almost completely through you. OTOH a 40 lb mass falling from a 4th floor window landing directly on your head would pretty much snap your neck. OH WAIT you meant how much would kill you if you ate it…never mind…:slight_smile:

#10

Perhaps if someone dropped the liver on the floor and you slipped on it…

#11

And this is why I won’t eat anything’s liver. :eek:

#12

Not even with fava beans and a nice Chianti?

#13

I thought that polar bear liver contained a lot of vitamin D (stored during the summer) and that’s what made it toxic to humans. (possible vitamin D overdose).

#14

Nope, it’s vitamin A.

QtM, MD