I’ve always eaten liver sparingly, even though I enjoy it, because I’ve heard that the liver accumulates environmental toxins. Cecil says that the belief is unfounded, but as an aside with no further explanation. So now I’m wondering, does liver have an above average amount of environmental toxins or not? Looking around the web, I can’t find any information on this that’s on any site I would consider authoritative.
So what does Cecil base his “unfounded” proclamation on? Is he right?
The liver isn’t a filter that accumulates toxins like an aquarium filter. The liver detoxifies by breaking down toxins, so they can be safely excreted. The liver doesn’t accumulate toxins any more than any other part of the body.
Yes, the liver could contain toxins such as heavy metal or arsenic, but so could anywhere else in the body. The only danger in liver is that it contains a big doseful of Vitamin A which can be toxic in extremely high doses. Some animal livers can be extremely toxic due to the amount of Vitamin A they contain. You don’t have to worry about that with cow, chicken, or goose liver though.
Of course it’s not like an aquarium filter, I understood that. I also understood that it breaks down toxins. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t at any one moment (including the moment of death) contain toxins that it’s in the process of breaking down, or toxic byproducts of that breakdown that haven’t yet been eliminated.
I’m fully prepared to believe that it’s as safe as any other meat. I want to believe that. I’ve been told otherwise my whole life and some sources do claim that it concentrates heavy metals more than other tissues do (and metals cannot be “broken down” by anything short of a particle accelerator) so I’m curious as to what the truth is.