Amazingly nutritious, yet …
Should You Eat Organs?
Ross Pomeroy, RealClearScience
The prospect of eating stomach is not something that would excite a great many Americans. But what's disgusting to us is a delicious, balanced meal to a great many animal predators. I mean, think about it.
"Stomachs are especially valuable because of what's inside them. The predator benefits from the nutrients of the plants and grains in the guts of its prey," science writer Mary Roach wrote in Gulp.
It's not just stomachs, of course. Bodily organs in general are amazingly nutritious.
"A serving of lamb spleen has almost as much vitamin C as a tangerine. Beef lung has 50 percent more," Roach wrote.
Yet thanks in part to our culturally evolved sense of disgust, most citizens of the Western world tend to turn up their noses at organs and ship them elsewhere.
"In 2009, the United States exported 438,000 tons of frozen livestock organs... Egypt and Russia are big on livers. Mexico eats our brains and lips. Our hearts belong to the Philippines."
Are we missing out? Alternative medicine proponent and supplement guru Joseph Mercolathinks so. But Mercola, who funds anti-vaccine and anti-fluoridation groups, regularly spouts woo-y mumbo jumbo. What are the facts?
(Continued here.)
Ross Pomeroy, RealClearScience
The prospect of eating stomach is not something that would excite a great many Americans. But what's disgusting to us is a delicious, balanced meal to a great many animal predators. I mean, think about it.
"Stomachs are especially valuable because of what's inside them. The predator benefits from the nutrients of the plants and grains in the guts of its prey," science writer Mary Roach wrote in Gulp.
It's not just stomachs, of course. Bodily organs in general are amazingly nutritious.
"A serving of lamb spleen has almost as much vitamin C as a tangerine. Beef lung has 50 percent more," Roach wrote.
Yet thanks in part to our culturally evolved sense of disgust, most citizens of the Western world tend to turn up their noses at organs and ship them elsewhere.
"In 2009, the United States exported 438,000 tons of frozen livestock organs... Egypt and Russia are big on livers. Mexico eats our brains and lips. Our hearts belong to the Philippines."
Are we missing out? Alternative medicine proponent and supplement guru Joseph Mercolathinks so. But Mercola, who funds anti-vaccine and anti-fluoridation groups, regularly spouts woo-y mumbo jumbo. What are the facts?
(Continued here.)
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