Liver capsules - has anyone tried them?

Hello,

My iron's still very low and I'm wondering whether anyone has tried liver capsules? I can't eat it cooked, and most pate seems to include dairy. I was eating gluten free black pudding but they stopped stocking it several months ago at our nearest Morrison's supermarket (130 miles away!)

I'm considering the capsules. My GP has offered standard iron tabs but I don't like the side effects. I take Solgar's Gentle Iron daily but it clearly isn't having any effect after 6 months or so.

Thanks!

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Littleisland

I tried them but don't think they did much for me. Maybe I didn't use them for long enough.

I had trouble trying to find out how they compared - iron content-wise - with iron tablets.

The ones I used were undefatted (important!) powdered beef liver 750mg capsules (no other ingredients) but that's not the iron content and when I contacted the makers I got no response. So assuming it's just 750mg desiccated beef liver, how "concentrated" would that be? What would be the equivalent of fresh liver? I don't know but did some detective work which I've put the result of below **.

If you ate liver to raise your ferritin level it would be recommended to have no more than 200 grams per week. So I can't say for definite how many beef liver capsules would be needed to give the equivalent of that.

Looking at two different brands I've seen conflicting amounts.

**(1) One says that 4 x 750mg capsules gives 3g liver (it's a US brand that doesn't ship to the UK)

(2) Another says that 600mg of beef liver per capsule: whole food equivalent 2.53g

I think you'd need a lot of capsules costing quite a bit.

To put that into perspective I paid 90p for 170g fresh Welsh lamb's liver from my butcher last week.

To get the equivalent in capsules from the two examples I've given:

Using capsules (1) you'd need 56 servings (4 capsules per serving) to give the equivalent of 170g liver, so that would be 226 capsules. If the UK equivalent has the same amount of liver equivalent (3g) then the brand I bought was £8.99 for 120 capsules.

Using capsules (2) you'd need 67 servings (180 capsules is £35 with that brand)

I've no idea how that cost compares to buying iron tablets.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to SeasideSusie]

Ferrous fumarate is < £4 usually for 84 x 210mg (65mg iron)

[Hidden in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

Don't they bung you up though? I'm fortunate enough to have IBS too...

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Hidden]

They didn't for me, I was hoping they would as I have IBS-D, but no change

[Hidden in reply to SeasideSusie]

Well I'm trying to eat red meat weekly now, after having a really delicious burger in New York last week! Cottage pie tonight. I'll just have to try and force liver down somehow - possibly by 'hiding' it and hoping the taste disappears.

Or perhaps making my own pate.

Do you know which liver has the mildest taste?

Also, I'll give the capsules a miss. Thank you for going to the trouble of working out the equivalents. I'm already spending far too much on supplements, NDT, private testing etc and I'm considering trialling B12 injections (self treating) shortly too. It's an expensive business!

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Hidden]

Do you know which liver has the mildest taste?

I believe chicken liver, and that's what a lot of pate is made from I think (I don't like pate).

I think calf liver is the next but I don't see that at my butcher so I use lamb's liver and that's the next mildest, there is some taste to it.

The way I do it is in a sort of stir fry with lots of other tastes. I cut the liver into thin strips. I always use butter to fry, so onions, mixed peppers, mushrooms (anything you like), then add the liver (only takes a few minutes, keep moving it), add cooked rice and peas and anything else you fancy, mix it all up, bung on a plate - yum!

[Hidden in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you! I'm just about to order my shopping (we live in a far flung place) so will see what they've got and brave it.

[Angel_of_the_North]

I used to take them in my body building days - fart city! Never had an iron panel done back then, so no idea if they made any difference

[Hidden in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

You had me at 'fart city'! Might give them a miss then!

[Gophe]

By the way, you can order gluten free black pudding from S. Collins & Son online. Delivery is expensive, since it's couriered from Scotland, but I'm giving them a try. To dilute the delivery cost, I've ordered a bunch and will freeze.