Why Us, Why Organ Meats, Do We Even Need Supplements, Sourcing & More

Why APE Nutrition

We’re big believers in regenerative farming and doing things the old school (right) way. That’s why we only partner with farms where cattle are grass-fed and regeneratively raised. This means the cows live outdoors, are hormone-free, and genuinely well cared for — just as nature intended.

Farming in this way not only gives animals the highest welfare standards and supports the surrounding environment, it also produces the most nutrient-dense meat. We use the cuts that humans have prized throughout evolution — the organs — and carefully freeze-dry them raw before powdering and filling them into pure bovine gelatine capsules. That’s it. This minimal processing keeps the organs as close to their natural state as possible, preserving their wealth of beneficial nutrients and enzymes.

Finally, we third-party lab test all our powders to ensure they’re completely free from heavy metals and harmful bacteria. The result is a truly natural health product: rich in beneficial nutrients, with no fillers, bulking agents, or anything unnecessary.

Why Organ Meat?

Eating organ meat has gained a lot of traction on the internet over the last couple of years… but it doesn't mean you need to be gorging on raw liver to reap the benefits. When you filter out the social media noise and concentrate on the pure facts, eating a nose-to-tail diet makes a lot of sense.

 

Here's why...

 

1) Nutrient density

No other food source packs nearly the same punch as organs. Beef liver alone is loaded with essential nutrients, including; Vitamin A, Iron, B12, and Choline. That’s why we believe everyone should consume this natural multivitamin as a bare minimum. 

 

2) Bioavailability

Animal products are proven to have an unparalleled absorption rate when compared to plants or synthetic multivitamins. No more money ending up in the toilet (literally). 

 

3) Waste Reduction

Eating nose-to-tail makes a lot of sense from a food sustainability standpoint. The reality of the modern food system is that we mainly consume muscle meats and all those nutritious organs go to waste. Like humans for 99.9% of our existence on this planet, we should savour every bit of the animal, which means more nourishment, while reducing food waste. Simply put, each cow gives us more bang for our buck when we tap into their treasure trove of nutrient-dense organs and bones – not just the ribeyes and sirloins.

 

4) Rare Nutrients

Many unique, health-promoting biological compounds are found very rarely in food generally but are abundant in certain organs. Such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) found in brain, and CoQ10 in heart.

 

5) Better For The Planet

Assuming you’re sourcing grass-fed organs from farms that use regenerative agriculture practices (like we do at APE)... then you are directly helping to heal the earth and build a sustainable future – not to mention supporting small scale farmers! 

Quality

We’re huge proponents of traditional farming methods that work in alignment with nature. That’s why we only partner with farms where cattle are grass-fed and regeneratively raised. This means that they don’t use any chemical inputs (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc) or hormones to speed up growth. The farmers also really care about their animals so only use antibiotics when an animal’s life is threatened, unlike in factory farming, where these need to be routinely used just to keep animals alive. Also farming this way, utilising methods such as rotational grazing, is not only the best for animal welfare, but has been shown to; increase soil health, wildlife biodiversity, sequester more carbon into the soil than it gives off, improve water holding capacity (preventing flooding) and support smaller scale family runs farms. 

 

How They’re Made

We use the highest quality organs from regenerative farms, freeze-dry them raw, then powder and fill them into a bovine gelatine capsules. That’s it, we minimally process to keep the organs as close to their natural state as possible to maintain the beneficial nutrients within them. There’s no fillers, caking agents or any other BS like you find in most multi-vitamins, just 100% organ meat. Once the capsules are made we send them off for third party testing by an independent laboratory to ensure quality and no contamination with bacteria or heavy metals. 

 

A question we often get asked is ‘do we need supplements?’

There’s two answers to this: 

1. In an ideal world no, but we live in a far from ideal world. 

2. Not the ones we can’t actually absorb and utilise so just end up being expensive urine! 

 

Why we need supplements in the modern world… 

We get asked this all the time and think it’s a very valid question… ⁣If we’re eating a real food diet then shouldn’t we be getting all the micronutrients we need from that? ⁣

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Although this may well have been the case for our great grandparents, the unfortunate fact is that the modern world is making it harder day by day for the following reasons: 

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Soil Health // the use of chemicals has led to the destruction of the top soils micro-organisms. If you’re not eating organic fruit and vegetables that come from a proper farm that cares for it’s soil then the likelihood is that the micronutrients that you expect to be in that food aren’t all going to be there. ⁣

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The Gut Microbiome // if you’re experiencing any gut issues or symptoms of gut inflammation like; unexplained brain fog, dry eyes or multiple allergies and food sensitivities, then you’re probably not effectively absorbing all the nutrients that you’re eating. ⁣

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Environmental Toxins // we are exposed to car fumes, pesticides, heavy metals and chemicals in perfume, cleaning products and ‘air freshener’ all the time in the 21st century. These toxins can build up in our bodies and push vital nutrients out. ⁣

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Stress // when the body is under stress, we excrete key micronutrients such as magnesium, which paradoxically we need in abundance during this time as it helps combat stress. ⁣

Therefore even when you’re eating a whole food diet, you need to be ensuring you’re including really dense sources of micronutrients such as organ meat from grass-fed and regenerative farms to make up for the realities of the modern world. 

 

Don’t waste your money on supplements that don’t work… 

Nature and the human body (being an intrinsic part of nature) are extremely intelligent when left to their own devices. ⁣The Earth’s soil naturally contains all the nutrients human beings require to function optimally. ⁣These nutrients are passed into plants, which are then eaten by humans or animals (which in turn are eaten by humans).⁣ This natural cycle allows the nutrition to pass from the soil into our bodies. ⁣Unfortunately, the majority of modern farming (heavily encouraged by agrochemical companies like Monsanto), instead of regenerating the soil like traditional farming, actually degrades it through the use of chemical inputs. ⁣This has led to a situation where the nutrition in the soil has been massively reduced, which has a knock on effect up the chain. ⁣The current reality is that the majority of people are walking around with multiple nutrient deficiencies and they don’t even realise it. ⁣In response to this, health food and supplement companies have emerged in an attempt to fill the nutritional void. ⁣However, a lot of these companies lack a fundamental understanding when it comes to nutrition, its relationship with nature and by extension the human body. 

 

⁣One example of this, is that nutrients often work in tandem to have beneficial effects on our body: ⁣

 

-Let’s say you hear that copper prevents sagging skin (which it does) so you head down to your local supplement store to buy some. However, what you didn’t realise was that copper needs selenium to be activated and copper and zinc compete for the same absorption sites. Therefore taking a copper supplement in isolation (without getting adequate zinc / selenium from your diet) won’t help your sagging skin and may result in copper overload / zinc deficiency. On the other hand is you opt for a real food (or real food supplement) like oysters, this contains copper, zinc and selenium. Therefore will prevent sagging skin whilst also keeping the nutrient ratios within your body in balance. ⁣

- What about getting enough calcium for strong bones? Well you actually need both calcium and phosphorous in the right ratio of (2:1) for strong bones. Taking a calcium supplement in isolation will actually reduce levels of phosphorous in the body, which can actually weaken bones. Whereas getting your calcium through real food like raw grass-fed dairy or through a real food supplement like our Whole Bone Matrix provides calcium and phosphorous in this ideal ratio thus supporting strong bones.⁣

 

The second example is that synthetic supplement companies often knowingly (because they’re cheaper) or unknowingly (due to a lack of nutritional understanding) use the wrong form of nutrients:

 

Take for instance, Vitamin B12 comes in different forms, including; Methylcobalamin and Cyanocobalamin. Methylcobalamin is the version naturally found in animal foods (especially Beef Liver and Oysters) and is the most absorbable form. However supplement companies will often not use this version and use the cheaper synthetic version Cyanocobalamin instead, which is less bioavailable.  

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As human beings we often try to outsmart nature in an attempt to make it better. However, in our opinion, nature is infinitely intelligent and we’re much better off trying to align with it. That’s why is you want to flood your body with absorbable micronutrients to function optimally, genuine superfoods like Beef Organs and Oysters are the way to go. 

 

Why Animal Foods Are A Better Source of Nutrients 

 

As you can see from the table, Beef Liver (as an example of organ meat in general) is a way denser source of micronutrients when compared to blueberries and kale, which are considered by many to be ‘superfoods’. This difference becomes even greater when you consider bioavailability. Bioavailability refers to the amount of nutrients within a food the body can actually use, and animal foods like liver contain the most bioavailable forms of nutrients. Therefore although some plant foods may look like they have a lot of nutrients on paper, you can’t always actually absorb these that well and it’s a safer bet to get your nutrients from animal foods. 

 

Let’s take Vitamin A as an example. ⁣

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Beef liver has 9,363ug of Vitamin A per 100g, whereas carrots, which are a great plant source of Vitamin A on paper have 825ug. ⁣

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This isn’t a like for like comparison because the Vit A in beef liver is in the form of Retinol, which can easily be utilised by the body. Whereas the Vit A in carrots is in the form of Beta-Carotene, which needs to be converted to retinol within the body before it can be used. ⁣

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The bioavailability of retinol is 80%, meaning that if you consume 100g of beef liver, you’ll obtain around 7,490ug of Vit A. The bioavailability of beta-carotene ranges between 5-65% depending on the individual. If you’re in the upper range at 65%, the amount of Vit A you’ll get into your system from 100g of carrots is roughly 536ug. At the lower range of 5% it will be 41ug. ⁣

 

The same is true for lots of other nutrients, for example; Heme-Iron and Vitamin K2, which are found in animal foods are much more absorbable than non Heme-Iron and Vitamin K1 that are present in plant foods. 

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Some factors that may effect your ability to convert the types of nutrients found in plants to the actual usable version within the body include: ⁣

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- Anti-nutrients such as; phytic acid, lectins and oxalates… these compounds can lower our ability to absorb certain minerals like non-heme iron and magnesium. 

- Genetic variations, for example having the BC01 gene (found in 45% of males and 55% of females), which completely inhibits any conversion of Beta-Carotene to Retinol. ⁣

- Gut issues, as the conversion takes place within the mucosa of the small intestine. ⁣

- Riboflavin, niacin, iron and zinc deficiencies (all often naturally lacking on a plant based diet and required for the conversion of Beta-Carotene to Retinol). ⁣

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Vitamin A is essential for a variety of bodily functions, including; vision, repairing the gut lining, reproduction, immune system response, amongst others. ⁣

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The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) For Vit A is 900ug. However, it’s important to understand the the RDA is the minimum required before deficiency, disease and disfunction. It is not based on being optimal. For example the Vit C recommendation is set at the level required to mitigate scurvy and is far from what’s required to optimally restore immune function. ⁣

 

If you want to learn more about which nutrients are harder to get from plant foods and why, we’ve written a really in-depth article on it here: https://apenutrition.co.uk/blogs/blog/how-do-i-replenish-my-body-after-being-vegan-vegetarian