LIVER PILLS

Please help me settle something. My friend is stuck in the eighties and still tries to convince me that you should take liver pills at bedtime because they digest slowly and your body can feed on the protein overnight. I think he is an idiot and that even if the protein quality weren’t shit, the grams of protein he would get from 6 to eight pills would have no bearing. He says the protein quality is quite good and this is enough to get you through the night. Who is nuts?

There’s an old saying, “let the fool continue in his follies, so that he may become wise.” Anyhow, you’re right, but don’t forget the power of the ‘placebo effect’. If your friend LIKES taking liver tablets, and BELIEVES that it helps him, then more power to him!

Hi Jerry,

The problem with liver pills is not their protein quality, which is good; they contain all the essential amino acids to form a complete protein. The problem is that they contain very little liver and lots of binders! Yeah, he’s paying through the nose mostly for the binders. He’d have to take handfuls and handfuls of pills to get any benefit from it at all. Tell him that he’d do better with dessicated liver, even though it tastes really bad.

Liver pills arent so bad but by taking 6 pills he could get the same amount of protein as in small slice of turkey. Certainly not enough to provide enough protein to last a long overnight fast.