Mothering Forum banner

B vitamin challenge: Brewer's Yeast and Liver products

14K views 197 replies 51 participants last post by  mamameliaISback 
#1 ·
I wrote this post the other night about taking a lot of freeze dried liver for about three weeks. Anyone else in? My mom is in with brewer's yeast.

I used liver like this for depression but right now I just need some extra energy to meet deadlines.

Quote:
experiment

I've been trying to get you all on the liver regime (and I think the everyday approach should be fine firefaery) but some have asked on the other thread about desiccated liver and about other sources of B-vitamins.

I haven't taken desiccated liver before but just ordered Dr Ron's freeze-dried liver and am going to try a regimen. In the past I've tried high doses of brewer's yeast but didn't postpartum because I was concerned about the yeast.

My mom and I spoke last night at some length about her experiences with both desiccated liver and brewer's yeast and, apparently, she was schooled in them by Adelle Davis in the early 70s (not literally, just read the books and articles).

Mother Adelle apparently used brewer's yeast (BY) and desiccated liver(DL) to get her through stressful days in her life. She said they had an "anti-stress factor" -- a nutrient that had not yet been isolated. I wonder if there is anything on this. In any case, I now need to get all of her books and figure out where my mom read this. Basically, she would take high doses of one of these things to get her through a deadline or other stressful situation. She emphasized that you shouldn't use them that way in an on-going fashion because you would burn yourself out.

But in terms of handling depression a little better, having more patience, etc. it makes sense to at least try one of these supplements as a tool. The liver 3x week does something similar (and some of you should still do that), but for people who can't, the supplements could work.

The problem is the "how much" issue. These things are all going to affect us differently and if you find yourself cleaning your cupboards out at midnight, you've had too much. One thing Mother Adelle recommended was taking them early in the day. And since B-vitamins are better in multiple doses, it makes sense to take as many smaller doses as you can manage. I actually used BY to get through my dissertation revisions and kept tablets in my pocket and took a couple every hour until about 1 p.m.

So I am going to try Dr Ron's liver supplement. Freeze-dried is better than the desiccated liver. It's expensive but I'm off of pretty much everything at this point, so I can spare some money to try it. When it arrives I am going to take the equivalent of 2 oz liver a day and if I end up working on my book revisions until midnight, I'll say "thank you God, but I won't do it again." I'm going to spread out the capsules every hour or two from morning until about 1-2 p.m.

My reason for all of this is that I've got a whole lot of work to do and just lost nearly a week to a sick boy.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Nothing has ever made me feel as good as raw liver.... I went into a local health food store a while ago and saw a supplement called "stress complex"... it was almost identical to the constituents in liver... maybe thats why :p

I think liver is the most powerful food Period.
 
#4 ·
I'm in! I attribute liver to getting me out of the slump I had been in for a couple weeks, and will do it again.


Can you explain the Brewer's Yeast? What brand? Does it taste nasty? How do you (or your mom, Amanda) take it?
 
#6 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by caedmyn View Post
I missed the details on this...how often do I need to eat liver, and can it be chicken liver? I ate raw chicken liver (one at each meal) a couple of days a week for three weeks or so but didn't notice any difference in how I felt.
I've been posting around here encouraging people to try liver 3x/week. I thought I ate about 3 oz when I did it but now I'm thinking it may have been more like 6 oz. Sorry.
:

But that's really part of the experiment -- what does it do for you?

You can get Brewer's Yeast tablets which is the way I'd go, but I have no idea how much to take. As I said above, when I was finishing my dissertation, I took it about hourly in the first half of the day, but I don't remember how much. I'll try to get some advice from mom on this. She's doing BY because she has some. In grad school I used GNC's Brewer's Yeast and it helped. Maybe someone knows a better brand these days.

Cooked liver is fine.
 
#8 ·
I've had some liver in the freezer for a while...maybe 2 months? Can I still use it? If so, can I just eat a chunk raw? I'm not doing too well at the moment and cooking is just not happening. But, raw I could manage.

The BY I have tastes yucky, but I could try it again if it really impacts energy levels. I'm getting desperate on that front.

- Kittymom
 
#9 ·
Also, I have been taking a good B vitamin supplement in the evenings to help with l-tryptophan absorption. I wonder if more dietary B vitamins would really help.
 
#10 ·
Two months in the freezer shouldn't matter.

Any pastured animal is fine.

kittymom -- if you do it, part of what will be interesting to see is if you end up with even more energy even though you've been taking a B vitamin.

My mom says she's working up to 4 tbs of Brewer's YEast a day but warns about getting too hyped up from it -- don't take late in the day and if you end up with unnatural levels of energy and it starts to affect your sleep and such, bring it down a bit.
 
#11 ·
would frontier nutritional yeast work too? i do have some brewers yeast too, though its a couple years old.

my mom swore by BY and liver tablets because of adelle davis too. she took BY during her pregnancies, and said she could really feel the difference on the days she took it. i've never been able to find the tablets, just the powder which i find hard to take. and mixing it in milk like adelle davis suggests tastes really nasty. my mom suggests mixing it in pineapple juice.
 
#12 ·
If you have the frontier, use it and report back. It's all a big experiment anyway. The brewer's yeast I used years ago was in tablets and from GNC, so it's got to be around.
 
#13 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Gale Force View Post
If you have the frontier, use it and report back. It's all a big experiment anyway. The brewer's yeast I used years ago was in tablets and from GNC, so it's got to be around.

will do. hopefully this will motivate me to actually take it. i'm thinking of chugging it down in a morning cocktail, a tablespoon of yeast mixed with 1/4-1/2 cup juice.

btw, i just finished your book. it's wonderful! even for those without depression. i think it should be required reading for all pregnant women.
 
#14 ·
I am just beginning to research and modify my eating habits according to NT, so this question might be a no-brainer - apologies in advance


So, is there any way to get the benefits from liver without actually eating it? Like, in powdered or pill form? I'm not sure I could handle preparing and eating it - I have texture.....issues


Thanks so much - Suzy
 
#15 ·
Hmmm...Adelle Davis keeps coming back up in discussions I've been having recently. My mom had been reading Nina Planck's new book and she had mentioend Adelle. Apparently my mom had read at least one of Adelle's books back in the day. It's interesting to see "old" things come back up as "new" on our radars.

Ok....I'm headed off grocery shopping. I have some liver in the freezer as I had done one of Jessica Prentice's recipes where you added it ground to some meatballs. I'm going to use some of that up, but I'll obviously need to get some more.

So...we're talking 3x/wk. How long are we thinking and should we pick a community wide start date?
 
#16 ·
We should have a start date. I haven't gotten my goods yet, though. And Thanksgiving is next week. What about Monday after T-day? I will probably start sooner.

Suzy -- I'm going to take the freeze dried liver. I'm curious about it.

I've got to leave for a meeting in 32 minutes and haven't had a shower.
:
 
#17 ·
When I have done BY (or NY), I've mixed it in about 1 cup of o.j. and chugged it with a straw - that way I could bypass most taste buds.


If we do the BY, do we stop the B-complex? Or do both? What about supplemental zinc?
 
#19 ·
Anybody tried BY on popcorn? I'm sure that's an old standby...maybe it's not the greatest, but popped with EVO and sprinkled on with sea salt...nummy nummy! I know you couldn't do this every day, but it'd be nice for a change-up every now and then.
 
#20 ·
My midwife and her apprentice both told me about popping popcorn and adding BY and spirulina. I might have to try that (we pop ours in coconut oil and sprinkle sea salt on top ... might add a little extra with the spirulina and the BY.)
 
#23 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by RAF View Post
I am getting a whole, pastured beef liver today from our cow that is being butchered. I am planning on making liver sausage with it. Do you think eating liver sausage every day would count too? Or does it have to be raw?
Gale Force had said that cooked liver was ok as well...so I would assume that liver sausage would count. At least I think so as I was planning on using braunschweiger for part of mine.
 
#25 ·
I think we should probably try to use an unfortified BY or NY for this.

Anyway, I choked down 2 tbs. of by in yogurt, and sliced off 3 ounces of frozen liver and ate it raw and mostly frozen.

For this experiment, the liver is every day, not just 3 times/week, right?

- Kittymom
 
#26 ·
I may be in for this challenge, but I'm not sure I can handle the liver raw. I like it cooked just fine (just finished chicken livers & onions for lunch- my toddler went crazy for it
) so I suppose that might be a compromise I can do.

I've taken Emergen-C on a somewhat regular basis and the b-vitamins always pep me up. They are like magic I swear, but I'm trying not to take any "supplements" besides CLO and sticking to whole foods instead. Besides that, I started feeling kinda yucky after taking Emergen-C daily for a few weeks and then felt fine when I stopped.

Should I worry about taking CLO daily and eating liver regularly? I mean, because of the Vitamin content of both. I know there is such controversy, but between the 2 that would be ALOT of Vit A. Maybe I should do the Brewer's yeast instead?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top