Will Eating Beef Liver Cure My Acne? Liver + Vitamin A for Acne Unpacked...
Liver supplements are doing the rounds at the moment as the latest functional food hack, but does anyone actually know why they are taking them?
Does liver do anything to help acne?
Is liver worth the hype and the freeze dried price tag?
Let’s explore 👇🏼
Beef liver is one of nature’s most potent sources of vitamin A, also known as retinol. Retinol is a popular ingredient in topical skin care products for acne because it:
supports healthy skin cell turnover (the renewal of the skin’s layers)
helps to regulate keratin production (over production of keratin protein plays a role in pimple formation)
helps to regulate sebum flow (thicker and more copious skin oil creates food and habitat for bacteria and fungi on the skin)
promotes healthy mucous membranes (a type of tissue found in the skin)
plus more in the anti-aging skin care realm
Did you know that consuming vitamin A internally provides many of these same benefits for your skin?
So why not allow vitamin A to work its magic for your skin from the inside out!?
Aside from the above (which already make a pretty strong case for liver consumption) vitamin A can help to resolve other key drivers in acne, like gut inflammation, slow wound healing, a compromised immune system, a sluggish thyroid and altered hormone metabolism.
The Gut-Skin link 👇🏼
If your skin is angry, red, inflamed, painful and swollen, there are likely to be other tissues in your body that are also inflamed. Namely, the mucous membranes and tissues that line your gut. There is a direct link between the health and function of your gut and your skin! [Read more about gut related acne here]
Your gut lining is more like a mucousy gel of cells than an impenetrable fortress wall
Gut inflammation and vitamin A
The more red and inflamed that your skin is, the more likely that you are also experiencing gut inflammation. Vitamin A helps to soothe and repair inflamed gut membranes and support the healing of leaky gut.
Is your skin prone to redness even in areas where you are not breaking out? Is there a red inflamed danger zone in the centimetre of skin around each pimple or acne lesion? This is a sign of increased gut inflammation.
You may have heard of the gut barrier. You may have heard of the skin barrier! You may not know that their structure and function is really quite similar and requires a lot of the same nutrients to function well.
A leaky gut barrier often correlates with a leaky skin barrier. A leaky skin barrier is prone to water loss, dehydration, excess sebum production (because your skin is trying to protect you) inflammation and vulnerability to microbial overgrowth.
Vitamin A helps skin cells (and gut cells) to function at their best and create an efficient barrier, protecting the layers of tissue beneath the skin.
Wound healing and vitamin A
Acne lesions (especially when broken open by picking or pus) are open wounds on the skin! The skin barrier is broken open and vulnerable to the external environment which likely contains pollutants, dirt, bacteria, fungi and other skin saboteurs. A slow wound healing response is common in acne. Vitamin A is a crucial vitamin for skin immunity and barrier repair.
Vitamin A helps to speed up skin repair and mediate inflammation. Inflammation is needed for an appropriate healing response in the skin, but when the cycle is unresolved, acne and scarring takes a lot longer to heal and fade!
Insufficient vitamin A can lead to sluggish skin cell turnover and repair - not what we want when breakouts are hanging around waiting to be healed! Vitamin A is also critical vitamin for immune system regulation - pretty important when it comes to recognising infection, managing inflammation, repairing cells and keeping the skin cells functioning as they should.
But wait… isn’t vitamin A toxic?
If you’re a mum or currently pregnant, you have probably been warned against vitamin A because of it’s toxicity in high amounts and the risk of birth defects. This is mainly a problem in the case of vitamin A in atomic bomb dosages like that which is found in isotretinoin (roaccutane). Most roaccutane prescriptions also come hand in hand with a prescription for the pill or other contraceptive, as taking such a high dose of vitamin A in pregnancy can be devastating to the foetus. Roaccutane is absolutely contraindicated in pregnancy.
In terms of of eating your vitamin A, up to 10 000IU of vitamin A (the equivalent of 3mg) is considered to be the safe upper limit for daily consumption of vitamin A (upper limits are usually conservative, with the lower limit being the absolute minimum required to sustain life, not necessarily thriving health)
“Clinically it requires about 1,000,000 IU retinol per day to produce the toxic effects of 1-2 mg/kg isotretinoin” - William F Danby, 2003.
Where to find vitamin A…
Vitamin A sources should not be confused with food sources of beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is a form of carotenoid antioxidant found in orange & yellow fruits and vegetables like carrots, papaya, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and squash. These foods are often referred to as being ‘rich in vitamin A’ however this is technically incorrect!
1 large egg contains about 270 IU of vitamin A <https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/vitamins/vitamin-A>
Beta-carotene is a precursor to vitamin A, meaning that it needs to be converted to vitamin A in the liver before it can be of any use to the skin or other organs. Pre-formed vitamin A (vitamin A in it’s ready-to-use form) is only found in animal foods like liver, eggs, dairy, fish and offal.
Vitamin A is stored in the liver and released for use.
What’s the difference between eating plant based and an omnivorous diet when it comes to vitamin A?
One of the nuances when it comes to meeting your nutritional needs on a plant-based diet is absorption. Humans absorb about 75-100% of retinol from those animal sources that I listed earlier, meaning you need a lot less of these animal products to meet your requirements for vitamin A and they are a lot easier for your body to absorb and utilise!
We can only absorb and use 10-30% of beta-carotene from those orange vegetables. This leaves more room for error - are you getting enough beta-carotene, are the sources high quality, do you have the enzymes and cofactors available for conversion etc etc.
Many nutrients are more bioavailable when consumed from animal products (like iron, vitamin B12, zinc and omega-3)
So we come back to beef liver…
A 70g serving of cooked beef liver contains about 20 000IU of vitamin meaning that even 70g a week in combination with your usual intake of eggs and orange vegetables is often enough.
Not so long ago, in our grandparent’s generation, liver and organs were a staple in the human diet. In tribal societies, hunters prized fresh liver above all else, and it was eaten first by the highest ranking members of the community. Wild animals will often also go for the liver of their prey above the choice muscle meats. Sorry to get gory but my point is that they probably aren’t fretting over getting too much vitamin A from their food.
Okay so you’re not about to hunt down a cow, and the thought of eating liver on it’s own makes you want to throw up… how to do it!?
You have options:
Purchase Freeze dried liver in capsule form
Make your own liver pate (plenty of recipes on the internet to play around with - start with chicken liver pate which is much milder than beef liver and work your way up to the beef flavour)
Or try this…
DIY Beef Liver Tablets
Buy a grass-fed (organic if possible) beef liver. Slice it up into about 1cm thick slices. Fry in ghee or butter until cooked through, a couple of minutes on each side. When you cut into it, it should not be bloody on the inside (a tiny bit of pink is okay). Allow the liver to cool and then use a sharp knife to chop liver into small tablet sized pieces. Place on a tray lined with baking paper and freeze. Each day take 3-4 tablet sized pieces of beef liver and swallow with food or water. Taking frozen with a mouthful of food (chew your food then pop the liver in your mouth to swallow) will help get it down if you struggle swallowing tablets or are worried about the taste.
Some people do this (frozen tablet) with raw liver, however cooking it does not change the nutrient profile too much & protects against any unwanted bacteria.
I hope you enjoyed this foray into vitamin A, acne and beef liver! I hope you learned something new and helpful. As always, get in touch on Instagram @clearskin.withlexie if you liked this blog and want to learn more about treating acne holistically.
Lexie xx