Liver gets the name "nature's multivitamin" for a good reason, it is genuinely one of the most nutrient-dense foods that this planet has to offer. All of the past issues have promoted the raw diet without talking about any of the risks involved. This one's not sourced from Aajonus, this is independent research i decided to do after someone informed me about this (this post wouldn't exist without them.)
Purines and Gout
Beef liver is one of the highest purine foods out there, up to 220mg per 100g, about 3x4x higher than muscle meat. Purines break down into uric acid, and excess uric acid is what forms the joint crystals behind gout attacks. The Cleveland Clinic and National Kidney Foundation both flag liver specifically for anyone managing gout risk.
Copper buildup
A single 100g serving of liver contains around 12mg of copper which is already 20% above the DV an adult human should consume. The problem is your body has no efficient way to excrete extra copper, so it just accumulates, mostly in the liver itself where it drives oxidative stress and can damage liver cells over time.
Vitamin A
This one is the one most people have heard of. Raw liver is LOADED with preformed vitamin A, thousands of micrograms per 100 g. Chronic toxicity kick in around 7,500-15,000 mcg/day sustained over months. One serving a week isin't close to that, eating it daily in real portions, could get there.
Copper and vitamin A aren't just risks
Worth pausing on before the cholesterol section: both of these are nutrients your body actually needs, not just things to manage down. Copper is required for iron metabolism, so your body can actually use the iron you eat, plus collagen and connective tissue formation, nervous system function, and it's a building block of some of your own body's antioxidant enzymes. Vitamin A is essential for vision, especially low-light vision, immune function, skin and epithelial cell health, and normal cell growth. Deficiency in either one causes real problems too. Copper deficiency is linked to anemia and weaker bones, and vitamin A deficiency is one of the leading causes of preventable blindness worldwide. Everything above is about excess, not about these nutrients being something to avoid.
Cholesterol
Liver is high in cholesterol, no getting around that. But current research shows that healthy people get most of their cholesterol from saturated fat intake, not dietary cholesterol. Liver being surprisingly low in saturated fat.
Takeaway
In my opinion, liver is only optimal under responsible consumption, when it is eaten responsibly it can be a great way of getting essential nutrients and minerals your body needs for development, growth, and wellbeing.
Purine and gout guidance from Cleveland Clinic and the National Kidney Foundation. Copper toxicity mechanism from StatPearls/NCBI and PubMed. Vitamin A thresholds from StatPearls/NCBI. Cholesterol research from NCBI and the American Heart Association. None of this is sourced to Vonderplanitz or aajonus.net, it's independent nutrition research.