Thoraiya DyerEating Liver and Kidney: Would you eat a sink strainer or the air filter from your car?
June 23rd 2008 02:30
Bricklayers eat steak and kidney pie. Lamb’s fry (liver) is listed as a traditional Australian recipe by Women’s Weekly.
In third world countries, people have to eat offal because they have no choice.
But would you voluntarily eat a sink strainer or the air filter from your car?
Everyone knows that your liver and kidneys are important. You die without them, right? But what do they actually do? Kidneys make urine. Don’t they? And maybe you’ve heard that your liver processes alcohol - and that you’re kicking it in the face every time you binge drink.
Anything else?
Well, from watching “Saving Private Ryan,” it seems like getting shot in the liver makes you bleed to death. Oh, and from watching Stephen Seagal (yergh) films, it seems like getting Secret Ninja Knife Hand to the kidneys really, really hurts.
Anything else?
*crickets chirping*
Well, here’s a pretty picture from Mama’s Health (you may recall something similar from your Happy, Healthy Harold days):
And let’s pay a short visit to Pacific Health ( Really Long Link ):
“The liver receives blood directly from the stomach, pancreas and intestines via the portal vein. The liver with its dazzling intricate labyrinth of special cells, veins and ducts receive this nutrient rich blood, and filters out the nutrients taking them into its own cells to be processed.
The liver also receives freshly oxygenated blood via a different artery, from which it takes its oxygen supply. It filters out wastes and other poisons and converts them into substances which can be safely carried out of the body. The liver filters more than a quart of blood each minute.”
That’s pretty cool. Two different blood supplies get piped into the liver. One pipe contains normal, oxygenated blood – that’s to keep the liver alive and happy.
The other pipe brings blood from the rest of the digestive system. In other words, when you eat or drink something, it gets broken down into teeny tiny pieces, it passes through the intestine into the bloodstream, and it goes straight to the liver.
The liver is a massive Maori bouncer standing duty at the entrance to the nightclub of your body. If you’re a sugar or an amino acid, you can go inside. If you’re a toxin that can be converted into something harmless, you get inside only after your face has been rearranged.
If you’re a toxin that CAN’T be converted into something else, the liver can’t always send you back into the intestine via the bile duct. It sometimes has to put you in lock-up. Permanent storage.
What sorts of toxins get stored inside the liver?
Heavy metals, such as copper, mercury ( Really Long Link ), cadmium and arsenic (yay)!
Plant toxins. This study ( Really Long Link ) hypothesised that one reason why grazing animals choose to graze a wide variety of different plants is so that they don’t get too much of any one specific toxin from any one specific type of plant.
Any substance which is stored in fat is also stored in the liver, since the liver is a generous fat storage site. Concentrating dangerous substances in the fat means a lower concentration in the rest of the body, but what is helpful for the sheep or cow is not helpful to the human who eats fat-rich tissues.
Substances stored in fat include fat soluble vitamins such as A and D. While there are liver advocates who may recommend liver as a source of vitamins, there’s no way of knowing what sort of doses you are getting.
Vitamins A and D ( Really Long Link ) are deadly in high doses ( Really Long Link ).
Pesticides like diazinon ( Really Long Link ) heptachlor, PCBs and DDT ( Really Long Link ) are also stored in fat.
And even little lambs get treated for lice and ticks with pesticides.
Hence, you won’t ever catch me eating liver.
What about kidneys?
Well, if liver is the equivalent of a filthy air filter, covered in squashed bugs and dirt, then kidneys are the sink strainers clogged with last night's noodles.
KTDA ( Really Long Link ) tells us this:
“The kidneys are essential organs in the body which function to remove water and waste products. They also produce important hormones such as erythropoietin, Vitamin D, and renin.
The kidney receives about 20 percent of the blood coming from the heart each time it beats. The rate of blood flow through both kidneys is approximately 1.2 liters per minute.
The basic functioning unit of the kidney is called the nephron. The kidneys together comprise greater than 2 million nephrons, and each is capable of forming urine.
The nephron’s function is to clean the blood of unwanted substances as it flows past…The normally functioning kidney controls the concentration of body fluids. It accomplishes this by excreting excessive amounts of water in the urine if body fluids are too dilute or by excreting excessive solutes when body fluids are too concentrated.
Despite large intakes of salt and water, almost no change in blood volume or concentration occurs.
Another important function is acid-base balance. The body maintains a constant pH via several buffering mechanisms. The kidney plays a major role in this by the net excretion of hydrogen ions when the blood is too acidic and the net excretion of bicarbonate ions when the blood is too alkaline.”
Just like the liver, the kidneys are pretty cool.
But also like the liver, the kidneys are a toxic waste dump.
It’s difficult to find any sites on the web that explain this, choked as it is with airy fairy, made-up detox products that swamp the legitimate medical sites and make my blood boil. So I’ll resort, here, to a book extract from “Basics of Toxicology” by Chris Kent (pub 1998 by Wiley and Sons):
“Similarly to the liver, unbound metals like cadmium and mercury can be reabsorbed by active transport mechanisms in the cells of the proximal convoluted tubule. Once in the cell they bind to metallothionine resulting in concentration of these toxicants in the kidneys…Trimethylpentane, which is present in gasoline, is … (also) reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubule.”
Goodie!
Enjoy those steak and kidney pies, gentlemen. I am going to go without. But I’ll think of you, the next time I’m cleaning my sink.
In third world countries, people have to eat offal because they have no choice.
But would you voluntarily eat a sink strainer or the air filter from your car?
Everyone knows that your liver and kidneys are important. You die without them, right? But what do they actually do? Kidneys make urine. Don’t they? And maybe you’ve heard that your liver processes alcohol - and that you’re kicking it in the face every time you binge drink.
Anything else?
Well, from watching “Saving Private Ryan,” it seems like getting shot in the liver makes you bleed to death. Oh, and from watching Stephen Seagal (yergh) films, it seems like getting Secret Ninja Knife Hand to the kidneys really, really hurts.
Anything else?
*crickets chirping*
Well, here’s a pretty picture from Mama’s Health (you may recall something similar from your Happy, Healthy Harold days):
And let’s pay a short visit to Pacific Health ( Really Long Link ):
“The liver receives blood directly from the stomach, pancreas and intestines via the portal vein. The liver with its dazzling intricate labyrinth of special cells, veins and ducts receive this nutrient rich blood, and filters out the nutrients taking them into its own cells to be processed.
The liver also receives freshly oxygenated blood via a different artery, from which it takes its oxygen supply. It filters out wastes and other poisons and converts them into substances which can be safely carried out of the body. The liver filters more than a quart of blood each minute.”
That’s pretty cool. Two different blood supplies get piped into the liver. One pipe contains normal, oxygenated blood – that’s to keep the liver alive and happy.
The other pipe brings blood from the rest of the digestive system. In other words, when you eat or drink something, it gets broken down into teeny tiny pieces, it passes through the intestine into the bloodstream, and it goes straight to the liver.
The liver is a massive Maori bouncer standing duty at the entrance to the nightclub of your body. If you’re a sugar or an amino acid, you can go inside. If you’re a toxin that can be converted into something harmless, you get inside only after your face has been rearranged.
If you’re a toxin that CAN’T be converted into something else, the liver can’t always send you back into the intestine via the bile duct. It sometimes has to put you in lock-up. Permanent storage.
What sorts of toxins get stored inside the liver?
Heavy metals, such as copper, mercury ( Really Long Link ), cadmium and arsenic (yay)!
Plant toxins. This study ( Really Long Link ) hypothesised that one reason why grazing animals choose to graze a wide variety of different plants is so that they don’t get too much of any one specific toxin from any one specific type of plant.
Any substance which is stored in fat is also stored in the liver, since the liver is a generous fat storage site. Concentrating dangerous substances in the fat means a lower concentration in the rest of the body, but what is helpful for the sheep or cow is not helpful to the human who eats fat-rich tissues.
Substances stored in fat include fat soluble vitamins such as A and D. While there are liver advocates who may recommend liver as a source of vitamins, there’s no way of knowing what sort of doses you are getting.
Vitamins A and D ( Really Long Link ) are deadly in high doses ( Really Long Link ).
Pesticides like diazinon ( Really Long Link ) heptachlor, PCBs and DDT ( Really Long Link ) are also stored in fat.
And even little lambs get treated for lice and ticks with pesticides.
Hence, you won’t ever catch me eating liver.
What about kidneys?
Well, if liver is the equivalent of a filthy air filter, covered in squashed bugs and dirt, then kidneys are the sink strainers clogged with last night's noodles.
KTDA ( Really Long Link ) tells us this:
“The kidneys are essential organs in the body which function to remove water and waste products. They also produce important hormones such as erythropoietin, Vitamin D, and renin.
The kidney receives about 20 percent of the blood coming from the heart each time it beats. The rate of blood flow through both kidneys is approximately 1.2 liters per minute.
The basic functioning unit of the kidney is called the nephron. The kidneys together comprise greater than 2 million nephrons, and each is capable of forming urine.
The nephron’s function is to clean the blood of unwanted substances as it flows past…The normally functioning kidney controls the concentration of body fluids. It accomplishes this by excreting excessive amounts of water in the urine if body fluids are too dilute or by excreting excessive solutes when body fluids are too concentrated.
Despite large intakes of salt and water, almost no change in blood volume or concentration occurs.
Another important function is acid-base balance. The body maintains a constant pH via several buffering mechanisms. The kidney plays a major role in this by the net excretion of hydrogen ions when the blood is too acidic and the net excretion of bicarbonate ions when the blood is too alkaline.”
Just like the liver, the kidneys are pretty cool.
But also like the liver, the kidneys are a toxic waste dump.
It’s difficult to find any sites on the web that explain this, choked as it is with airy fairy, made-up detox products that swamp the legitimate medical sites and make my blood boil. So I’ll resort, here, to a book extract from “Basics of Toxicology” by Chris Kent (pub 1998 by Wiley and Sons):
“Similarly to the liver, unbound metals like cadmium and mercury can be reabsorbed by active transport mechanisms in the cells of the proximal convoluted tubule. Once in the cell they bind to metallothionine resulting in concentration of these toxicants in the kidneys…Trimethylpentane, which is present in gasoline, is … (also) reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubule.”
Goodie!
Enjoy those steak and kidney pies, gentlemen. I am going to go without. But I’ll think of you, the next time I’m cleaning my sink.
| 106 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
Great research.
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
next week...brains?
then what abooot a nice post on HAGGIS???
tee hee..
Oh and while we are at it, did you know there is no pure water source left on earth, DDT has been found in the Antarctic!!!!
That mercury is now in all fish to some level, the older the fish, the more mercury it has, so be careful of swordfish, big tuna, whale (karma for Japan?) and even shark, or as fish shops call it, flake.
cheers
fog
Comment by Glen Atwell
Computer Game
If the concern is eating parts of the body with blood supply, I hope you're a vegetarian!
Kidney, liver brain and offal have formed part of the staple diet for many generations of meaningless lives.
Does factual information make it any worse or better for you?
As soon as we're born, we start dying, if revitalizing my dead hair cells and eating steak and kidney pie makes my life that little bit more enjoyable, charge me $12.95 and give me a table number.
I'm in.
Good post
Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World
Ruby: Yes, the Grossness Factor is never to be underestimated. I don't like eating fish which have been cooked whole, just because their baked-eyeballs-turned-to-jelly freak me out. Peeled lychees and rambutans have that same horrific texture. I wonder if there's a word for People Who Don't Eat Things That Remind Them Of Eyes??
Fog: Don't get me started on brains. My Mum thinks it's a good idea to feed them to babies. HASN'T ANYONE HEARD OF PRIONS?? Brain-eating is how Mad Cow Disease started!!! If zombies were real (and they ate brains), then it would only be a matter of time before they got CJD!
Really Long Link Resources/Resource Formats/Online Resources/ High School/D07612181A4E785B85256C CD0064857B
Ahem.
As for Haggis...well, there is only so much ranting I can do on the subject of offal. Kidney and liver are more common here than (eww) stomach.
DDT in Antarctica/Mercury in fish, now those are topics for Louie over at Climate Red, not for a smart-arsed blog about lies in advertising, but I agree, it is very, very sad.
Glen: It's not the blood supply that worries me, it's the poison storage!
I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but why should I take a chance by eating the parts of an animal that could contain toxins - or parasites, for that matter - when my society is filled with helpful butchers to seperate the muscle tissue from the rest, helpful taps that can be used to wash the potentially contaminated surface of the chosen cuts, and BBQs with which to grill the stuff so that any bacteria, protozoa, or parasite in the steak is Murdered By Boiling Alive?
Seems to me a sensible way to do things.
And don't be so gloomy about dying as soon as you are born! You don't start dying until you're past your peak of physical performance and biological function - somewhere between 20 and 35 years old.
Have a read on the fascinating topic of cellular senescence:
Really Long Link
Besides, I don't think you necessarily have to do risky things like eat offal (or spend money on products that don't live up to their claims, like hair revitalisers) to enjoy life.
Others are welcome to the Life's Short, Play Hard School....but some of us think "Play Hard" (ie. drink lots of alcohol, do no exercise, drive stupidly and have unprotected sex) is nowhere near as fun as "Play Soft" (ie. drink lots of iced tea with fruit floating in it, hike through rainforests trying to find tree kangaroos, snorkel with gentle flocks of colour-changing squids and have safe sex under the stars with lots of cushions)?
I'm going to need a lot of years of living to do all that I plan to do.
So I'm not going to shorten it by taking risks I don't have to take, and I'm certainly not going to buy Health Bars, Krill Extract, Sudoku, McEurope Burgers, Boob Eze, Love Calculator Subscriptions or Fat Gene Genetic Screens when I could be saving up for my next holiday in Tasmania!
Hmm, that was a long comment. This blog is probably bad for me. Gets me all angry about commercialism when I should be enjoying the afternoon with a grapefruit and a good book.
*goes to find a grapefruit and a spoon*
Comment by Anonymous