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With the 2012 London Olympics just around the corner, the spotlight turns once again to the diet of the hundreds of elite athletes preparing to arrive in Europe to complete their training before the Summer Games begin.
The latest warning from the United Kingdom Anti-Doping Association is to avoid liver which can increase the odds of an athlete testing positive via urine test for the anabolic steroid clenbuterol.
Clenbuterol has caused grief for top athletes before. Â Alberto Contador blamed a steak dinner for his positive test during the 2010 Tour de France. Â This case is currently under appeal.
Olympic gold medalist weightlifter Tong Wen cited her love affair with pork chops as the reason when she tested positive for the same agent and was banned from the sport for two years. Â Clenbuterol is frequently added to steroid laced pig feed in China.
Clenbuterol Use in Animal Feed Illegal
Clenbuterol is indeed a problem in the conventional meat industry where it is illegally used in animal feed to increase the leanness and protein content of meat. Â People who consume meat from animals fed this steroid can experience headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations and gastic irritation. Â Some people need to be hospitalized after exposure.
Demand for this anabolic agent for use in animal feed is apparently quite widespread on the black market. Â Why else the formal warning for Olympians to avoid eating liver, which can concentrate the clenbuterol, prior to drug tested competition?
Not All Liver a Risk for Clenbuterol
What is curious is that the UK Anti-Doping Association did not distinguish between liver produced via Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) and liver from grassfed cattle and pastured poultry produced from small local farms.
Animals raised on their natural diets and maintained on pasture pose little to no risk for clenbuterol contamination.
Therefore, athletes can easily find healthy, grassfed liver from small local farms in the UK and surrounding European nations to obtain that special nutrient density only liver and other traditionally sacred foods can provide to prepare for their Olympic competition!
Few foods provide the same balance of fat soluble vitamins and minerals as liver and wise Olympians who know their history will be consuming it several times a week as they prepare for the 2012 Summer Games. Ancient Olympians ate a mostly meat based diet and it wasn’t lean meat either!
Midsguided Olympians will be following standard lowfat diet recommendations such as what coach Fabio Capello required of his seeded English football team prior to and during the 2010 World Cup. Â He foolishly banned his players from eating any butter, only to find his team quickly and shockingly booted from competition!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: Olympians Warned:  Don’t Eat Liver
Ariel
Just got some lovely grassfed liver for the first time! Going to eat it sometime this week.
I hope some olypians will be smart enough to eat some REAL grassfed liver to help them recover and prepare for the games!
Ariel
sorry… I ment olympians
Heba Saleh (@LifeinaPyramid) (@LifeinaPyramid)
Olympians Warned Not To Eat Liver (though not all liver is created equal) … Read to find out more: http://t.co/NVXcMQIV
amy
Hi Sarah,
Just wondering what your thoughts are on something I’ve heard…mom has told me my whole life to avoid eating liver as this is where many naturally occurring toxins are filtered in the body. Eating liver would expose me to these built up toxins and therefore it would be best to avoid. She was seeing a Native American doctor-like health advisor some years ago and that is where I believe she heard this. Just wondering if you’ve come across this argument before.
Thanks 🙂
Btw…loved your tutorial on taking my FCLO. Sooo much easier your way 🙂
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist
Yes, I’ve heard this argument and it is valid for conventional beef. For grassfed meats, though, toxins are not a concern so eat that liver and enjoy how fantastic and energetic you will feel 🙂
damaged justice
Amy, you may find this article by Mark Sisson helpful:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/does-the-liver-store-toxins/
Sara Jo Poff via Facebook
Very interesting!
Skye Daniels via Facebook
How sad. Not only tyhe drugs in CAFO liver, but the ignorance @ nutrient dense foods!
Diane Welch via Facebook
Hmmm, they shouldn’t, but we can? I think not! Maybe this will spur a pasture raised food movement? Let’s hope.
Jill Nienhiser (@farmfoodblog) (@farmfoodblog)
Olympians Warned Not To Eat Liver (via the Healthy Home Economist) http://t.co/trAXfXVC #realfood
Stanley Fishman
It is amazing how mainstream science and government organizations almost never make the crucial distinction between grassfed meat and factory meat raised with all kinds of chemicals.
Grassfed meat is the oldest food of humanity, laden with all kinds of valuable nutrients, while factory meat is an artificial creation that never existed before the twentieth century, and is very different in its composition. Yet the mainstreams acts as if factory meat, produced with many drugs and chemicals, fed an unnatural diet, and totally different in the nutrient composition of its fat and meat, is the same as real meat, grassfed meat.
This fine post shows yet another great reason to switch to grassfed and pastured meats.
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama
I ignored pretty much any research saying “meat is bad” for this reason. They don’t draw a distinction, so their “research” is useless.
Kelli C. (@pathsofnature)
Olympians Warned Not To Eat Liver http://t.co/iPT9hgYb
Mary Bloomer
Thanks for educating us on why so many athletes are testing positive for certain drugs. It always made me wonder why they’d take something knowing they’ll be tested for drug use – this explains it! Thanks, too for making the distinction between CAFO meats and grassfed beef – it’s sad that many athletes will now think they must deny themselves healthy life-giving foods like liver in fear of a positive test.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist
The smart Olympians will be finding the clean liver and eating plenty of it prior to the Summer Games!