A Healthy Thyroid with Liver and Vegetable Stir-Fry over Rice

The more I learn about the human body, the more awe and wonder I have.  And we depend on a healthy relationship with the natural world around us.  The minerals are right there, on the periodic table of elements, and they are essential for life!

I recently watched a series of lectures by Rhonda Nelson, PhD about thyroid health and I learned so much.  The lectures are summarized in this article, but one of the main take-aways was ensuring that you have enough iodine in your diet for healthy thyroid function.

Of course, it’s not just iodine, we also need selenium, iron, zinc, B6, B2, vitamin A… but iodine is the big one.  While seafoods are your best bet, this is an organ meat blog (and I don’t have any fresh fish livers on hand), so stick with me here.  We’ll adapt Liver and Vegetable Stir-Fry over Rice to give us a rich serving of the minerals we need for a healthy thyroid.  

Your healthy thyroid depends on 4 (or 92) times the minerals

Marinating the liver strips

Chances are, this is a good recipe for you!  Yes, you!

Weston A Price found that the natives peoples he visited had four times the minerals in their diets than folks did in the 1930s. And the 1930s were still a time of relative plenty, as far as minerals were concerned!  (Four times the minerals, and 10 times the fat-soluble vitamins!)

Specifically though, American consumption of iodine has been dropping for a couple of decades.  Even if you meet the RDA of 150 micrograms per day, the Japanese are safely consuming an average of 13.8 milligrams (or 13,800 micrograms) per day, suggesting that our recommendations are woefully inadequate.

Moreover, through the 1800s up to the start of thyroidectomies in the 1970s, physicians safely treated hyper- and hypo-thyroid conditions with very large doses of iodine.  Like upwards of 30 milligrams, 3 times per day, while monitoring thyroid markers.  Slightly higher than the RDA. So a little more certainly won’t hurt us.

Anyway, aside from that, this recipe tastes pretty good, too – if I do say so myself.

Finding Iodine in our Diet

These mineral-rich veggies are probably lacking in iodine

So where to find this iodine? Sea plants and animals are the highest source of iodine, and also vegetables from coastal areas where soil is rich in iodine.

Nope, not so much here in the Midwest.

In our home, we like to snack on salmon lax and sardines, and eat fish on Fridays. But we also smartly incorporate sea vegetables where we can.

Thoughts on using seaweed to increase iodine intake

Seaweeds really do offer a diversity of benefits.  Ryan Drum PhD explains that seaweeds contain all the minerals needed for life.  And that adequate minerals are essential to our body functioning well. Some seaweeds also have A, B and C vitamins. (But don’t fear – not vitamin H, which will make you grow horns! Chapter 27 in case you missed it.)

Note that most seaweeds in grocery stores and markets have been processed with pesticides and fungicides though.  And some concern about radioactive material from Fukushima in 2011 will continue to exist. Ask questions and consider purchasing from individuals that gather by hand, or well-reputed brands like Eden or Maine Coast Sea Vegetables.

Though the kids love making sushi at home, I don’t want to get carried away with seaweeds.  It’s a traditional food, but they contain long-chain complex sugars which can be hard to digest.  Also, balancing your consumption of different varieties seems to be it’s own game requiring a bit of research. (Nelson recommends bladderwrack, if you can get it.)

Instead, I mostly use it for cooking legumes or grains and when making stocks/broths.  I often add a stick of wakame or kombu to any of these dishes, let the minerals seep out into my food, and then nibble or toss the seaweed itself with the spent bones.  In fact, grains and legumes are often a good excuse for incorporating more fat (yum), more broth (with important amino acids) as well as more minerals (via the broth and seaweed) into our food.

I do use seaweed flakes as a garnish on salads, popcorn, or other savory dishes – like Liver and Veg Stir-Fry!

Liver and Vegetable Stir-Fry over Rice

One batch of stir-fried liver strips

I’ve adapted this recipe from the idea I found in Innards and Variety Meats. The strong flavors in the marinade of this recipe work well with beef liver, though any liver could be used.  Rest assured, those extra nutrients I mentioned above for a healthy thyroid – selenium, iron, zinc, B6, B2, vitamin A – are all found in liver!

Serve with a hearty dose of mineral-rich vegetables. As well as rice cooked with broth and or seaweed to increase iodine content.  Finally, add a dash of seaweed flakes to garnish.

Cheers to your good health!

Liver and Vegetable Stir-Fry with Rice

March 12, 2018

by Janine Farzin

Category Liver

Persons

5

Ingredients

For the liver

• 1 lb beef, lamb or goat liver, cut into 1/2" strips
• 1 T gluten-free tamari or soy sauce
• 2 T dry sherry
• 1 T toasted sesame oil
• 2 T lard

For the rice

• 1/4 c lard
• 2 c rice
• 4 c broth
• 1 strip of kombu or wakame seaweed

For the stir-fry

• 2 T lard
• 4 stalks celery, sliced vertically, then cut into 1" diagonal slices
• 1 14 oz can bamboo shoots
• 5 oz sugar snap peas or snow peas, ends trimmed, halved diagonally
• 10 oz mushrooms, cut in half, then sliced
• salt
• 1/2 c broth

For the garnish

• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1/4 c chopped cilantro
• seaweed flakes

Instructions

1. Prepare livers by slicing into strips and removing any (easily removable) skin membrane or tubes running through. Combine tamari sauce, sherry and sesame oil in a bowl. Add livers and let marinate for about 30 minutes, or until you've finished preparing rest of meal and are ready to stir-fry.
2. Start rice. Measure and rinse rice until water runs clear. Heat lard in pan, add rice and stir. Add seaweed strip and broth to rice. Bring to a boil, set heat to low, cover and simmer until rice is cooked. This could take about 20-40 minutes depending on your lowest simmer and if you are using brown or white rice. Look for air vents coming up and creating little holes or pockets on the top of the rice.
3. Prepare vegetables for stir fry. Heat lard in a pan on medium-high heat until hot. Add celery, bamboo shoots, snap peas, and mushrooms. Season with salt and cook for a couple of minutes. Add broth, cover pan and continue to cook for another minute or so. Do not overcook. Remove vegetables to a (heated) bowl or keep warm in a low temperature oven.
4. Return pan to medium-high heat, add remaining 2 T lard for the livers. Drain marinade from livers and add them to pan. Cook for just a minute or two before flipping over and cooking for another minute on the second side.
5. Serve liver on top of vegetables and hot rice. Add green onions, cilantro and seaweed flakes to garnish.

Tags

gluten-free,

iodine,

minerals,

Rhonda Nelson,

Ryan Drum,

thyroid health

https://offallygoodcooking.com/healthy-thyroid-liver-vegetable-stir-fry/