Laura Schoenfeld: That depends on the brand, but I’m pretty sure most liver capsules, if you’re trying to make it like a quarter pound of liver per week, it ends up being about six to eight capsules per day. As far as duration is concerned, honestly, if somebody’s not going to ever eat liver, then there’s really no reason they shouldn’t be taking liver supplements indefinitely. Again, you want to pay attention to their vitamin D status and if there are any signs of vitamin A toxicity, but really for that small of a dose there shouldn’t be a problem. Now, the one thing about desiccated liver, you’re not going to be getting vitamin D from that. If you’re doing cod liver oil, like the extra-virgin cod liver oil by Rosita that Chris recommends to some people, that is going to have vitamin D in it. That might be an option as well if you’re trying to get some vitamin A and D together.
Honestly, I know that people like to be food based as much as possible, but for me, if I’m going to be trying to get any sort of health outcomes with D and A supplementation, I really like being able to control the amount that’s in the stuff that I’m recommending, so doing those drops and being very precise about what the dosage is makes me feel like we’re getting what the person needs as opposed to just making assumptions about how much is in a desiccated liver capsule. If somebody is eating liver regularly and out in the sun and their vitamin D levels are between 30 and 45 or something, 30 and 50, then maybe they don’t need to be supplementing at all, but the average person is not eating liver every week and getting out in the sun a lot, so it’s really up to you. It’s kind of like a use-at-your-own-discretion type of supplement. I think most people can benefit from looking into their A, D, and K2 intake. K2 supplements, I think most people can benefit from. I don’t know if there are a lot of people that would have any … unless they’re on some kind of anticlotting factor, most people, I think, can take vitamin K2 pretty safely. But if somebody is on warfarin or something, you want to be really careful about that.