Too much liver pate? page

[Damiana]

I found some cans of delicious pork liver pate at my local ethnic store, however, it contains ~270% of RDA for Vitamin A per serving. Vitamin A, as we all know, is fat-soluble and can be toxic in high amounts. Will I die, or worse, get sick from toxicity if I eat one serving a day of this stuff?

[Paleobird]

I really think the whole Vit A "toxicity" thing is overblown. The way you could get into trouble is if you supplemented A heavily and then ate the pate' on top of that. It is just about impossible to overdose if you are getting it all the natural way. Your body would reject the idea first and make the pate' very unappetizing if you were reaching your upper limits.

[Forgotmylastusername]

Is it pasture raised? It could be kind of high in toxins. Iron overload and Vitamin a could be a possible problem also, especially if you're pregnant.

[Derpamix]

That's hardly excessive, especially if you're supplementing d3 as well

[Damiana]

Not pregnant and not supplementing D3 although I am a Californian and get plenty of sunshine.

[Derpamix]

Well, I wouldn't worry about it. You'll get harmless abdominal discomfort as a warning long before you reach toxicity status which is a far cry away from what's contained in liver pate. I've eaten multiple pounds of lamb liver before with no sides.

[Finnegans Wake]

As PB noted, unless you're overdoing supplemented vitamin A (or gorging on polar bear liver), it's rather unlikely that you'll suffer adverse affects.

As the Wiki page notes: Although hypervitaminosis A can occur when large amounts of liver (including cod liver oil and other fish oils) are regularly consumed, most cases of vitamin A toxicity result from an excess intake of vitamin A in the form of vitamin supplements.

If you begin to suffer from nausea and vomiting, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, and loss of muscular coordination, you may have overdone the pate. Otherwise, meh.

[RichMahogany]

If you begin to suffer from nausea and vomiting, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, and loss of muscular coordination, you may have overdone the pate.

In which case, please send me all your paté which I will safely dispose of on your behalf.

[Neckhammer]

Nah, the fear is overblown. Eat up. I get an absolute ton of fat soluble vitamins from my diet and really think its what gives me so much energy and vitality. I never get this sort of boost from your standard fare. A, D, K2....those are some powerhouses.

I'd recommend reading some of Chris Masterjohns stuff on the subject. Here is one newer post:

Masterjohn on relationships between Vitamin A D and K

I like his balanced approach. These three very much affect each other along with calcium and magnesium. Any analysis that doesn't look at the synergy of all these is lacking IMO.

[Paleobird]

Take-home from the above paper:
"Vitamins A and D are toxic when provided alone, but safe when provided together. " Like in real foods. Besides at the risk of a WWGD analogy, do you really think Grok would turn down seconds on wooly mammoth liver because he was thinking about vitamin A toxicity? No. He would have stuffed his face and then maybe not had any for a while and would have been just fine.

Bummer. I should tell you how toxic that pate' is and then I might get some. Now I'll just have to make my own.