Through an unscientific survey of friends, I have concluded that my entire generation uniformly hates liver. Yet our parents like it, and so did their parents.
Isn’t that strange?
“Maybe not so strange,” Tod posited. Liver’s full of iron, vitamins A & D, the entire panthoen of B, plus bits of elegantly named components that give us bright eyes and glossy coats.
Our parents and grandparents liked liver because their bodies craved that nutrition. That’s the same reason some people eat clay and dirt.
But my body doesn’t crave liver or dirt because my vitamins and minerals come via supplements. And not just vitamin pills. I get my vitamins thanks to food manufacturers (and they do it becasue of the military, according to this January 2003 John Hopkins University report.)
- Iodized salt (1924).
- Vitamin D milk (1932).
- Fortified breakfast cereal (1933). Try this nifty experiment.
- Enriched bread (1941).
- Calcium-added orange juice (1987).
- Vitamin A enriched rice (1999).
- Thiamine enriched beer?? (tba)
Maybe liver’s looking better than it used to.
