Is Beef Liver High in Cholesterol?

Yes, beef liver is high in cholesterol. A 3.5 ounce serving contains around 389 mg. That number sounds alarming if you grew up hearing that dietary cholesterol causes heart disease. But the science on that has shifted significantly over the past decade, and the story is more interesting than the number suggests.

Here is what you actually need to know.

Where the Fear Came From

For about 50 years, dietary guidelines in the US told people to keep their cholesterol intake under 300 mg per day. That recommendation was based on research from the 1960s that linked dietary cholesterol to heart disease. Liver, eggs, and shellfish got lumped into the foods-to-avoid category almost immediately.

The problem is that the science did not hold up over time.

In 2015, the US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee removed the 300 mg per day cap entirely. The reason was straightforward. A large body of research had found that for most healthy people, eating cholesterol does not meaningfully raise blood cholesterol levels. Your liver produces most of the cholesterol in your body on its own, and when you eat more from food it simply produces less to compensate. The system largely self-regulates.

A review published in the journal Nutrients summarized it plainly: the totality of scientific evidence does not validate the idea that dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol or increases heart disease risk in most people.

The Difference Between Dietary Cholesterol and Blood Cholesterol

This is where a lot of people get confused. Dietary cholesterol is what you eat. Blood cholesterol is what circulates in your body. They are related but not the same thing.

What actually raises LDL, the form of cholesterol associated with heart disease risk, most consistently in research is not dietary cholesterol but saturated fat and trans fat. Beef liver is actually low in saturated fat. A 3.5 ounce serving has around 1.5 grams of saturated fat, which is less than a chicken thigh.

A 2022 systematic review published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine analyzed 574 studies on red meat consumption and cholesterol markers. The finding: red meat intake had no significant effect on LDL cholesterol or HDL cholesterol levels. The concern that eating organ meats raises your bad cholesterol is not well supported by the research.

Who Should Be More Careful

There is a group of people called hyper-responders, estimated to be around 25% of the population, whose blood cholesterol does rise more noticeably in response to dietary cholesterol. If you have a personal or family history of high LDL, familial hypercholesterolemia, or cardiovascular disease, it is worth talking to your doctor before eating liver regularly.

For everyone else, the evidence does not support the idea that eating beef liver a few times a week, or taking a beef liver supplement daily, will meaningfully raise your cardiovascular risk.

What You Are Getting Alongside the Cholesterol

This is the part that tends to get left out of the cholesterol conversation. Beef liver is one of the most nutrient dense foods on earth. That same 3.5 ounce serving that contains 389 mg of cholesterol also delivers over 500% of your daily Vitamin A, more than 2,000% of your daily B12, 28% of your daily iron in heme form, significant amounts of copper, zinc, folate, and choline, and 27 grams of complete protein.

Choline alone is worth mentioning. It is a nutrient most people are deficient in that plays a direct role in liver health, brain function, and cardiovascular health. Beef liver is one of the best food sources of choline available anywhere.

The nutrients in beef liver do not cancel out the cholesterol. But they are part of the same food, and the full picture looks very different from just the cholesterol number in isolation.

What About Grass-Fed Liver Specifically

Sourcing matters here too. Grass-fed beef liver has a better omega-3 to omega-6 ratio than grain-fed liver, which is relevant because an imbalance between these fatty acids is associated with inflammation, a bigger driver of cardiovascular risk than dietary cholesterol in most current research.

One Earth Health sources its beef liver from New Zealand grass-fed cattle that graze year-round on open pasture. The USDA FoodData Central data shows that New Zealand grass-fed liver contains 70% more iron and 42% more B12 than standard US grain-fed liver. The nutrient profile is meaningfully different. You can find the Beef Liver supplement here.

The Short Answer

Yes, beef liver is high in dietary cholesterol. For most healthy people, that is not the concern it was once thought to be. The 2015 US Dietary Guidelines removed the daily cholesterol cap after the science did not support it. Beef liver is low in saturated fat, rich in nutrients that support cardiovascular health, and a 2022 systematic review of 574 studies found that red meat consumption had no significant effect on LDL or HDL cholesterol levels. If you have specific cholesterol concerns or a family history of heart disease, check with your doctor. For everyone else, the fear around liver and cholesterol is largely outdated.