These Superfoods & Supplements Are a Hack for Fat Loss and Anti-Aging

If weight loss feels harder than it should, there's a reason why. Our bodies are wired to seek out essential nutrients, especially protein, and when those needs aren’t met, our appetites can stay elevated even if we’ve technically eaten “enough.”

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of American adults are now overweight or obese, and rates of metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and insulin resistance continue to climb. Despite decades of weight loss advice telling us to “eat less and move more,” the obesity epidemic hasn't moved in the right direction.

So what’s missing? According to Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist and bestselling author of The Obesity Code and The Diabetes Code, the biggest misunderstanding about weight loss is that it’s simply about willpower or calories.

In reality, hormones, metabolism, and nutrient density are also involved in weight management, and to a greater extent than many realize.

In a recent conversation with Dr. Fung, he explained why fat loss can stall or feel impossible despite our best efforts, how insulin drives metabolic disease, and why some of the most powerful metabolic foods are the ones our ancestors prioritized for thousands of years.

In this article, you'll learn why mostly overlooked “superfoods” for metabolic health are not exotic powders or trendy ingredients, but nutrient-dense foods—mostly of which are derived from animals—that humans have always eaten.

Why Weight Loss Isn’t Just About Calories

We've all heard the advice to eat less, exercise more, and use willpower to trim down.

But this approach usually fails because it doesn't take into account that calorie intake alone doesn't determine someone's body weight.

Obesity rates would not have skyrocketed over the past 50 years if "calorie awareness" were all that mattered. Most adults now understand what they "should" be eating, but putting the advice into practice doesn't typically lead to the weight loss results that would be expected.

Dr. Fung argues that the eat-less-move-more perspective misses one of the real drivers of fat storage: hormonal dysfunction, particularly insulin resistance.

He believes that obesity is less about overeating and more about hormones that tell the body to hold onto fat.

Your body doesn’t treat every calorie the same way. Certain foods stimulate hormones that determine whether energy is burned or stored. And insulin sits at the center of that system.

The Real Driver of Fat Storage: Insulin

Insulin is a hormone that's released when we eat, especially when we consume carbohydrates, sugar, and processed foods.

Inulin's primary job is to help move glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream into cells. Beyond this, it has another powerful function: it tells the body when to store fat.

If your insulin levels remain high for long periods of time, your body becomes better at storing energy and less efficient at burning it. Over time, this leads to:

• Insulin resistance
• Increased fat storage
• Higher blood sugar
• Slower metabolism
• Greater difficulty losing weight

Insulin’s influence doesn’t stop there either. Over time, chronically elevated insulin can shift the body’s “defended” weight range, making it harder to lose fat even when calorie intake drops. 

Just as your body works to maintain a stable internal temperature, it also tends to defend a certain body weight—what Dr. Fung describes as someone's metabolic set point.

Why Lowering Insulin Isn’t Always Enough

Learning to better manage insulin is a huge step in the right direction. That’s why strategies like fasting, reducing ultra-processed foods, and lowering sugar intake can help many people improve their metabolic health.

But some people reach a frustrating plateau even when their blood sugar improves, and their insulin levels drop. For example, fat loss might slow or stop despite eating low-carb and exercising more.

Why? Because their metabolism doesn’t run on hormones alone. It also requires nutrients.

Hormones act like signals, as they tell different organs what to do, but you still need the raw materials—in the form of nutrients—that are required to carry out metabolic processes. Without those nutrients, your metabolism can stall.

Most people's diets today provide plenty of calories, and often even more than are needed, but surprisingly few micronutrients. 

This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “hidden hunger"—meaning you might be consuming enough food, but still be driven to eat more because you're missing key vitamins, minerals, and cofactors that regulate energy production, hormone production, and cellular repair.

The Nutrient Density Problem in Modern Diets

One of the biggest changes in the modern food environment is not just the rise of processed foods, but the decline in nutrient density.

Most ultra-processed foods are engineered (since they're at least partially man-made) to be:

• Highly palatable (tasty and appealing, so you want to eat more of them)
• Shelf stable
• Energy dense

At the same time, these foods frequently contain few vitamins, minerals, and bioactive compounds, especially compared to unprocessed, whole foods.

Even many foods that appear “healthy” today, like some vegetables, for example, lack the nutrient diversity that traditional diets once provided, due to reasons like poor soil quality and long transport times. 

Historically, humans consumed animals "nose-to-tail," meaning they ate almost all edible parts of the animal, not just the "muscle meat," which dramatically increased their nutrient intake.

A nose-to-tail approach to eating meant that it was common to consume: 

• Meat
• Fat
• Organs like liver, kidneys, heart, spleen, and others
• Bone marrow
• Bone broth (a natural source of collagen and minerals) made out of nutrient-rich parts like bones, cartilage, and skin

These foods delivered concentrated amounts of nutrients such as iron, zinc, vitamin A, and more that support metabolic health.

How Humans Traditionally Obtained Metabolic Nutrients

When we zoom out and look at traditional diets across different cultures, we see a pattern: humans prioritized nutrient-dense foods, which usually meant animal parts.

Many hunter-gatherer societies valued organ meats above all other foods.

Anthropologists studying traditional diets have found that organs were frequently reserved for hunters, elders, pregnant women, or children because of their extraordinary nutritional value.

Beef liver, in particular, stands out as one of the most nutrient-dense foods humans have ever eaten. Just a small serving of liver provides high levels of:

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B12
• Folate
• Iron
• Copper
• Choline
• Coenzyme Q10

Why Liver Is One of the Most Powerful Metabolic Superfoods:

Among traditional foods, liver has long been considered a metabolic superfood. In fact, many cultures viewed it as "nature’s multivitamin."

Liver is incredibly dense in the nutrients required to support:

• Energy Production: B vitamins such as B12 and folate help convert food into usable cellular energy.
• Hormone Regulation: Nutrients like vitamin A and copper are needed to regulate hormone pathways that influence metabolic functions.
• Red Blood Cell Formation: Iron and B12 support oxygen transport, which is essential for energy and metabolic efficiency.
• Mitochondrial Function: Many nutrients found in liver help support the mitochondria, the tiny structures responsible for producing cellular energy.

The Problem: Most People Don’t Eat Organ Meats

Nutrient density matters for your metabolism because your body cannot regulate hormones, repair tissues, or generate energy without the proper nutritional foundation. 

Organ meats can go a long way in boosting nutrient intake and potentially helping to lower the risk of common nutrient deficiencies.

But despite their nutritional value, they've largely disappeared from most people's diets, and there are several reasons for this:

• First, food culture shifted during the industrialization of agriculture. Muscle meat became the primary focus, while organ meats were often discarded or turned into animal feed.
• Second, many people today simply didn’t grow up eating organs, which means they may not know how to prepare them.

The result is that some of the most nutrient-dense foods humans once relied on are now rarely consumed. This creates a gap between the nutrition our bodies evolved to expect and what many people actually eat.

A Practical Way to Reintroduce Ancestral Nutrition

Ideally, we should obtain all the nutrients we need from real, whole foods.

Whole foods provide complex combinations of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and cofactors that work together in ways science is still uncovering. Taking synthetic, isolated supplements can't replicate what real food can provide.

Today, it can be challenging to eat nose-to-tail. Not everyone has access to high-quality organ meats. Not everyone enjoys their flavor, and finding time to shop for and prepare organ meats can be difficult.

This is where whole-food-derived supplements can serve as a practical bridge.

High-quality beef liver supplements, such as Ancestral Supplements Grass Fed Beef Liver, provide freeze-dried liver sourced from grass-fed cattle, delivering the same nutrient density in a more convenient form.

Rather than replacing whole foods, desiccated organ supplements—like Grass Fed Beef Organs, Grass Fed Beef Kidney, Grass Fed Beef Heart, or Grass Fed Living Collagen—help reintroduce the nutritional principles of ancestral eating patterns.

How Nutrient Density Supports Fat Loss and Healthy Aging

When your metabolism improves, weight regulation usually becomes easier. This happens because nutrient-dense foods help support systems that influence your body composition and aging.

These include:

• Hormonal Balance: Adequate vitamins and minerals support proper hormone production and regulation, including insulin sensitivity.
• Energy Production: Healthy mitochondria help the body efficiently convert food into usable energy rather than storing it as fat.
• Muscle Preservation: Nutrient density supports muscle health, which is critical for maintaining metabolic rate as we age. In fact, muscle is now even considered a "longevity organ" due to how it preserves health into older age.
• Inflammation Regulation: Many nutrients found in whole foods help support the body’s natural anti-inflammatory pathways, which in turn help with both fat loss and long-term resilience.

The Big Takeaway: Maintaining a Healthy Weight Is About More Than Willpower

For people struggling with their weight or metabolic health, Dr. Fung has an important message: your body is not broken. You've been reacting to the environment you live in, which, unfortunately, is not a very healthy one.

Your metabolism is regulated by complex hormonal and nutritional systems. Lowering insulin through changes to your diet can be incredibly helpful, but it’s only part of the equation.

You also need the nutritional raw materials required to function well. That means focusing on:

• Whole foods
• Nutrient density
• Hormonal balance
• Metabolic health

When these foundations are in place, managing your weight should become easier naturally.

The Ancestral Perspective to Meeting Your Nutritional Needs:

At Ancestral Supplements, we believe the most powerful nutrition strategies often come from looking backward.

Traditional cultures prioritized nutrient density and nose-to-tail eating before modern nutrition science existed. Whole foods should always come first.

But when modern diets fall short, food-based supplements can help restore nutrients that humans have relied on for generations. Sometimes the most powerful “superfoods” aren’t new discoveries. They’re the foods our ancestors knew were valuable all along.

To obtain the same supportive nutrients that are found in superfoods like beef liver, kidneys, and heart, consider adding Ancestral Supplements Grass-Fed Liver or Grass-Fed Beef Organs to your routine.