Everything You Need to Know About Ancestral™ Blends

Also known as organ meat blends, vital blends, primal blends, or nose-to-tail ground meat — Ancestral™ Blends are one of the simplest ways to bring whole-animal nutrition back to the modern table.

Why Should I Eat Ancestral blends?

Force of Nature Ancestral Blends are the easiest upgrade to your health you can make. They combine all the things you know and love about ground meat with nutrient-dense organ meats liver and heart. They taste familiar, rich, and deeply savory. The best part? They swap seamlessly into your staple recipes whether that’s tacos, burgers, chili, meatballs, meat sauce, breakfast hash, all while delivering more vitamins and minerals than regular ground meat.

Why Should I Eat Organ Meats?

Organ meats are among the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet, delivering more vitamins and minerals per bite than almost anything else. In a 2022 study, organ meats were 4 of the top 7 foods looking at micronutrient density across six common nutrient deficiencies — vitamin A, folate, B12, calcium, iron, and zinc (Beal & Ortenzi, 2022).

Here’s the deal, though.The science is just catching up to what humans have known for a long time. For roughly two million years, we ate the whole animal. The liver, the heart, the marrow — these were the prize, not the scraps. Anthropologist Bill Schindler traces this all the way back to our earliest ancestors, whose use of tools allowed them to go from being scavengers that got leftover muscle meat, to hunters that could get the most nutrient-dense bits – namely the organs (Schindler, 2021). Access to these foods likely played a meaningful role in human evolution by helping support the energetic demands of larger brains, stronger bodies, becoming a part of what made us human (Ben-Dor et al., 2021).

Then, in the span of about one generation, we stopped eating them. 

Modern grocery stores sell steaks and grinds that are mostly made up of muscle meat and fat — while the rest of the animal disappeared from our plates. The result is a nutritional gap most people don't even know they're living with.

That's the problem Ancestral Blends were built to solve.

How We Made Ancestral Blends

When we started Force of Nature, the mission was to redefine our food system. We worked with ranchers to bring regeneratively raised meat to stores and doorsteps across the country — supporting healthy ecosystems and healthy bodies in the process.

But putting high-quality regenerative meat into the world didn't feel like enough. We saw an opportunity to solve two problems at once: we knew people were missing the nutrients that organ meats had to offer and we wanted to deliver them in a way that utilized the whole animal. Buying more of the animal means more support for farmers doing the good work of restoring the land. Ancestral Blends let us do both: honor whole-animal eating while making it radically easier for modern humans to get the nutrients they need.

By blending a small percentage of organ meats — 4% heart and 4% liver — into the ground meat people were already buying, we knew we could meaningfully improve the nutrient profile of a dinner staple without asking anyone to change a single thing about the way they cook or eat.

And here's the part we love most: this isn't fortification. We're not engineering a formula or adding in isolated vitamins. The liver and heart are already parts of the animal — already there, in the natural ratios they exist in the whole animal itself.

The modern food system left them behind.

We put them back where they belong.

What are Ancestral Blends?

Ancestral Blends are ground meat with a small, intentional percentage of organ meats blended in. It’s enough to deliver a meaningful nutrient boost, without changing the way the meat cooks or tastes.

You may have also heard them called organ meat blends, vital blends, primal blends, or nose-to-tail ground meat, but for us these were about eating like our ancestors.

At Force of Nature, we make Ancestral Blends across four proteins:

• Beef — grass-fed, grass-finished ground beef + 4% liver + 4% heart

• Bison — grass-fed, grass-finished ground bison + 4% liver + 4% heart

• Chicken — free-to-range ground chicken with heart, liver, skin, and gizzard — a different nutrient profile built around whole-bird nutrition and collagen-rich parts

• Venison — pasture-raised ground venison with liver and heart

We also make ready-to-eat Ancestral products for the nights you don't feel like cooking: fully cooked Ancestral Meatballs and Ancestral Sausage. Heat, serve, done.

Every animal across the line is raised on pasture without antibiotics or added hormones and is tested by third- party labs to be free from 300+ harmful environmental and agricultural chemicals. 

What’s the Nutrition Difference of Ancestral Blends?

Per 112g (4 oz.) serving, compared to USDA conventional ground beef:

Will Ancestral Blends Taste Like Liver?

Most people know liver is good for them. Fewer people want to cook it, smell it, or convince their family to eat it. That's where Ancestral Blends change the equation.

Instead of treating organ meats like a challenge, we treat them like an ingredient. A small amount of liver and heart is blended into ground meat, where it adds depth, richness, and is packed with minerals and vitamins — without asking you to change a thing about your recipes.

Use it for tacos, burgers, chili, meatballs, meat sauce, shepherd's pie, stuffed peppers, breakfast hash, burritos, meatloaf… If you can make it with ground meat, you can make it with Ancestral Blends.

Same recipes. Better nutrition.

Why are organ meats so important?

The short version: organ meats pack dramatically more vitamins and minerals per gram than muscle meat, and they deliver many of those nutrients in forms your body can readily absorb and use.

The slightly longer version involves a word you'll see a lot in nutrition science: bioavailability. Bioavailability is the amount of a nutrient your body can actually absorb and use — and it varies enormously depending on the source.

Take iron. About 25% of the heme iron in animal foods is absorbed, compared to 17% or less of the non-heme iron found in plants. Overall, iron bioavailability is estimated at 14–18% for people who eat animal products and as low as 5–12% for those on plant-based diets (National Institutes of Health, 2023a).

Vitamin A tells a similar story: liver delivers preformed retinol — the form your body uses directly — while plant sources provide beta-carotene, which must be converted at roughly a 12-to-1 ratio to the real deal, and many people carry genetic variants that make that conversion even less efficient (National Institutes of Health, 2023b). That means you’re going to have to eat a lot of carrots and sweet potatoes to get even a fraction of what liver provides. 

Beef liver alone is one of nature's most concentrated sources of vitamin A (as retinol), B12, folate, copper, and choline. Heart is one of the richest dietary sources of CoQ10, and an excellent source of B vitamins and iron. When you blend even a small amount of these organs into ground meat, the nutritional profile shifts meaningfully.

Why are Ancestral Blends good for me?

Three reasons, layered on top of each other.

1. The organs themselves. Liver and heart deliver nutrients that muscle meat alone does not provide in the same amounts — particularly vitamin A as retinol, B12, folate, copper, choline, CoQ10, and heme iron. Beal and Ortenzi's analysis scored organ meats as the single most micronutrient-dense food category on the planet (Beal & Ortenzi, 2022). With Ancestral Blends, you inherit a share of that density in every meal.

2. The grass-fed difference. Peer-reviewed work by van Vliet and colleagues found that grass-fed beef contained meaningfully higher concentrations of vitamin E, phytochemical antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids than conventional feedlot beef (van Vliet et al., 2021). A follow-up confirmed consistent advantages in vitamin E, carotenoids, and fatty acid balance (Krusinski et al., 2024). Every protein in our Ancestral line comes from animals raised on pasture — these benefits start with how the animal lived, what it ate, and the land it helped shape.

3. It's real food your family actually eats. Nutrition only matters if people will eat it. Dietitian Lily Nichols — one of the most cited voices in prenatal and pediatric nutrition — highlights organ meats as among the best foods for supporting brain development, growth, and iron status in children (Nichols, 2018, 2022). Nutrients like iron, B12, choline, zinc, and vitamin A all play critical roles in growing bodies, and organ meats deliver them in highly concentrated, highly bioavailable forms. Ancestral Blends make those nutrients usable in real life.

Because telling a six-year-old to eat liver is not a strategy.

Putting it inside their taco meat is.

Do they taste different?

This is the question everyone asks first, and the answer is the reason Ancestral Blends became our best sellers: they taste amazing.

At 8% of the ground meat, the liver and heart work more like a seasoning than a dominant flavor. What most people notice is a slightly richer, deeper, more savory quality — like upgrading from a diner burger to a steakhouse burger. The organ meats amplify the meatiness without introducing the strong flavor or texture of eating liver on its own.

They don't taste like liver. They taste like better ground meat.

Do I have to cook them differently?

Not at all. Ancestral Blends cook the same way you'd cook any ground meat — same pan, same temperature, same recipes. Use them in tacos, burgers, chili, meat sauce, meatballs, shepherd's pie, stuffed peppers, lettuce cups, breakfast hash, soups, skillet meals, burger bowls, pasta sauce, or bowls. If you've made it with ground beef before, you can make it with an Ancestral Blend.

Each protein has its own personality:

• Beef Ancestral Blend — the easiest place to start. Works anywhere you'd use ground beef and makes an especially good burger because the liver and heart add richness, savoriness, and depth.

• Bison Ancestral Blend — leaner and slightly sweeter, great for burgers, bowls, and high-protein meals.

• Venison Ancestral Blend — clean, deep, and mineral-rich, especially good in chili, or meat sauce.

• Chicken Ancestral Blend — lighter, mild, and built from more of the bird, including heart, liver, skin, and gizzard. Works beautifully in meatballs, breakfast patties, and bowls. 

And if you don't feel like cooking at all, our Ancestral Meatballs and Ancestral Sausage are fully cooked — just heat and eat. Designed for the nights when you want all the nutrition with none of the fuss. 

Can you eat too much of them?

This is a fair question. The short answer – it’s highly unlikely. 

The concern people raise is usually vitamin A from liver. Preformed retinol does have an upper tolerable intake — the NIH sets it at 3,000 mcg RAE per day for adults (National Institutes of Health, 2023b). A full serving of straight liver can push toward that ceiling, which is one reason most people don't eat it daily.

But Ancestral Blends aren't straight liver. They're 4% liver.

A typical 4 oz. serving delivers a meaningful vitamin A boost — roughly a third of the adult RDA — while staying comfortably inside the safe range, even as a regular staple. The same logic applies to copper and iron: the formula was designed specifically to be nutrient-rich without turning dinner into a megadose. This is a whole food, not a supplement.

As always, people who are pregnant, managing iron overload, or taking medications that affect vitamin A metabolism should talk with their healthcare provider about their individual needs. For most people, Ancestral Blends can be used the way you'd use regular ground meat, as often as you like.

How often should I eat them?

As often as you'd normally eat ground meat. That's the whole point.

Most of our customers use Ancestral Blends as their default eating them three to five times a week across weeknight dinners. Some use them exclusively. Some rotate between beef, bison, chicken, and venison for variety and a broader nutrient spread.

If you're brand new to organ meats, an Ancestral Blend is the easiest possible entry point. You don't have to learn how to cook liver. You don't have to develop a taste for it. You just swap your ground meat and enjoy — which is exactly what two million years of dietary history suggests is a pretty good strategy.

Are they a good source of protein?

Yes, and protein quality matters as much as the quantity.

A 4 oz. serving of our Beef Ancestral Blend delivers roughly 22g of complete protein, with all nine essential amino acids in the proportions your body needs. Beef protein scores at or near the top of the DIAAS scale — Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score — the current gold standard for measuring how well your body can actually use the protein you eat (FAO, 2013). That means that this protein packs a punch .

But protein doesn't exist in isolation.

When you get it from an Ancestral Blend, it arrives as a whole food, with nutrients working together. Heme iron, B12, zinc, choline, retinol, CoQ10, and healthy grass-fed fats — a nutrient package that supports absorption and utilization far beyond what you'd get from an isolated protein source (van Vliet, Burd, & van Loon, 2015). It's not just protein. It's protein the way our bodies have known it since the beginning of being human. 

The easiest swap you'll ever make

Here's the thing about Ancestral Blends: they require almost nothing from you.

You don't need new recipes. You don't need to like liver. You don't need to convince anyone in your household that organ meats are a good idea. You just buy a different package of ground meat next time you're at the store — beef, bison, chicken, or venison — and everything else stays the same.

Same tacos. Same chili. Same meatballs. Same burgers.

Just quietly, meaningfully better nutrition in every bite.

Two million years of evolution built our bodies to thrive on the whole animal. Ancestral Blends are the simplest way to eat that way again — and the reason they've been Force of Nature's best sellers since day one.

 

References:

Beal, T., & Ortenzi, F. (2022). Priority micronutrient density in foods. Frontiers in Nutrition, 9, 806566. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.806566

Ben-Dor, M., Sirtoli, R., & Barkai, R. (2021). The evolution of the human trophic level during the Pleistocene. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 175(S72), 27–56. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24247

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2013). Dietary protein quality evaluation in human nutrition: Report of an FAO expert consultation. FAO.

Krusinski, L., Sergin, I., Jambunathan, V., Rowntree, J. E., & Fenton, J. I. (2024). Attention to the details: How variations in U.S. grass-fed cattle-feed supplementation and finishing routines influence human health. npj Science of Food, 8, 5.

National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2023a). Iron: Fact sheet for health professionals. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/

National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2023b). Vitamin A and carotenoids: Fact sheet for health professionals. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/

Nichols, L. (2018). Real food for pregnancy. Lily Nichols RDN.

Nichols, L. (2022). Best first foods for baby. Lily Nichols RDN Blog. https://lilynicholsrdn.com

Schindler, B. (2021). Eat like a human: Nourishing foods and ancient ways of cooking to revolutionize your health. St. Martin's Press.

van Vliet, S., Bain, J. R., Muehlbauer, M. J., Provenza, F. D., Kronberg, S. L., Pieper, C. F., & Huffman, K. M. (2021). A metabolomics comparison of plant-based meat and grass-fed meat indicates large nutritional differences despite comparable Nutrition Facts panels. Scientific Reports, 11, 13828. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93100-3

van Vliet, S., Burd, N. A., & van Loon, L. J. C. (2015). The skeletal muscle anabolic response to plant- versus animal-based protein consumption. The Journal of Nutrition, 145(9), 1981–1991. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.114.204305