Know2eat

Beef brain

Bos taurus

What beef brain has been studied for

1 association assessed — none with dependable human evidence behind them yet. Strongest first.

  • 1 Insufficient
4 things to know first — allergies, interactions and intake limits

About beef brain

Bovine central nervous tissue, historically poached and fried in butter across France, Spain, Mexico and the Middle East. It is exceptionally rich in phospholipid and cholesterol and has almost no connective tissue, giving it a soft, custard-like texture.

Also known as Calf brains, Cervelle, Sesos

Brain & Cognitive Health

The evidence in depth

Best supported: Insufficient

What each association actually rests on, and the papers behind it. A rating describes the state of the research, not how impressive the food is. How we rate evidence.

Cognitive function

Brain & Cognitive Health
Insufficient evidence

Evidence is limited for eating brain tissue affecting human cognition. The idea rests on its DHA and phospholipid content, but no human trial has tested it, and the food-safety controls on this tissue mean none is likely to be run.

Insufficient evidence. Not enough human research to say anything useful yet.

2 sources

Deep research mode adds each paper’s own conclusion and stated limitations.

Ask about Beef brain

Ask about Beef brain

Answers are written only from the entries on this page — the same nutrients, compounds, claims and citations you can read above. Nothing is added from outside the database, and every answer lists what it was built from.

AI explanations are not switched on for this site, so there is nothing to ask here. Everything above is read straight from the database and does not need them.

Key nutrients

Nutrient content per 100 grams
NutrientAmount% DV
Macronutrients
Calories143 kcal7%
Protein10.9 g22%
Total fat10.3 g13%
Carbohydrate1.05 g0%
Fibre0 g0%
Total sugars0 g—
Water76.3 g—
Fats
Saturated fat2.3 g12%
Monounsaturated fat1.89 g—
Polyunsaturated fat1.59 g—
Cholesterol3010 mg1003%
ALA (omega-3)0 g—
EPA (omega-3)0 g—
DHA (omega-3)0.851 g—
DPA (omega-3)0.374 g—
Linoleic acid (omega-6)0.041 g—
Vitamins
Vitamin A7 µg1%
Vitamin C10.7 mg12%
Vitamin E0.99 mg7%
Vitamin K0 µg0%
Thiamin (B1)0.092 mg8%
Riboflavin (B2)0.199 mg15%
Niacin (B3)3.55 mg22%
Pantothenic acid (B5)2.01 mg40%
Vitamin B60.226 mg13%
Folate3 µg1%
Vitamin B129.51 µg396%
Minerals
Calcium43 mg3%
Iron2.55 mg14%
Magnesium13 mg3%
Phosphorus362 mg29%
Potassium274 mg6%
Sodium126 mg5%
Zinc1.02 mg9%
Copper0.287 mg32%
Manganese0.026 mg1%
Selenium21.3 µg39%
Other measured compounds
Beta-carotene88 µg—
Alpha-carotene0 µg—
Lycopene0 µg—
Lutein + zeaxanthin0 µg—
Caffeine0 mg—
Ash1.51 g—

Nutrient values are per 100 g of the USDA reference entry named on this page and vary with variety, growing conditions, storage and preparation.

Source record: Beef, variety meats and by-products, brain, raw (USDA FoodData Central, FDC ID 168622).

% DV uses the FDA Daily Values for adults and children aged 4 and over. A dash means no Daily Value has been established for that nutrient.

Bioactive compounds

Compounds present in meaningful amounts. Presence is banded rather than quantified, because whole-food levels vary enormously with variety, growing conditions, storage and preparation.

How preparation changes things

Only effects with real support are listed. If a preparation method is missing, it is because nothing dependable is documented — not because it makes no difference.

Nothing dependable is recorded about how preparation changes this food’s nutritional properties. Rather than guess, this section stays empty.

Things to know

Allergies, interactions and intake concerns. Every food gets this section — a reference where everything is uniformly good is not a reference.

  • Avoid

    BSE and specified risk material controls

    Brain and spinal cord from cattle are the tissues that carry the highest infectivity in bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the cattle disease linked with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people. Following the BSE epidemic, the brain and spinal cord of older cattle were designated specified risk material and are prohibited from the human food supply in the EU, the UK, the United States and many other countries. Where bovine brain is still sold at all, it is subject to age limits and inspection rules that do not apply to other cuts.

  • Too much

    Extremely high dietary cholesterol

    Brain contains more cholesterol per gram than any other commonly eaten food, several times the amount in egg yolk. Even accepting that dietary cholesterol matters less than once thought, this is an outlier rather than a borderline case.

  • Too much

    Purines and gout

    As an organ meat, brain falls in the food group most strongly associated with gout flares and is generally advised against for people with gout.

  • Allergy

    Alpha-gal and mammalian meat

    Alpha-gal syndrome, the tick-bite-associated allergy to mammalian meat, applies to organ meats as well as muscle, and offal has been reported to trigger reactions at lower thresholds than lean cuts because of its higher content of the relevant glycolipids.