Cow Tongue

boiled cow/beef tongue

It was sometime last week when my mom decided to make several meals of cow tongue in a row. I was too grossed out after seeing the barely-cooked tongue to want to eat any at all, so that week wasn't fun for me. Well the reason we ate it so many times was because my brothers and I didn't eat any, so it took forever for my parents to finish.

Chinese-style stewed cow tongue

I don't have a picture of this, but we first ate soup noodles with tongue. Then, we had rice and other Chinese dishes including the tongue. Finally, we had baked spaghetti with tongue. See how much tongue my parents had to "force" themselves to eat? (Of course they didn't admit it, but who wants to eat so many meals of the same thing?)

baked spaghetti with cow tongue tomato sauce

Now the question is if cow tongue is healthy. Because what's the point of forcing yourself to eat something that's not even good for you?


The answer is: yes, in a small amount.

Cow tongue contains (per 3 oz. serving):
-2.7 mcg of vitamin B12
(daily recommended intake is 2.4 mcg)
-3.5 mg zinc
(men need 11 mg, women need 8 mg/day)
-2.2 mg iron
(men need 8 mg, women need 18 mg/day)
-3 mg vitamin B3/niacin
(both men and women need 14-16 mg daily)
-0.3 mg vitamin B2/riboflavin
(1.1-1.3 mg recommended daily intake)
-7 g saturated fat
(eat as little as possible, recommended no more than 16-22 g a day)
-0.7 trans fat
(eat as little as possible, no more than 2 g a day)

In case you were wondering what measurement 'mcg' is, here's what it is in comparison to mg or g.

g= grams

mg= milligrams

mcg= micrograms

1 g= 1,000,000 mcg
1 mg= 1,000 mcg
1 g= 1,000 mg

As you can see, it contains lots of good nutrients, but also bad fats. So don't feel extremely guilty if you eat a lot of it; just try not to have too much. I won't have a problem with that! :P