I’ll start off by saying that I’ve never used liver tabs myself, but I’ve come across them multiple times in old bodybuilding books and such. They are still being sold and from time to time they pop up as they are a classic bodybuilding supplement - people try it for nostalgia’s sake and then recommend them. From what I’ve heard most people experience increased energy levels from taking them. Could be placebo, could be that their diet is shit or they could work.
Now, what are liver tabs? Liver tabs are just what it sounds like. Desiccated liver. Nowadays bodybuilders use liver supoort pills, which are not the same thing.
To my understanding, liver tabs first got popular in the 30s due to Eugene Schiff’s Bio-foods company. In the 50s Dr. Ershoff did a study where they had rats that were either on vitamin supplements or desiccated liver. They tested the rats’ swimming endurance and the group that hard liverhhad the best results. This was the point were bodybuilders begun to use liver tabs as the study “proved they work”. That study was later debunked. Anabolic steroids first got used in sports in the 50s as well, so it could be that people were taking both steroids and liver pills but only mentioned the latter when asked, but that’s just my speculation. (remember that anabolics were not that big of a deal during that time)
In the 60s Irvin Johnson begun making whey/egg-powder blends that he sold to bodybuilders, and he also made liver tabs which he sold, and he probably helped make them become a mainstream supplement. Guys in the 60s and 70s downed a whole lot of the tabs. Vince Gironda used to recommend 20-30 tabs per day for regular trainees and even 100 for bodybuilders. He believed highly in stuff like liver pills, eggs and high protein intake. It’s been rumoured that Arnold took 150 liver tabs per day.
Now that the brief history of liver tabs is over, let’s tackle the question: where did they go?
This is all just me speculating, as it would be pretty much impossible to accurately pinpoint the reason why (at least without doing count less hours of research)
First off, I’d imagine that the liver supplement study getting debunked was one big thing. That study was one of the things that really set off the trend of taking liver tabs.
Secondly, I’d imagine that as the people who really pushed the idea of supplementing with liver either died, retired or changed their opinion on the topic, less and less people even found out about the supplement, let alone tried it.
Thirdly, as drugs got better and we learned more about how anabolics work and should be used, there was less need for additional boost in training. Also, when you’re juggling multiple drugs and supplements, it’s easy to let go of or “accidentally stop” something else.
Fourth thing would be that supplement industry has grown a lot and a lot of new supplements have been introduced since the 50s-70s, so again you may stop or forget something.
In addition to this one could speculate multiple things:are gym-goers making better dietary decisions now compared to 70s and thus less benefit is experienced from liver? How much marketing is there for liver now compared to the past? What kind of stuff do the gurus and known personalities recommend at the moment? Are people in general more skeptical than before? And so on.
So, short answer, I don’t know, but I have some guesses.
