Why Grass-Fed?
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"How cheap, really, is cheap feedlot beef? Not cheap at all, when you add in the invisible costs: of antibiotic resistance, environmental degradation, heart disease, E. coli poisoning, corn subsidies, imported oil and so on. All these are costs that grass-fed beef does not incur."
500% more CLA
400% more Vitamin A
300% more Vitamin E
75% more omega-3
78% more Beta-carotene
Meat from grass-fed cattle, sheep and bison is lower in total fat. Lean meats may have as much as one-third the fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed animal. Grass-fed beef can have the same amount of fat as skinless chicken breast, wild deer or elk. Consuming lean beef can also help lower LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) levels. Because it is lower in fat, grass-fed beef is also lower in calories. Fat has approximately nine calories per gram, so the more fat a cut has, the greater number of calories it will have. Even fatty cuts of grass-fed beef are lower in fat and calories than beef from grain-fed cattle.
Recent studies suggest a link between beef finished on grain and the development of deadlier strains of E. coli. According to a study done by microbiologists at Cornell University, feeding grain in the weeks before slaughter creates a higher acid level in the colon, fostering the development of acid resistant strains of E. coli. Although E. coli occurs naturally in our digestive tract, it is these acid resistant strains that our stomach acids cannot always overcome. The research also showed that if the cattle were switched from grain to fresh grass or hay for as little as five days, the deadly, acid resistant strains all but disappeared.
The meat and milk from grassfed ruminants are the richest known source of another type of good fat called "conjugated linoleic acid" or CLA. When ruminants are raised on fresh pasture alone, their milk and meat contain as much as five times more CLA than products from animals fed conventional diets. In laboratory animals, a very small percentage of CLA - a mere 0.1 percent of total calories -greatly reduced tumor growth. Researcher Tilak Dhiman from Utah State University estimates that you may be able to lower your risk of cancer simply by eating the following grassfed products each day: one glass of whole milk, one ounce of cheese, and one serving of meat. You would have to eat five times that amount of grainfed meat and dairy products to get the same level of protection.
In a Finnish study, women who had the highest levels of CLA in their diet, had a 60 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those with the lowest levels of CLA. Switching from grainfed to grassfed meat and dairy products places women in this lowest risk category.
The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the meat of grass-fed livestock not only had substantially less fat than grain-fed meat but that the type of fats found in grass-fed meat were much healthier. (Grass-fed meat has more omega 3 fatty acids and fewer omega 6, which is believed to promote heart disease; it also contains betacarotine and CLA, another "good" fat.)
The following remarks appear on its website: "Spared of the necessity of antibiotics and pesticides, grass-fed beef is also friendlier to the environment. Ranchers in the grass-fed market tend to be keen stewards of the land, concerned with proper grazing techniques and the nurturing of native grasses. Indeed, many such ranchers think of themselves as grass farmers first, cattle ranchers second." Organic beef came in second. "If you can't find grass-fed beef, consider organic beef as a next best choice. While organically raised animals may still be confined in feeding operations and finished on grain rather than natural forage, they should at least be free of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides.
