Having concluded that grass-fed, natural beef is indeed safe, while its grain-fed, unnatural counterpart is clearly courting trouble, we next ask whether the grass-fed, natural beef is indeed more nutritional.
In a recent article written by Jo Robinson (www.eatwild.com), she cites four major reasons to include grass-fed beef in your diet:
- Lower in Fat and Calories: Lean beef can have as little as one third the fat of grain-fed beef and research shows that lean beef actually lowers your "bad" LDL cholesterol levels.
- Extra Omega-3s: Grass-fed beef has 3-4 times the Omega-3 fatty acids found in grain-fed beef. Omega-3s are essential for proper functioning of the heart and brain and may reduce your risk of cancer.
- CLA Bonus: Grass-fed beef is one of the richest known sources of "conjugated linoleic acid" or CLA, which may be one of our most potent defenses against cancer.
- Higher in Vitamin E: Grass-fed beef is 4 times higher in Vitamin E than feedlot raised beef and even twice as rich in Vitamin E as feedlot beef fed high doses of synthetic Vitamin E. Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant, linked with lower risk of heart disease and cancer, and may also have anti-aging properties.
An equally compelling reason is taste. Grass-fed beef tastes more natural and appealing than artificially grain-fed beef. There are many articles found on the Eatwild.com website at http://www.eatwild.com/articles/index.html that provide additional details about the virtues of eating grass-fed, natural beef, including:
- You Are What Your Animals Eat
- Confused About Fat? Choose Grassfed!
- Beyond Organic
In, Why Grassfed is Best, Jo Robinson addresses many of the reasons why so many people are returning to a more natural diet that includes grass-fed beef. Robinson argues that while consumers have turned to organic farming to avoid pesticides, hormones, and genetically modified organisms, in addition to being more environmentally friendly, they must really look to farming that raises animals on a species-appropriate diet to produce nutrient dense protein.
Jo Robinson debunks the modern day myth that fat is bad. Through an in-depth analysis of the two types of essential fatty acids (EFAs), omega-6 and omega-3, she arrives at the conclusion that it is the imbalance of these "good fats" in the modern, processed food diet that makes human's more susceptible to our modern ailments. When researching the diets of humans as hunter-gatherers, which evolved over thousands of millennia, she found a very different ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (closer to 1:1) than those found in modern industrialized societies (approaching 20:1). This shift can be attributed to the increased intake of saturated fats in our increasingly processed food over the past few decades and to the decrease in our consumption of natural foods, such as grass-fed beef, which are particularly high in Omega-3 fatty acids. However, she also found certain human populations, specifically certain groups in Crete, are still consuming a natural diet containing a balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids that closely resembles our forebears and have documented the superior health of these populations vs. that of most Americans. Citing her exhaustive research and that of numerous nutrition and health specialists, she recognized this imbalance in EFAs as a major contributor to leading health problems as varied as heart disease, hypertension, obesity, depression, diabetes, depression, arthritis and some forms of cancer.
In his seminal work, Soil, Grass and Cancer, Andre Voisin provides insights into the complex balance between the living organism and associated minerals found in soil, the grass it provides, the herbivores who graze it, and the human omnivores who are sustained by the proteins provided by these animals. Only by understanding this complex balance can humans fully appreciate how important it is for the health of individuals and indeed our entire species to properly tend to the soil. At Wolf Creek Farm, we call ourselves grass farmers but might be equally accurately known as stewards of the soil.
Although Weston A. Price, DDS wrote Nutrition and Physical Degeneration more than seventy years ago, it is still regarded as a foundation work by many current nutrition researchers. Observing a physical degeneration in the mouths of his young dental patients as compared with his older patients and an increasing incidence of seemingly unrelated health problems, Dr. Price set out to determine whether something unique was amiss in the American lifestyle and environment. He traveled around the world studying the health and physical development of peoples in remote pockets of civilization, recording a photographic record and reaching some startling conclusions regarding the effects of nutrition on development in humans. His book remains a must read for all those in positions of responsibility for the nutrition of our children, whether parents, members of the medical community, government policy makers, or farmers.
The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation® is a non-profit education foundation committed to reversing the trend of declining health in our modern world. They teach health professionals and the public the proven principles from nutrition pioneers Weston A. Price, Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., and other leading health experts.