Grass-finished Beef Newsletter

Information in general about healthy food, and more specific information about grass-finished beef.

Summary of recent research on Better Eating:

The rationalization of replacing dairy and animal fats with corn oil was a grave mistake. The current cancer epidemic is due in part by this short sighted fad. The best way to reduce the risk of heart disease is to eat reasonable amounts, and get exercise. The way to avoid dietary factors in cancer risk is to make sure you GET A GOOD BALANCE of the following:

1. Milk from grass-fed cows (ideally non-pasturized) and other grass-fed dairy products. (These are rich in CLA, Ca, Mg, K, Vit. A,D,E,K, and B Vitamins, enzymes)
2. Free-range eggs
3. Fermented food like sauerkraut, kim-chi, buttermilk, and kefir. The benefits of soy in the Asian diet, is only due to it being fermented. The mass industrial processed soy in the U.S. is more harmful then helpful.
4. Butter. (Need your sweet fix? Mix natural sweets like honey, with natural fats like butter to make rich sweet foods. Natural fats are good buffers preventing sugar shock (yo-yoing) of your system.
5. Pigment rich fruits and tropical fruits: blueberries, strawberries, elderberries, and pineapple, coconut…
6. Vegetables: Carefully grown brussel sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, garlic, onions, winter squashes, carrots, beets, … and lavish salads with raddichio, arugula, endive, radish,…
7. Meats; raised without large confinement, antibiotics, and hormones. Grass-fed if possible.
8. Water. About half your body weight in ounces.

ESPECIALLY AVOID

1. Refined sugar (cancer cells have an affinity for refined sugar)
2. Vegetable oils: (carcinogenic especially transfat hydrogenated oils).
Exception: olive oil (buy the extra virgin first expeller-pressed)
3. High carbohydrate diets
4. Refined soy foods
5. Fluorine and chlorine suppresses iodine uptake by the thyroid.
6. Commercial pesticide-laden produce (worst are potatoes, celery, onions, …)
7. Micro-waved foods

BEEF: Most people envision beef from natural or organic cattle as being raised without chemicals, in a pastoral environment. Actually the only federal standard for beef that is labeled USDA Natural is that no chemical additives be placed in the meat after it is butchered. How the beef is raised isn’t an issue. For USDA Organic meat there are requirements for raising beef without chemicals, but most organic beef is still finished in industrial scale feedlots. Forget about these two labels insuring your image of cattle blissfully eating grass out in a verdant green pasture. The only way to really know how your meat is produced is to know the producer.

Grass fed beef producers usually go a step beyond natural and organic, although again; know the producer. The best thing about grassfed beef is that the cattle eat what they were designed to eat. We are finding out that the body should get food that it was traditionally designed to thrive on. Like food our early ancestors thrived on, back when thriving meant living long enough to reproduce. Modern life protects us. Our bodies no longer need to be bow string tight to survive. We have shelter, we have vast communities producing all manner of things to soften and mute out the harshness of surviving. We have tools, industry, and vaccines. But even though we survive, we don’t thrive like we could. If we did thrive better, wouldn’t we be twice blessed? The same industry that brings us so much to soften life also brings us mass produced food. This is food that is engineered to taste good, be convenient, and be cheap. In an industrial feed lot, cattle get the ration mix of digestible substances that will maximize profits. The meat will have to meet visual, taste, and least cost restraints. They are very good at what they do, but the cattle’s well being and your long term health are not a factor.

1. Grass finished meat has four times as much Omega- 3 fatty acids and Vitamin E, and three to five times as much CLA, a potent defender against cancer.

2. About 70% of the antibiotics used in this country are given to animals raised for food, says a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists. A continuous low level of antibiotics is fed in most feed lots, with the biggest concern being the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, crippling modern medicine.

3. Dangerous new strains of e-coli; like 0157:H7 are increasingly showing up in commercial meat. According to a study conducted by Cornell University, these strains of e-coli are adapted to the highly-acidic intestine of a corn-fed beef.  Grassfed cattle have a neutral pH intestive. 

4. The major drawback to grass-finished beef is that it is more expensive to produce.

For more reference material see .www.eatwild.com

Cliff‘s Home-grown Beef .www.homegrownbeef.com, (605-880-0658) or email at ccmillsapps@gmail.com