"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art." - La Rochefoucauld

Sunday, October 31, 2010

REAL Beef Eat Grass -- Not Grains

grass fed cows

"The fat content of beef is the primary reason it has lost ground as a respectable entrée on America's dinner table. Not only do most beef cuts have a high fat content, ranging from 35-75%, but the majority of it is saturated.

"Grain fed beef can have an omega 6:3 ratio higher than 20:1"
-- J. Anim. Sci. 2000. 78:2849-2855

This well exceeds the 4:1 ratio where health problems begin to show up because of the essential fat imbalance. Also grain fed beef can have over 50% of the total fat as the far less healthy saturated fat.

Grass fed beef has an omega 6:3 ratio of 0.16 to 1

This is the ratio science suggests is ideal for our diet. This is about the same ratio that fish has. Grass fed beef usually has less than 10% of its fat as saturated. If you are a pregnant or breastfeeding mom, the extra omega 3 from the grass fed beef will provide incredible nutritional benefits for your child" Dr. Mercola

I have been purchasing my beef, chicken, pork and eggs from Creswick Farms for about two years. Their animals are grass-fed. Grass-fed meat is even healthier then the organic grain-fed meat you can purchase at the grocery store. Their meat is not certified organic. However, the farmer explained to me that it is very expensive to get certified and a lot of local farmers bypass this process so that they don't have to charge their customers more money for their meat. Even though they are not certified, they still follow the organic guidelines. I usually order 3-4 times a year and stock up for 3-4 months at a time. I order 6 dozen eggs each time, as well. Their eggs are wonderful. They are only $1.25 a dozen, opposed to the $5.00 organic eggs you buy at the grocery store. Here is their website and some more information about grass-fed meat.
http://www.creswickfarms.com/


Additional Information About Health Benefits
"Products from pastured animals have an ideal balance of essential fatty acids or EFAs. There are two families of EFAs-omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. According to a new French study, when women eat food that is relatively rich in omega-3s and low in omega-6s, they have a 76 percent reduction in their risk of breast cancer. Products from grass fed (also known as grassfed or grass-fed) animals and wild game have this ideal ratio of EFAs."

2 comments:

Kelly O'Donnell said...

I think that is a little known secret of lots of local purchasing--just because they don't pay to get certified USDA "organic" they are still essentially organic. Forest Ave. Market in downtown Plymouth has these type of meats--non-certified but truly still "organic". Good prices and great selection.

Learning As I Go Blog said...

Kel, Is that the place on Ann Arbor Road? I think that is the one Maria loves...the one with the chicken feet! :) I wish we had more types of stores like that around here.
Danielle