Where's the beef?

About 1978, I started working at a “holistic” center near San Diego. Most of the practitioners I worked with had nutrition attached to their specialty, and many were vegetarians. Considering what I knew about nutrition at the time (very little), I decided to go the (mostly) vegetarian route.

What I quickly found out is that you just can’t stop eating meat and continue eating the same way – following the standard American diet (SAD). You need to look into the food that you are eating and how the nutrients balance out, making sure you’re getting the proper amount of protein.

Beef has gotten a bad rap for being high in saturated fat, raising cholesterol and omega-6 fats, and, in general, being bad for your health. So you can imagine that as a health care provider, I routinely shock my patients when I suggest they eat grass-fed beef once a week as a general way to improve their health, strengthen immunity and bring balance to the stress hormones.

Many consumers think that all meat is created equal, which could not be further from the truth. There is a monumental difference between grass-fed beef and corn-fed beef, and a lot depends further on how the animal was fed and how it was treated (i.e., with hormones or antibiotics, access to the outdoors and a pasture, etc.)

An animal's diet has a profound influence on the nutrient content of its products. If we eat beef from a cow that ate grass vs. a cow that ate corn, the outcome is much different. We consume what the animal consumed, and if we eat a lot of corn, we are eating a lot of sugar, which translates to weight gain and blood sugar instability. However, if we eat a lot of greens, the opposite is true. We will look and feel much differently. The idea is to use food as medicine – or food as the slowest form of poison.

Less fat, fewer calories

Grass-fed products are typically much lower in total fat and calories than grain-fed products. For example, a sirloin steak from a grass-fed steer has about one-half to one-third the amount of fat as a similar cut from a grain fed steer and 100 fewer calories.

Omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 fatty acids play a vital role in every cell and system in the body. They are the most heart-friendly fats. They support healthy immune and brain function and improve gastrointestinal health.

Many North Americans are deficient in omega-3s. We must consume them consistently because the body cannot produce them on its own. People who have ample amounts of omega-3s in their diet are less likely to have high blood pressure or an irregular heartbeat. Remarkably, they are also 50% less likely to have a serious heart attack.

We typically think “fish” when talking about omega-3s, but wild-raised animals also contain significant amounts of omega-3s. For example, elk contains 178 mg of omega-3 per 100 g of meat; deer has 225 mg per 100 g, and antelope has 216 mg per 100 g. So, even if you don’t like to eat fish, the animals that are “free range” and have the room to move and exercise their muscles are in better condition to consume.

Better taste, higher vitamins and minerals

The bottom line is simple. Get back to basics and consume (real) food the way nature intended. If you are going to eat animals, eat them responsibly, with reverence, and make sure you know the source and quality of that animal product. If an animal is raised on a feedlot, it lives an incredibly stress-filled life. Stress creates stress hormones, which affect taste and tenderness of meat. Grass-fed beef tastes infinitely better, and it’s a product you can feel good about, knowing the animal had a high quality, humane way of life.