Americans have never consumed more animal products than we currently do today. It’s estimated that over 25 million cows are killed each year in order to keep Americans bellies satisfied. With over 300 million people and only about 5% of the population not eating meat (vegetarians/vegans) it’s easy to see how we consume so much beef. The American diet has been based around the cow, as we consider a Hamburger to be about the most American thing there is to eat and we’ve made McDonalds the largest restaurant in the world.
Shadow Fit is not out to push any agenda, but more or less open peoples eyes to some information that may change the way they eat. We try to open your eyes when it comes to picking a healthier diet each week (as we will in this post) but sometimes we find it necessary to open your eyes to what goes behind that food your eating. If you see the way these animals are slaughtered it will definitely gross you out a bit. We know that for most, seeing an animal slaughtered is not on their list of things to watch and realistically we don’t expect you to stop eating meat because of it. If you knew that the ground beef you get from a fast food place is likely made up of a few thousand cows and a bunch of “filler” to help protect you from the E. coli, you would likely be grossed out but still would eat it. If you knew that you could get beef that was raised humanely, was much healthier for you and had a much lower risk of getting you sick; would you consider eating that? There is beef out there that embodies all three of those topics, its called grass-fed beef.
Why So Good?
John wrote a bit about grass-fed beef last week in his post encouraging you to get selfish. He didn’t go into too much detail on why grass-fed beef is so good for you. That is what will be explained in the following portion of this post. Think back at how cows lives were a few hundred years ago. They scoured the grounds slowly eating tons and tons of grass and thats pretty much it. Today cows are fed grain which has far fewer nutrients than natural growing grass. This means that the cows themselves are becoming much less healthy. On top of that, the grain messes with the cows enzymes and changes their natural biology completely.
This change in the cow leads to a major change in the meat that we get. When comparing a grass-fed piece of meat to a grain-fed piece, the nutritional differences are very obvious. Grass-fed cows have nearly 60% more omega-3 fatty acids than their grain-fed counterparts. Along with that, grass-fed cows have a much higher amount of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which not only has been proven to reduce belly fat but also has anti-cancer properties. Studies have also shown that grass-fed beef is higher in amino acids which are the building blocks for protein.
How To Eat?
Just about everyone knows how to eat beef, whether it be a steak, hamburger or strips. The question you should be asking is where to find the grass-fed beef. It is considered to be a specialty item and depending on where you live, it may take a little work to hunt some down. Many of the beef stands at farmers markets will have grass-fed beef. If you don’t have a farmers market near by, check out your local Whole Foods or similar health food stores. You can also find individual farms that offer grass-fed products on www.EatWild.com, they have a list of farmers in each state that grow wild animals. You should also ask if the cow was grass fed and finished. Sometimes they will claim that its grass-fed but the farmers will give it grain in the final few weeks to fatten it up. Although this is still a better choice than the fully grain-fed option, it is best to have it fed and finished with grass.
