Step five: Switching to grass-fed beef
For numerous reasons, I feel like this is one of our most important steps. Where to begin? It may be best to just refer to some websites that I found insightful, like this one and this one and this one.
According to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science in 2002, grass-fed beef offers these benefits:
- Lower in Fat and Calories: Meat from grass-fed cattle is lower in total fat. Lean meats may have as much as one-third the fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed animal. Grass-fed beef can have the same amount of fat as skinless chicken breast, wild deer or elk. Consuming lean beef can also help lower LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) levels. Because it is lower in fat, grass-fed beef is also lower in calories.
- More Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Grass-fed animals can contain as much as two-to-four times more omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed animals. Omega-3 fatty acids are fats that are essential to our health (they are “good” fats). One reason grass-fed animals are full of these good fats is because omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and algae.
- More Vitamins: Studies have shown that grass-fed beef can have as much as four times more vitamin E than grain-fed beef.
- Good Source of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA): Products from grass-fed animals are the richest known source of conjugated linoeic acid (CLA), which is another type of good fat. CLA is stored in fat cells and has been shown to reduce cancer risks in humans. Grass-fed animals contain as much as three-to-five times more CLA than grain-fed animals.
Source: J Animal Sci 80(5): 1202-11, 2002; Eat Wild
One of the most appealing health benefits to me is the much higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids. When I had my cholesterol levels tested recently, it showed that my “bad” cholesterol is at a healthy level but that I don’t have enough “good” cholesterol. When I asked what I needed to do, the answer was to increase my intake of omega-3 fatty acids in my diet. Since I detest fish (a good source of omega-3s, particularly salmon), grass-fed beef seemed to be a more feasible choice. The lower fat, lower calories, more vitamins, and more CLA (supposedly the best nutritional defense against cancer) are obviously bonuses as well. And it just makes sense to me that cows that are fed their natural diet of grass and hay will result in healthier meat than cows that are fed grain, especially when a lot of that grain is genetically modified and laden with chemicals. Plus, local farms that offer grass-fed beef typically use organic practices, which means no pesticides or growth hormones in the meat. The cows also live on open pasture and are treated well and handled (read slaughtered) humanely.
Our journey to grass-fed beef
We decided to switch to grass-fed beef after a lot of research online and after reading a few books (like Real Food by Nina Planck). For the sake of cost and convenience, we searched for a local farm to purchase the meat from. We looked at this website and we also just searched on Google. We found a great farm nearby, and we stopped by to visit and ask some more questions (cow’s diet in terms of grass vs. hay, organic practices, etc.). We purchased a bunch of beef (ground, steaks, roasts) in bulk to keep in our freezer. Now instead of buying beef when we go to the grocery store on Sundays, we just move what we need for the week from the freezer to the refrigerator.
The farm we get our beef from sells it for $3.50/lb for ground, $6-$8/lb for steaks, and $4/lb for roasts. It is a very small family farm and their prices were quite a bit cheaper than several of the other places we found. There is another farm nearby that boasts really high quality grass-fed beef (particularly in terms of taste) that we may look into at some point. It is more expensive but they sell it for $5/lb if you order in bulk (i.e. purchase 1/4 or 1/8 of a cow, packaged as various cuts of meat), so it would get back into a reasonable price range. What we have been able to buy hasn't been more expensive than what we were previously purchasing from the grocery store, and it is organic and 100% grass-fed. Plus, we really like knowing where our beef comes from and getting some really healthy meat while helping support a small family business. Win, win.
*Side note: Before we started buying local, we had switched to grass-fed ground beef that we found at our grocery store. However, I looked at the label and nowhere on there did it say anything about "how" grass-fed it was...100%... 50%, etc. Most cows are "grass-fed" and out on pasture until the last few months of their [very short] lives, when they are moved indoors to be fattened on grain before processing. It is during this time that the meat looses the nutritional value from the grass-based diet. So I had no idea if what I was buying just had "grass-fed" on the label as a marketing ploy (which worked-- we were paying $5/lb for it). I looked for 100% grass-fed beef or grass-fed beef that was labeled "grass-finished", but I couldn't find any.
