100% Grass Fed Meat VS Grass Fed – Is there a difference?
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Many people are now being sold ‘grass-fed meat’ – it’s the new food jargon. But before you spend your extra pennies on a juicy grass-fed steak there are a few questions you need to ask.
Meat marketed as ‘grass fed’ isn’t all it’s made out to be and is in fact misleading. The important missing factor here is ‘100%’ or ‘grass finished.’
Why?
Firstly, there is a lot of misinformation and confusion about fats. Much of our health and nutrition advice has been based on questionable studies and often have a political agenda attached. For example, recent comprehensive, studies show that saturated fats have little or no adverse effects on cardiovascular disease.
Omega-3 to Omega-6 Ratios
A more important health factor when we’re considering our fat intake is the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids. Throughout human evolution, we have spent millions of years eating a diet rich in fish and wild game; these foods are an abundant source of omega-3 long-chain fatty acids (EPA and DHA). Our consumption of omega-6 seed oils was by comparison very small.
Anthropological research suggests that our hunter-gatherer forefathers ate a diet that had a 1:1 ratio of omega-6 and omega-3. It also appears that these same forefathers were free from the diseases that plague our modern society. As the industrial revolution unfolded over the last century and a half, cereals and vegetable oils have become a more prominent part of people’s diet. This is also when animals started being fed grains, this reduced the omega-3 content of meat.
Alpha Linolenic Acid (ALA) and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)
Plants contain Alpha Linolenic Acid (ALA) an omaga-3 which can be converted by our bodies into DHA and EPA but the conversion rates are very poor. If we eat too many omega-6 fatty acids this will interfere with the successful conversion of ALA into DHA and EPA.
There’s a very special fat out there that is found only in the fat of grass-fed and finished animals. CLA or ‘conjugated linoleic acid’ could be one of the most healthful and potent cancer-fighting substances in our diet. It has been proven to – even in small amounts – block all three stages of Cancer, unlike most “anticancer nutrients” which only help on one stage.
100% Grass Fed and Pasture for Life Certified Meats
Our meat is raised in a very different way nowadays and this may be contributing to your high intake of omega-6. We should be getting our omega-3 and CLA from fish and meat, however, due to more industrialised farming methods, most animals are now grain fed for some or all of their life. This goes for animals reared in the UK, if you ask your local farmer what his annual grain bill is you may be surprised!
For an animal to produce meat that is healthful for human consumption and rich in omega 3 and CLA, the animal’s digestion needs to be working properly. When eating their natural forage diet of grass, beef animals have a healthy pH of 7. This creates the perfect environment for the fermentation of bacteria which in turn produce high levels of CLA, omega -3, branch chain amino acids, vitamins and digestive enzymes. Just 30 days of feeding a bovine grain can throw the pH downwards towards pH4 and undo the chemistry of 200 days of munching grass.
The Difference in How Meat is Raised
Grain Finished or 100% Grass Fed
In an acidic environment, the healthy bacteria are replaced by a fermentation bacteria that impedes the healthy by-products and increases the levels of omega -6. The cattle become sick as their liver cannot cope. The result – farmers have to battle with a range of diseases in their animals and may rely on preventative and reactive drug use.
Most ancestral health and functional health followers are buying grass fed meat because they believe that it will be rich in omega – 3 and CLA.
In the UK it is very unusual to find animals that are not grain fed – especially towards their slaughter, the vast majority of Farmers ‘finish’ their animals on cereals in order to get them to the desired weight and conformation required by the buyers, butchers and supermarkets. Sometimes animals are ‘grass finished’ alongside grain feeding, this still has an undesirable result on the quality of nutrients in the meat.
100% Grass Fed
As well as amazing fats, 100% grass fed meat is also naturally high in a wide range of nutrients including zinc, iron, phosphorus, sodium and potassium. 100% grass fed beef is high in beta-carotene, vitamin E, glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and catalase, all of which play a role in preventing harmful oxidisation.
Grain feeding is not only bad for animal and human health it also supports the import of grains from across the world. Cereal feed merchants work hard to keep costs low and the sheep or cattle feed that UK farmers are buying will have a broad composition of macronutrients covered but the actual source of the cereals to supply this nutrition is mainly influenced by price.
Industrialised Agriculture
Some of the cheapest grains can be supplied by companies in Countries who are destroying rainforests to mine the rich top soils or those using GM crops with high levels of fertilisers and pesticides. Global transportation and industrialised agriculture contribute are responsible for over 3/4 of agricultural emissions; it’s inefficient and unsustainable.
GM foods have to be labelled in the UK but we do not have any such assurances for meat and milk products – most non-organically reared animals in the UK will have been fed GM cereal.
The next time you buy some meat or talk to a farmer directly ask these questions to build a picture of where they are on the spectrum of sustainable and healthy meat production:
- Does the livestock you produce get fed ANY grains or cereals? If so how many KG per animal per day.
- Are your animals finished outdoors on pasture? If they are indoors in winter what do they eat?
- Are your animals given any routine medications, wormers and what is your policy on antibiotic use?
- If you are feeding grains, are you using UK based companies and do they use UK sourced organic grains? If the grains are not UK grown then ask:
- Do the grains you feed contain GMO?
We need to build pressure and awareness around these hidden practices; it’s YOUR job as consumers to care enough about this issue to ask and it is OUR job as retailers and farmers to know this information provide you with honest answers.
