grass-fed Beef

DOES IT REALLY MATTER?

KNOW YOUR COW There is ample scientific evidence that pasture-fed animals are biochemically better from a nutritional perspective than grain-fed animals. If you think about it, all of these animals evolved grazing on pastures and as a result their metabolism was set to provide optimal growth from grass as a food source. Biochemically a grass-fed animal contains a better composition of fatty acids than a grain-fed animal.

Grass is good for the cow and good for man who eats cow.

Remember the fatty acid composition in the meat we consume is important for our health. We asked Dr. James why the composition of the fatty acids mattered for our health. His answer was “THE RATIO OF OMEGA 6 TO OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS IS IMPORTANT. OMEGA 6 STIMULATES THE INFLAMMATORY PATHWAY AND OMEGA 3 STIMULATES THE RESOLUTION OF INFLAMMATION PATHWAY. A RATIO OF OMEGA 6 TO OMEGA 3  OF ABOUT 1 IS IDEAL. GRAIN FED ANIMALS HAVE A RATIO OF ABOUT 8 WHEREAS GRASS FED ANIMALS HAVE A RATIO OF ABOUT 1.”

Pitfall to avoid - Beef must be grass-fed and grass-finished. Some uses of the term grass-fed are more liberal than others and the cow can actually be grass-fed but grain-finished. KNOW YOUR COW! This is not the same as grass-fed and grass-finished.

A BIG NO FOR GRASS-FED WHEY PRODUCTS… SORT OF
If you are taking one of the popular whey protein products, we’ve noticed that the protein powders (casein or whey) are advertised as being from GRASS-FED COWS. In this case, it REALLY DOESN’T MATTER if the cows were grass-fed or grain-fed because these are proteins products and not fat products. The whey and casein proteins are biochemically the same whether they are from a grain-fed or grass-fed animal. Only the animal fats are impacted by a grass-fed diet. We would recommend not wasting your money by paying a higher price for grass-fed whey protein.

Wait, but what about the environmental concerns over how grass-fed cattle are raised vs industrial farming grain-fed cattle? Then it is yes to grass-fed whey products. If you do choose to buy whey products from grass-fed cows then at least understand that it is for environmental reasons and not for nutritional reasons.

We recommend this article as a follow up on the environmental concerns pertaining to grass-fed vs grain-fed.

Find more about the nutritional benefits of fatty acids in grass-fed beef here.

Scientifically it follows that milk and its by-products, which also contain fats, would be better coming from grass-fed cows. Read about this here.