Benefits of Grass Fed Beef
It’s no secret that American’s consume a great deal of Beef in their diets. In 2010, the USDA reported that the U.S. consumed approximately 26.4 billion pounds of beef. This demand resulted in approximately 34.2 million heads of beef being slaughtered. This means that the typical beef found at the grocery store is mass produced by U.S. Cattle Ranchers which means that accelerated growth techniques have been put in place to manage the demand for high quantities. These techniques include feeding the cattle grains which help them increase weight quickly and adding hormones and antibiotics to their diet to help manage a rapid, steady development often referred to as “Factory Farming.” Looking at this information, you might also conclude that Americans consuming this beef as a foundational part of the protein in their diets, are also experiencing accelerated growth in weight gain. Research is also uncovering that the added hormones and drugs used in our food production may be tied to the increased health challenges and cancer diagnosis in our country.
100% Grass Fed Beef is your healthiest option in beef choices. It is lower in fat content than grain fed beef and contains higher levels of Omega 3 – the “good fat.” A diet rich in Omega 3 fatty acids has been reported to prevent cancer and slow the growth of existing cancer. A sirloin steak from a grass fed steer has only one-half to one-third as much fat as a similar cut from a grain fed steer. In fact, Grass Fed Beef has almost the same fat content as skinless chicken, wild deer or elk. The 100% grass diet produces a very lean beef cow that is “90-95% fat free” and is lower in calories.
With “the average American eating 66.5 pounds of beef per year, switching to grass fed beef can save you over 17,000 calories per year.” If everything else in your diet remains constant, you will lose about 6 pounds by eating Grass Fed Beef and you’ll keep it off!
In addition, Dr. Tilak Dhiman of Utah State University, one of North America’s leading researchers on the benefits of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid, which is found in the fat of grass-fed cattle but only in small amounts in grain feed cattle) and one’s health, stated, “CLA could not just prevent health problems but could help people who already have chronic health problems get better…not only preventative but regenerative as well.” Current research with animals indicates that CLA not only reduces the incidence of cancer in animals but it also suppresses the growth of cancer cells.”
Treatment centers suggest meat that is grass fed for patients recovering from cancer. Click on this link to see what diet is suggested Cancer Recovery Diet
Currently, animal studies suggest that CLA is:
- Anti-carcinogenic
- Reduces body fat
- Anti-diabetic
- Anti-antherosclerosis (heart disease)
Dr. Dhiman said to keep in mind that CLA is additive. In other words, eating grass-fed meat, cheese and milk all helped to accumulate CLA in body tissue. A French study of 360 women found that the higher the CLA level was in their breast tissue the lower their incidence of breast cancer. He said the minimum effective level of CLA was 0.5 percent of the total diet. While this was a tiny amount, this was almost impossible to achieve eating normal American supermarket food.
However, he said grass-fed foods are so high in CLA that a single eight ounce glass of grass-fed milk, plus one 30 gram (one ounce) slice of cheese from grass-fed milk and one 84 gram (2.5 ounces) serving of grass-fed meat provided twice the minimum amount of CLA needed for both prevention and regeneration.
Dhiman said that 100 percent grass-fed meats and milk were up to 500 percent higher in CLA than other meat and milk fed conventional high-grain diets. The key element here is “100 percent grass-fed.”
