Grass-fed vs. Regular meat

[Wishbone]

Eat what you can afford to do the best you can do for YOU. It should always be about YOU!
I can’t afford to eat like that either, but I’ve lost 85 pound, reversed my type 2, blood pressure is down, and I can run again!

[PrimalBrian]

I’d call it common, cheap or maybe cruel before calling it regular.

Exactly. You and Seth Godin are speaking this exact language: https://seths.blog/2009/07/quality-scale-and-the-regular-kind/

[debg]

While I suppose grass-fed is better for you overall, I very rarely buy it. As you said, the price difference is exorbitant. If I happen to see it marked down (hardly ever), I might pick some up.

[LeCheffre]

My take, which is based on reading Dr. Peter Ballerstedt and others is as follows:
Lacking any known lectin issues or other allergies…
I buy standard beef at Costco or occasionally at Whole Foods. Most cows spend the majority of their lives on grass, even feed lot cows, who spend their latter months on the feed lot. While I understand that the feedlot is suboptimal, the price bump is not worth it to me for the marginal difference. I’ve also noticed that I prefer some grain finishing to the cow, but not enough that it informs my decision.

I buy pasture raised pork and chicken as much as I can. Same with eggs. These commodity animals lead fairly sad lives, even compared to CAFO cows. The result of this sad existence is in the food. The pork from pastured pigs, even non-heritage breeds, is just far superior in flavor to commodity pork, and well worth the price difference to me. The nutrition of pastured eggs, particularly for me, a highly infrequent seafood eater, is worth paying a couple more dollars a dozen. Even at $6 a dozen, we’re talking $.50 an egg. The egg yolk is among the best thing you can eat as a non-fish eating ketonian, so you really don’t want to skimp there.

The price difference on the pork, chicken and eggs is less severe than the gap on the beef, especially as pork, chicken and eggs are less expensive to start with. The price bump brings those products up to beef prices, and the improvement in both flavor and nutrition is worth it to me.

But I highly recommend doing the research on the benefits for each animal and making your own valuation. I’m at a point in my keto journey where food quality matters to me. You may be at a different point and you may never get to where food quality matters to you.

[PaulL]

Think of it in terms of cost per serving. Yes, for the first few weeks of eating a ketogenic diet, my appetite was still high, so my food bills went up. But now that my satiety signaling has kicked in, my appetite has decreased to the point that, even though I’m eating more meat, my cost per meal is still affordable. If you cost it out, you may find grass-fed meat more affordable than you thought.

[Rclause]

I new grocery store that has come to town (Lidl) has mostly grass feed beef and seems reasonably priced. Having ribeyes tonight and they are cheaper than the bucher, thinner too now that I think about it.

[anon2571578]

Something of a suggestion that I don’t see thrown out a lot: if one switches primarily ground beef for bison, it seems the odds of it being primarily grass-fed goes up. There is still the expense thing but I’ve found hitting the Wal-Mart at the right day finds you can get ground bison for a decent price when it’s marked down ($4.50 per pound was the last deal I got). And seeing as there is less demand for bison, even if it is grain-finished there’s less chance it’s come from an industrial lot. American law also prohibits the use of hormones in bison, and most aren’t treated with antibiotics, so if that’s something else people worry about, there’s that.

The only downside is that it’s leaner than beef, but cooking it in tallow or whatever fixes that problem.

[Untraceable]

Marketing.

Grain finished will certainly taste better as well.

[LeCheffre]

Matter of preference. If you grew up with grass, it’s your preference. Most folks grew up with grain, so that’s the preference.

[Untraceable]

If you grew up on grass, you’ll faint after wagyu.

[juice]

If you grew up on grass, you’re not human.

[anon2571578]

If you grew up on grass, you’re not human.

Even I’m not this harsh to vegans.

[juice]

Even I’m not this harsh to vegans.

Well, you can [spoiler]absolutely[/spoiler] work up to it…

[LeCheffre]

Yer not human.

[ctviggen]

If you grew up on grass, you’ll faint after wagyu.

Took the family to a place that offered a tasting menu with grass-fed, prime, aged (prime?), and wagyu. Split between three of us. Wagyu was either last or second to last, grass-fed and aged were first and second I believe. (I think grass-fed was first.)

Maybe Wagyu is an acquired taste?

We ordered 1/4 of a cow from a relatively local farm. Took us a while to like it, as it tasted completely different, not bland, unique. I think it was all grass fed.

[Untraceable]

You cant even compete in bbq (double blind judging) with a grass finished brisket. Even prime is bringing a knife to a gun fight against American Wagyu. Full blood wagyu seems to be a little too soft and rich.

Not saying that you cant get a good grass finished steak, but its the exception, not the norm.

[ketohorse]

Let’s be really clear here: ALL beef is primarily grass-fed. Every American (and European) cow spends at least 75 or 80 percent of their lives on pasture. It’s only for the last few months that conventionally raises beef is put on a feedlot and given concentrates (primarily grain) to fatten them for slaughter. They are still eating hay/silage, such that 90 or 95 percent of their lifetime feed will be grass.

Because of the grain finishing, conventional beef is able to be slaughtered at 14-18 months, HALF the time it takes to finish an animal on grass alone. THAT’s why grass-finished beef is so much more expensive; it simply takes twice as long - and twice as much expense (to farmers and to the environment) - to have a slaughter-ready animal.

Eat conventional beef and feel great about it. If you want to purchase grass-finished beef from a local farmer you know, go for it and feel great about it.

Either way, you’re going to feel great from the health benefits.

[LeCheffre]

Took the family to a place that offered a tasting menu with grass-fed, prime, aged (prime?), and wagyu. Split between three of us. Wagyu was either last or second to last, grass-fed and aged were first and second I believe. (I think grass-fed was first.)

I am not that fond of wagyu either. Dry aged, pastured cows that were craft finished as opposed to CAFO… that’s peak steak for me.

Everything is an acquired taste. It’s just some tastes you acquire growing up, and some you have to acquire or not later in life.

You cant even compete in bbq (double blind judging) with a grass finished brisket. Even prime is bringing a knife to a gun fight against American Wagyu. Full blood wagyu seems to be a little too soft and rich.

Competition BBQ is a world of excess and insanity that has very little bearing on what I do at home or eat in a restaurant. Chris Lillie has said that he’d have to charge $20 at the restaurant for the pulled pork that won Memphis in May. He couldn’t do that, because he doesn’t think he’d sell enough to make it worth doing. I wonder, but maybe not with his current clientele.

[PaulL]

and twice as much expense (to farmers and to the environment) -

I think Peter Ballerstedt would argue with the latter half of this. His thesis is that there is much more grassland than arable land, and ruminants can not only make use of grassland, but are good for it, since the grasses and the ruminants evolved together. He claims that the argument that meat does environmental harm and uses up resources that could go to feeding human beings is just so much vegan propaganda.

[juice]

Maybe Wagyu is an acquired taste?

TBH, I don’t even like the LOOK after it’s been sous vided, so I’m surely not buying it given the prices.

Either way, you’re going to feel great from the health benefits.

_{yes I’m out of likes again. stupid software}

Everything is an acquired taste. It’s just some tastes you acquire growing up, and some you have to acquire or not later in life.

I think Peter Ballerstedt would argue with the latter half of this. His thesis is that there is much more grassland than arable land, and ruminants can not only make use of grassland, but are good for it, since the grasses and the ruminants evolved together. He claims that the argument that meat does environmental harm and uses up resources that could go to feeding human beings is just so much vegan propaganda.

THIS