Show me the science re: grass fed beef

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #21

Reread your comment and it should be clear.

(Karen) #22

@Keigan I have my fav Lambas recipe but not keto. :blush: “One small bite is enough to fill the belly of a grown man”

K

#23

LOTR. Lord Of The Rings.

T,NIGI. IJKS,IG
.
.
.
.
.

*****(Thanks, Now I Get It. I’m Just Kinda Slow, I Guess)

#24

Grass-fed isn’t a movement; it’s the way that ruminants have eaten for millennia. If we need to look to science to prove something, it should be to defend grain feeding in re: the health of both the animals and the people who eat them. Grain-feeding is the weird new thing that needs defending.

[This is not to say that everyone can afford grass-fed meat! Personally I buy it when I can, and not because of the health benefits for me but because it just seems like the right thing to do re: sustainability and ethics.]

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #25

In defense of grain finished cows, they are more mild flavored, fattier, and a bit more tender. That’s the science of it.

We’re talking about finish, not about lifetime feed, when we’re talking about this.

#26

Because cows, like people, fatten up nicely on grains :grin:

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #27

It’s amazing how folks don’t see it… of course, we aren’t ruminants, much as militant vegans might tell you otherwise.

(Ken) #28

Bottom line. The differences between grass and grain finished beef are not significant enough as far as actual health benefits to justify the absurd price difference.

Wild ruminants ate significant amounts of natural grains in the Summer and Fall.

Feedlots only speed up the fat gain process, which would be a slower process in the wild, depending on the productivity of the local ecosystem. That’s why in nature it’s usually the older animals that have the most fat.

Grass finished beef is far cheaper to produce, so why does it cost so much? The same reason any other product does, once it’s pushed by the so called “Health and Natural” food industry.

(jilliangordona) #29

Well, outside of heathfulness, cows shouldn’t be eating corn. It’s not much different than the fact that we ahousktn be eating lots of carbs, but humans do anyway. Do we survive? Yes. Do we feel our best? Hell no. For me, it’s a choice to support the movement to shift our agriculturally production methods.

(GINA ) #30

Where I grew up, most of the relatives and neighbors raised a steer or two in the side pasture for home consumption. They ate grass until it was getting close to slaughter, then grain because it made the meat taste better. Not corn though, it was a molasses-soaked oat mixture. If for some reason you couldn’t afford the grain, the steer stayed on the free grass and you slaughtered it anyway.

So grass fed tastes like “poor” to me. I also have to laugh when someone says cattle don’t even like grain, that they have to be force fed that stuff. Ha! A steer will knock you down and step on you (painful) to get that grain bucket.

This is a sad story… one morning as a teen in the 80s, I got up and ate the oatmeal my mom made for us, then went out and fed the molasses-soaked oats to the black Angus I was raising for the fair. It occurred to me I was fattening up this cow on the same food I was hoping to lose weight on (I wish I was that “fat” now, but I was a teenage girl). I remember pondering the similarities in our breakfast, then thought about my oatmeal, “Well, it is fat free.”

(Miss E) #31

Don’t know where you’re getting your meat from but the organic grass (and hay) fed beef I got was fatty af.

#32

This statement contradicts everything I’ve seen and heard on the subject. The amount of space required and the extra time it takes for grass finished animals to reach slaughter weight makes the cost more than grain finished I thought. Can you confirm this?

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #33

If you’re DIY, maybe. If you’re factory farming, obviously not. In the modern world, for the urban dweller, grass fed is clearly more cost intensive.

(Ken) #34

It depends on how much land you have and the quality of pasture. If you have to buy hay, it could possibly be more expensive.

Being told grass fed cattle are more expensive to produce sounds more like marketing to justify the higher cost to me. My Uncle’s neighbor has a cow-calf operation. When he “retires” a cow, he sells it as grass-fed beef. He makes out really well. When he wants one for himself (or a neighbor) he feeds it corn for at least three months.

Since corn is a grass, and silage is made from the entire corn plant, including the ears, you really don’t know what you’re really getting as there is no actual regulation. (I don’t recommend any, either)

Eat what you want, but when you proselytize a faith-based belief you should expect to be challenged.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #35

Anecdotes are annecdotal.

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/08/why-grass-fed-beef-costs-more/index.htm

The reason grass-fed beef is pricier has to do with beef producers’ profit margin: It can take a farmer up to a year longer (and an extra year’s worth of food, care, and labor) to get a grass-fed animal to reach slaughter weight than for a conventionally raised one. Grass-fed cattle also tend to be smaller at slaughter, so there’s less meat to sell per head. “Using antibiotics, hormones, and feedlots produces obscenely cheap beef,” says grass-fed rancher Will Harris, who owns White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Ga. “When you don’t use them, your production costs are higher, so your prices need to be higher, too.”

(KCKO, KCFO) #36

I found this story linked to the one you posted very interesting.

(Ken) #37

It looks to me that the most profitable way to produce grass fed beef is to sell mature cows once they are too old for breeding. (or milk production) IMO, mature beef has a better, more intense flavor, and when a farmer sends one to slaughter, he gets deducted as the animal usually gets processed for only hamburger. Fast food burgers are typically cow beef. I suspect this is why some people find grass fed to be tasty, as if from a mature animal I would expect it to be more flavorful.

For those who insist on grass fed beef, you should seek out farmers with either dairy or cow-calf operations and reserve an animal for when one is retired. Especially Holsteins used for milk production. They’re great for milk production due to high yields, but due to their body structure, a farmer ususlly gets an additional deduction for them when slaughtered. You should have huge savings.

#38

I think the faith based belief here is that feeding animals massive amounts of GMO corn and soy is 100% safe and even ideal. As others have said, the burden of proof is on the “new way” not the way ruminants have eaten for millennia. You need to understand and acknowledge that “grain fed” is marketing also.

I tend to agree that maybe it’s splitting hairs some based on the seemingly small amounts of fatty acid differences. But then again we don’t really have a firm grasp on how much the dramatic Omega 3:6 imbalance has contributed to health problems in recent years. We’re pretty sure it’s a factor but to what extent? Again the burden of proof is on the foods that go against nature.

(Ken) #39

Using that reasoning, virtually all food is “unnatural”, due to selective breeding and cultivar manipulation. Gene splicing merely replicates what happens on a random basis in Nature (mutations), but is intentionally specific in Science. As far as proving gmo corn to be detrimental, I’m not aware of anything remotely conclusive.

Consider this: if you want an example of a food that is highly detrimental, how about high gluten triticale wheat? It’s far more detrimental than any gmo fed beef.

#40

Like being resistant to the effects of glyphosate? You’re stretching. Besides accelerating what nature can do on it’s own we have created plenty of problems because we cannot evolve quickly enough to keep up. Take the fructose content of fruits for example.

You have this “show me the science” mentality but the burden of proof is on your beliefs not mine. And that science likely won’t be around for a long long time.