How Missouri Beef is Your Best Health Food
Now there has been some discussion about the heart-healthy aspects of Missouri grass-fed beef – an all-natural health food. Here's a pretty well-documented summary from Eat Wild (http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm):Summary of Important Health Benefits of Grassfed Meats, Eggs and Dairy
Lower in Fat and Calories. There are a number of
nutritional differences between the meat of pasture-raised and
feedlot-raised animals. To begin with, meat from grass-fed cattle,
sheep, and bison is lower in total fat. If the meat is very lean, it can
have one third as much fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed animal. In
fact, as you can see by the graph below, grass-fed beef can have the
same amount of fat as skinless chicken breast, wild deer, or elk.[1] Research shows that lean beef actually lowers your "bad" LDL cholesterol levels.[2]
Data from J. Animal Sci 80(5):1202-11.
Because meat from grass-fed animals is
lower in fat than meat from grain-fed animals, it is also lower in
calories. (Fat has 9 calories per gram, compared with only 4 calories
for protein and carbohydrates. The greater the fat content, the greater
the number of calories.) As an example, a 6-ounce steak from a
grass-finished steer can have 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak
from a grain-fed steer. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds
a year), switching to lean grassfed beef will save you 17,733 calories a
year—without requiring any willpower or change in your eating habits.
If everything else in your diet remains constant, you'll lose about six
pounds a year. If all Americans switched to grassfed meat, our national
epidemic of obesity might diminish.
In the past few years, producers of
grass-fed beef have been looking for ways to increase the amount of
marbling in the meat so that consumers will have a more familiar
product. But even these fatter cuts of grass-fed beef are lower in fat
and calories than beef from grain-fed cattle.
But that's another discussion for another time.
Come, do a working vacation out at our farm and walk a couple miles with me every day in heavy boots and humid weather - that will start melting the pounds off...
References:
1. Rule, D. C., K. S. Brought on, S. M. Shellito, and G. Maiorano. "Comparison of Muscle Fatty Acid Profiles and Cholesterol Concentrations of Bison, Beef Cattle, Elk, and Chicken." J Anim Sci 80, no. 5 (2002): 1202-11.
2. Davidson, M. H., D. Hunninghake, et al. (1999). "Comparison of the effects of lean red meat vs lean white meat on serum lipid levels among free-living persons with hypercholesterolemia: a long-term, randomized clinical trial." Arch Intern Med 159(12): 1331-8. The conclusion of this study: "... diets containing primarily lean red meat or lean white meat produced similar reductions in LDL cholesterol and elevations in HDL cholesterol, which were maintained throughout the 36 weeks of treatment."
No comments:
Post a Comment