The Health Benefits of Grassfed Animal Products
By Jo Robinson
When you switch from grainfed to grassfed animal products, you
instantly create a more nutritious, wholesome diet. First of all,
you eliminate a lot of "bad" fat from your diet. When
cattle, sheep, and bison are raised on pasture, their meat is naturally
very lean. For example, a sirloin steak from a grassfed steer has
about one half to one third the amount of fat as a similar cut from
a grainfed steer. In fact, grassfed meat has about the same amount
of fat as skinless chicken or wild deer or elk. When meat is this
lean, it actually lowers your LDL (bad) cholesterol levels.
Because grassfed meat is so lean, it is also lower in calories.
A six-ounce steak from a grass-finished steer has almost 100 fewer
calories than a similar steak from a grainfed steer. If you eat
a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to grassfed
beef will save you 17,733 calories a year-without requiring any
willpower or change in 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 begin to diminish.
Extra Omega-3s
Although grassfed meat is low in "bad" fat (including
saturated fat), it gives you from two to six times more of a type
of "good" fat called "omega-3 fatty acids."
Omega-3 fatty acids play a vital role in every cell and system in
your body. For example, of all the fats, they are the most "heart
friendly." People who have ample amounts of omega-3s in their
diet are less likely to have high blood pressure or an irregular
heartbeat. Remarkably, they are 50 percent less likely to have a
serious heart attack. Omega-3s are essential for your brain as well.
People with a diet rich in omega-3s are less likely to be afflicted
with depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder (hyperactivity),
or Alzheimer's disease.
Another benefit of omega-3s is that they may reduce your risk of
cancer. In animal studies, these essential fatty acids have slowed
the growth of a wide array of cancers and kept them from spreading.
Although the human research is in its infancy, researchers have
shown that omega-3s can slow or even reverse the extreme weight
loss that accompanies advanced cancer. They can also hasten recovery
from cancer surgery. Furthermore, women with breast cancer who have
high levels of omega-3s in their tissues may respond better to chemotherapy
than women with low levels.
Omega-3s are most abundant in seafood and certain nuts and seeds
such as flaxseeds and walnuts, but they are also found in grassfed
animal products. The reason that grassfed animals have more omega-3s
than grainfed animals is that omega-3s are formed in the green leaves
(specifically the chloroplasts) of plants. Sixty percent of the
fat content of grass is a type of omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic
or LNA. When cattle are taken off grass and shipped to a feedlot
to be fattened on grain, they lose their valuable store of omega-3s.
Each day that an animal spends in the feedlot, its supply of omega-3s
is diminished.
When chickens are housed indoors and deprived of greens, their
meat and eggs also become artificially low in omega-3s. Eggs from
pastured hens can contain as much as 20 times more omega-3s than
eggs from factory hens. They are also higher in vitamin E and carotenes.
(The carotenes give the eggs a rich, almost orange yolk.)
Switching our livestock from their natural diet of grass to grain
is one of the hidden reasons our modern diet is so deficient in
these essential fats. It has been estimated that only 40 percent
of Americans consume a sufficient supply of these nutrients. Twenty
percent have levels so low that they cannot be detected. Switching
to grassfed animal products is one way to restore this vital nutrient
to your diet.
The CLA Bonus
The meat and milk from grassfed ruminants are the richest known
source of another type of good fat called "conjugated linoleic
acid" or CLA. When ruminants are raised on fresh pasture alone,
their milk and meat contain as much as five times more CLA than
products from animals fed conventional diets.
CLA may be one of our most potent defenses against cancer. In laboratory
animals, a very small percentage of CLA - a mere 0.1 percent of
total calories -greatly reduces tumor growth. Researcher Tilak Dhiman
from Utah State University estimates that you may be able to lower
your risk of cancer simply by eating the following grassfed products
each day: one glass of whole milk, one ounce of cheese, and one
serving of meat. You would have to eat five times that amount of
grainfed meat and dairy products to get the same level of protection.
Vitamin E
In addition to being higher in omega-3s and CLA, meat from grassfed
animals is four times higher in vitamin E. In humans, vitamin E
is linked with a lower risk of heart disease and cancer. This potent
antioxidant may also have anti-aging properties. Most Americans
are deficient in vitamin E.
For more information and for scientific references to this article,
go to http://www.eatwild.com
|
Use the information provided on this site as an educational resource for determining your options and making your own informed choices. It is not intended as medical advice or to diagnose, prescribe, or treat any specific illness.