Grain-Fed vs. Grass-Fed Beef

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ABM

ABM

Happily Married In Music City, USA!
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I was at a family gathering yesterday and (while grilling some delicious Painted Hills steaks) my brother-in-law was telling everyone that grain-fed beef is bad for you. You should only eat grass-fed beef.

Something about grain-fed is in wide distribution because of consumer demand and that grain help the cows grow and get to market faster. However, he said, grain-fed beef generates a disproportionate amount of omega 6 fatty acids to omega 3 fatty acids, which then increases internal inflammation and such. Something like that.

I'm not sure I'm buying it......................................or should I be? :eek:

BTW, prior to throwing the steaks on the grill for a quick-sear, he pre-cooked them using the sous-vide method. Incredibly tender and tasty!!

BTW:BTW, he also went on some mini-rant about our American farm-belt farmlands' top-soil being slowly and systematically destroyed through the extensive practice of mono-cropping and over-fertilization................but that's tomorrow's topic, children. ;)



FWIW..

[video=youtube;CwwDtW7eEv8]
 
That stuff about fucking up our topsoil, definitely true.
 
Pork-fed beef is tastier.

barfo
 
Pork-fed Bald Eagle is even tastier.
 
Corn has almost no nutrional content but it is used becuase it is cheap as dirt due to all the subsidies. I've heard this view quite a few time and it makes sense.
 
They use hormones and steroids thats why on some packages of meat you will find the "this product does not contain hormones etc" on it. Are meat is tainted period so no matter what you do you pretty much screwed.
 
Buffalo meat is the best. It's just pure protein.

belgianblue.jpg


Belgian Blue's meat is like buffalo in terms of the fat/protein ratio, both are very low in fat.
 
Just wait until you try grass-fed beef, I've tried a few times. Not good, not good at all. Tastes ummm.... grassy.
 
Cattle evolved to live on grasses, not grains. When fed on grain, they gain weight quickly due to the high calories content, but they can't easily digest grain so are continually sick (imagine going your whole life eating nothing but a food that "does not agree with you"). So because they are so sick, and because they are so tightly backed together in feed lots, they are given loads of antibiotics as a preventive, not to treat a given disease. And hormones to make them grow faster.

It's a matter of debate whether the final product, the steak or burger or roast, is less nutritious to eat. But the antibiotics et al do stay in the meat and there is evidence at least that they have some responsibility for the increase in antibiotic-resistant human diseases. And there is no doubt it is a lot worse environmentally. Corn requires heavy fertilizing with petroleum based fertilizers and a lot of water. We think of meat as "cheap" only because corn is so heavily subsidized, that's why grass fed beef costs significantly more even though, left to itself, grass would cost less to raise and be less environmentally damaging. And while some may say it's a contradiction to care about the comfort of an animal you're going to eat, no question the animals live a happier and healthier life on grass.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Just wait until you try grass-fed beef, I've tried a few times. Not good, not good at all. Tastes ummm.... grassy.
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Are you sure you didn't accidentally order the beef-fed grass? It tastes shitty.

barfo
 
Found this..

http://www.organicgrassfedbeefinfo.com/Disadvantage-of-grain-fed-beef.htm

The fat in a grain-fed cow is not healthy. Grass-fed beef contains high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. This is not so for grain-fed cattle. One reason Americans are so unhealthy and have a lot of inflammation in their bodies is due to the high amounts of omega 6 fatty acids in our diets and the low amount of the healthier omega 3 fatty acids.
According to the Journal of Animal Science (2000 78:2849-2855) Grain fed beef can have an omega 6:3 ratio higher than 20:1. This creates a health problem in humans because it exceeds the recommended ratio of 4:1 of Omega 6 to Omega 3.

When this ratio is exceeded, health problems begin to reveal themselves due to an unhealthy imbalance. Grain fed beef is also very high in saturated fat which makes it unhealthier than it's grass-fed counterpart which has a saturated fat content of approximately 10%.
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Fez Hammersticks said:
Buffalo meat is the best. It's just pure protein.

belgianblue.jpg


Belgian Blue's meat is like buffalo in terms of the fat/protein ratio, both are very low in fat.
Click to expand...

I bought some ground buffalo a few weeks ago and made burgers out of it. After hearing my wife and daughters say it was the best "hamburger" that I had made, and only after it was all eaten, I told them they had just eaten buffalo burgers.

They love buffalo burgers now. Lean but still tender. It's perfect for burgers.
 
I believe the health benefits of eating grass fed beef over grain fed are minimal. Traditional corn fed beef is the best tasting and most tender as well.
 
Grain fed is more tender. As to taste, we are now so used to the blander flavor of grain fed that some consider grass fed too strong while others like it as being more "beefy". Look, I knew someone who would not eat my homemade ice cream because she was so used to the taste of the additives in cheap ice cream that ice cream made just from cream, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla did not taste right to her.
 
BGrantFan said:
I bought some ground buffalo a few weeks ago and made burgers out of it. After hearing my wife and daughters say it was the best "hamburger" that I had made, and only after it was all eaten, I told them they had just eaten buffalo burgers.

They love buffalo burgers now. Lean but still tender. It's perfect for burgers.
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I agree. Buffalo burgers are much better!
 
I also like Emu burgers. They are very low in fat. I remember reading once that people the live off of emu meat need to supliment their diet with fat.
 
For the last week I've switched to ground turkey instead of ground beef and a 3:1 egg-white-to-egg ratio. It's more expensive, but with spices, onions and garlic tastes as good (though different). I'm intrigued.

Slightly tangential....I'm thinking of joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, I think?) of a farm 3 miles from my house....where I pay in advance and get a bag of fresh-from-the-farm produce every week. Anyone ever done this? Great stuff, horror stories, etc.? I understand the inherent risks of bad weather, bad crop, etc., but I'm intrigued both by helping out a neighbor and their philanthropy stuff...I think they'd be a good resource for our church's food bank (we have plenty of "pantry" stuff...very little fresh).
http://www.whistlingtrainfarm.com/
 
Mediocre Man said:
I also like Emu burgers. They are very low in fat. I remember reading once that people the live off of emu meat need to supliment their diet with fat.
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I've had a couple of Emu burgers and they where good. A little to hard to find for me to enjoy on a consistent basis.
 
I participate in a CSA. I've done this twice, actually. The first one I used did not list in advance what was in the box. In a way that was fun, sort of like a treasure hunt, but then I'd get carrots after I just bought carrots, etc. The one I use now does announce in advance what is in the box and has a lot of different options. On the whole I am satisfied, although they've had a couple of screw ups (once sent me a totally wrong box, but the credited me for it). I get what is called "fast and fresh" which are things that require little or no cooking, mostly fruit and salad type stuff. This week I got:

Blueberries
Melon
Lettuce
Carrots
Cucumbers
Nectarines
Swiss Chard

Check out different groups in your area and select what works best for you. Nearly all will let you stop at any time if you are not happy.

BTW, heard buffalo is good but never tried it. I made turkey burgers for today's lunch.
 
Thanks for the heads-up. My concern isn't necessarily that I won't get exactly what I want (the "treasure hunt" aspect does seem kind of fun) but that our family on the whole is used to canned corn and green beans being our "vegetables". I've recently started getting more spinach salads, and we have the occasional homemade pesto, but I'm not sure I'd know what the heck to do with "Swiss Chard" or a box of cucumbers. Not that I'm not ready to learn, but I'd hate for fresh veggies and fruit to go to waste...especially if I'm paying $600 for a year of it.

The part I like about Whistle Train Farms is that, even though historically the Kent Valley has been a big farming region, most of the CSAs that deliver to the Seattle area are from east of the mountains...different growing seasons, gas and delivery costs involved, etc. This farm is almost the only one within 15 miles of my house that I could find, and I like the aspect of it being local and looking out for local families. Along with the microclimate to harvest 10 months out of the year.
 
Saw Food, Inc a few weeks ago, and I gotta say it was pretty revolting. My dad is a part-time farmer and I hunt, so it's not like I'm squeamish. I'm just tired of feeding my 2 and 4 year old boys animals that have been treated like dog shit their short, miserable lives.

We're actually getting a few chickens in the next few weeks. (We can keep up to 3 in Boise, provided they aren't roosters.) It'll be kind of fun teaching the boys about eggs.

When I was a kid, we had a coop and my brother and I had to get eggs. Ricky the Rooster was a bad mother fucker. One of us would distract him (let him chase us around the house) while the other kid scrambled through the coop grabbing eggs ASAP. Neither job was much fun, because Ricky could always give up on the chase and then you were fucking cornered if you were the egg-grabber. So one day we go to the cabin, and my dad is supposed to meet up with us that night, after he gets home from the office day job and collects eggs. He shows up at our cabin and he's got fucking chicken scratches all over his bald lawyer head. He's got a small ice chest. "That's Ricky", he says with a grin. Apparently, dad went out wearing nothing but a bathrobe to get eggs, and that dumb rooster got the drop on him and nailed him really well. So dad goes back inside, grabs his 9mm, comes out and shoots the fucking chicken's head off. It was stringy as hell, but I still remember that as the best chicken dinner I ever had.

So definitely no roosters for our home egg farm.

Anyway, I'm also planning on getting a stand up freezer and buying frozen beef and pork online through a ranch here in Idaho. It's going to cost about twice as much as store-bought meat, but there is the convenience factor of always having it handy.

As far as grass-fed vs corn-fed, I really don't care that much. I'm at a point in life where I can afford a few luxuries, and for me it's worth the extra money to have the clear conscience.
 
If you don't know "how to cook them" see if you can get a fast/fresh option, most of them would be things you'd eat raw.

Cooks Illustrated has a really good Vegetable cookbook that will tell you what to do with Swiss chard: vegetables and it's on sale.
 
Buffalo is readily available here in Colorado. It's a bit gamier than beef, which I like. If you haven't had the opportunity to taste buffalo for yourself, give it a try.
 
Nature is not really nice, very few wild animals die a peaceful old age (elephants an exception). Nearly all animals are killed by predators, parasites, disease or starvation. And extinction is the ultimate fate of all species. But IMHO there is a big difference between watching a tiger kill an antelope on a Nature show, or watch my cat kill a rat, really the same thing, and see animals penned knee high in shit eating food they can't digest, or seeing animals choking and drowning in spilled oil. Nature is not really cruel, just indifferent. But we have the choice to care.
 
I've had buffalo burgers too. It's good stuff. I would be curious as to how the steaks would be, but the burgers are top notch.
 
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