Organic, grass-fed standards do not permit non-medical
use of antibiotics. With antibiotic-resistant disease
being a major public health hazard, buying organic meats
is an important consideration
Antibiotics and hard-to-digest grains radically alter
the bacterial balance and composition in the animal’s
gut, thereby promoting disease. It also has a
detrimental effect on the nutritional composition of the
meat
Grass-fed beef tends to be leaner, and have higher
levels of vitamins, minerals, and cancer-fighting CLA.
It also has a healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats
Organic farms tend to provide far more sanitary
conditions overall, since the animals are not kept in
overcrowded barracks day in and day out. As a result,
the animals are far less likely to harbor dangerous
pathogens
Raw milk from organic, grass-fed cows, and certified
organic eggs from free-range hens are also healthier
options due to superior nutrient content and reduced
risk of contamination with drugs and pathogens
By Dr. Mercola
I've often said that the differences between organic, pastured
beef and that from animals raised in confined animal feeding
operations (CAFOs) is so great that you're really talking about two
completely different animals.
The same applies to other animal meats, and animal products such
as dairy and eggs. The Epoch Times1
recently featured an article discussing reasons to switch to
grass-fed beef. I'd like to add a couple more, relating to the
benefits of switching to raw, grass-fed dairy and eggs as well.
Grass-Fed Beef Does Not Promote Antibiotic-Resistant Disease
In the grand scheme of all that is wrong with modern agriculture,
the unnatural transition that turned cattle, which naturally eat
only grass, into grain-eating ruminants is definitely
toward the top of the list.
CAFO cows are fattened for slaughter in gigantic feedlots as
quickly as possible (on average between 14 and 18 months) with the
help of grains and growth promoting drugs, including antibiotics.
This routine practice, which is done purely for financial
reasons, has led to the current scourge of
antibiotic-resistant disease, which now kills at least 23,000
Americans each year. Other
growth-promoters commonly used in US beef have been banned in
most other countries due to suspected health effects, both in
animals and consumers.
When you eat CAFO beef, you're also consuming small amounts of
antibiotics and other drugs in each bite. Organic, grass-fed
standards, on the other hand, do not permit non-medical use of
antibiotics. With antibiotic-resistant disease being a major public
health hazard, buying organic meats is an important consideration in
more ways than one.
Regularly consuming small doses of antibiotics is a surefire way
to destroy your gut health, which in turn will have a detrimental
effect on your overall health and immune function. Not only does it
make you more susceptible to chronic disease, it also increases your
exposure to antibiotic-resistant infections.
Grass-Fed Beef = Better Nutrition
Antibiotics and hard-to-digest grains radically alter the
bacterial balance and composition in the animal's gut. The natural
diet for ruminant animals, such as cattle, is plain grass. When left
to their own devices, cattle will not graze on corn or soybeans.
Just as in humans, poor gut health in animals promotes disease.
This radically altered diet also affects the nutritional
composition of the meat. For example, when raised on a grass-only
diet, levels of
conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) are three to five times higher in
the meat compared to CAFO beef. CLA has been found to have a wide
array of important health benefits, from fighting cancer to
decreasing insulin resistance and improving body composition.
Grass-fed beef also tends to be leaner, and have higher levels of
vitamins and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium. It
also has a healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats. So, as noted
in the featured article: "When you choose grass-fed beef, lamb
or bison, you're eating meats that are more nutritious and
antibiotic-free, just as nature intended."
Clean, Happy, Healthy Cows Make for Safer, More Sanitary Beef
CAFOs represent a corporate-controlled system characterized by
large-scale, centralized, low profit-margin production, processing,
and distribution systems. Traditionally, factory farms are hidden
from public view. Certain states have even made making undercover
videos taken on such farms — which often show shocking scenes of
animal cruelty and filth — illegal.
Quite simply, they don't want you to see what's really going on,
because if you did, you would probably turn away in disgust at the
mere thought of eating the foods produced there. Grass-fed cows, on
the other hand, are free to graze on wide open fields, and are
usually tended by farmers who truly care about the health and
well-being of their animals—even if they are ultimately
destined to become someone's dinner... As noted in the featured
article, "grass-fed isn't gross." And it's by far the most
humane way to raise food animals.
Contrary to their crowded, confined, stressed-out factory farmed
counterparts, organically-raised cattle roam free on open pasture,
which makes a tremendous difference when it comes to their health
and well-being. As a result, they're rarely sick and hence don't
need drug treatment.
Organic farms, which tend to be far smaller in scale, also tend
to provide far more sanitary conditions overall, since the animals
are not kept in overcrowded barracks day in and day out. As a
result, the animals are far less likely to harbor dangerous
pathogens, which could contaminate the meat.
Unless labeled as grass-fed, virtually all the meat you buy in
the grocery store is CAFO beef, and tests have revealed that nearly
half of the meat sold in US stores is
contaminated with pathogenic bacteria—including
antibiotic-resistant strains. Grass-fed beef is not associated with
this high frequency of contamination, and their living conditions
have everything to do with this improved safety.
Raw Grass-Fed Milk: Safer and More Nutritious Than Pasteurized CAFO
Milk
Many are under the mistaken belief that pasteurized milk is safer
than raw milk from a
healthy, grass-fed cow, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The reason commercial milk needs to be pasteurized is
because it comes from sickly cows standing on a rotating assembly
line inside a giant metal structure. Since the animals tend to have
high rates of disease and contamination, courtesy of the factory
farming model, drinking such milk raw would be highly inadvisable!
It must to be pasteurized in order to be safe to drink.
This is simply not the case with milk from a grass-fed, pastured
cow, raised under clean and healthy conditions. Rather than
harboring pathogenic bacteria that must be killed, raw milk from a
grass-fed, pastured cow contains a storehouse of nutrition and
beneficial bacteria (probiotics) lacking from CAFO milk.
Previous CDC data2
shows there are about 412 confirmed cases of people getting ill from
pasteurized milk each year, while only
about 116 illnesses a year are linked to raw milk. And research by
Dr. Ted Beals,3
MD, featured in the summer 2011 issue of Wise Traditions,
the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, shows that
you are about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods
than you are from organic raw milk. Drinking CAFO milk will also
expose you to antibiotics, and in many cases the genetically
engineered growth hormone
rBGH (unless labeled as being rBGH-free), which has been linked
to an increased cancer risk.
Besides that, the pasteurization process also transforms the
physical structure of the proteins in milk, such as casein, and
alters the shape of the amino acid configuration into a foreign
protein that your body is not equipped to handle. Although certainly
possible with raw milk, lactose intolerance is typically associated
with pasteurized milk. The process also destroys the friendly
bacteria found naturally in milk and drastically reduces the
micronutrient and vitamin content.
In the end, the milk you drink will only be as healthy as the cow
that produced it, so make sure to source your raw milk from a clean,
well-run farm that gives its cows access to pasture. Raw milk from
grass-fed cows is full of things that your body will thrive on,
including healthy bacteria, raw fat, and cancer-fighting conjugated
linoleic acid (CLA). It's not uncommon for people who drink raw milk
to report improvement or disappearance of troubling health issues –
everything from allergies to digestive trouble to skin problems like
eczema.
Reasons for Switching to Free-Range Eggs
Eggs are another animal product where free-range pasturing makes
all the difference in the world, both in terms of creating superior
nutrition and reducing the contamination risk. As with other
livestock, the salmonella risk associated with raw eggs is primarily
heightened when the hens are raised in unsanitary CAFO conditions.
In small organic farms where the chickens are raised in clean,
spacious coops, have access to sunlight, and forage for their
natural food, salmonella contamination is a very rare occurrence.
One study by the British government found that 23 percent of
farms with caged hens tested positive for
salmonella, compared to just over four percent in organic flocks
and 6.5 percent in free-range flocks. I strongly advise against
eating conventional eggs raw for this reason alone.
Unfortunately,
egg labels have turned into a confusing muddle. Designations
like "organic," "free-range," "pastured," and "cage-free" are often
thought to be interchangeable, but really aren't. In many ways,
these labels are little more than creative advertising. For example,
regulations on the use of the term "free-range" do not specify the
amount of time the hens must spend outdoors or the amount of outdoor
space each hen must have access to. Nor do they indicate that the
hen must have access to a pasture diet... Also, avoid the mistake I
almost made when I grabbed a dozen eggs labeled "pasteurized,"
thinking they were "pastured" eggs. Fortunately, I realized the
mistake before I purchased them.
Ideally, what you're really looking for is chicken and eggs that
are both certified organicand true
pasture-raised. True free-range eggs, now increasingly referred
to as "pasture-raised," are from hens that roam freely outdoors on a
pasture where they can forage for their natural diet, which includes
seeds, green plants, insects, and worms. More often than not, you
will not find true free-range eggs in your local grocery store as
such eggs tend to come from large-scale egg farms that cannot comply
with this criteria.
You also want your eggs to be certified organic because that's
the only way to guarantee that they're antibiotic-free. Barring
organic certification, which is cost-prohibitive for many small
farmers, you could just make sure the farmer raises his chickens
according to organic, free-range standards, allowing his flock to
forage freely for their natural diet, and aren't fed antibiotics,
corn, and soy.
Where to Find Grass-Fed Beef, Raw Milk, and Pastured Eggs
Now that you know why it's worth switching over to
grass-fed beef and other animal products, the question becomes,
where do you find them? Fortunately, it's becoming increasingly
easy to find these, and many other organic foods.
Grass-fed beef: Many grocery chains are now
responding to customer demand, and will provide at least a small
assortment of grass-fed meats. If your local grocer still
doesn't carry any, go ahead and ask the purchasing manager to
consider adding it. Some stores, like Publix, will even stock
specialty items requested by a single customer. The least
expensive way to obtain authentic grass-fed beef is to find a
local rancher you can trust, and buy it directly from the farm.
Alternatively, you can now purchase grass-fed beef from organic
ranchers online, if you don't have access to a local source.
Raw organic, grass-fed dairy products:
Getting your raw milk from a local organic farm or co-op is one
of the best ways to ensure you're getting high-quality milk. You
can locate a raw milk source near you at the Campaign for
Real Milk
Website.4
The Farm to Consumer
Legal Defense Fund5
also provides a state-by-state review of raw milk laws.
Organic, free-range eggs: To locate a
free-range pasture farm, try asking your local health food
store, or check out the following web listings: