Health Benefits of Grass Fed Products
Meats, eggs, and dairy products from pastured animals are ideal for your health. Compared with commercial products, they offer you more "good" fats, and fewer "bad" fats. They are richer in antioxidants; including vitamins E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. Furthermore, they do not contain traces of added hormones, antibiotics or other drugs.
Below is a summary of these important benefits. Following the summary is a list of news bulletins that provide additional reasons for finding a local provider of grass-fed food.
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.
Extra Omega-3s. Meat from grass-fed animals has two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain- fed animals. Omega-3s are called "good fats" because they 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 suffer a heart attack.[3] Omega-3s are essential for your brain as well. People with a diet rich in omega-3s are less likely to suffer from depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder (hyperactivity), or Alzheimer's disease.[4]
Another benefit of omega-3s is that they may reduce your risk of cancer. In animal studies, these essential fats have slowed the growth of a wide array of cancers and also kept them from spreading.[5] 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 and also hasten recovery from surgery.[6,7]
Omega-3s are most abundant in seafood and certain nuts and seeds such as flaxseeds and walnuts, but they are also found in animals raised on pasture. The reason is simple. Omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and algae. Sixty percent of the fatty acids in grass are omega-3s. When cattle are taken off omega-3 rich grass and shipped to a feedlot to be fattened on omega-3 poor grain, they begin losing their store of this beneficial fat. Each day that an animal spends in the feedlot, its supply of omega-3s is diminished.[8] The graph below illustrates this steady decline.
Data from: J Animal Sci (1993) 71(8):2079-88.
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 10 times more omega-3s than eggs from factory hens.[9]
It has been estimated that only 40 percent of Americans consume an adequate supply of omega-3 fatty acids. Twenty percent have blood levels so low that they cannot be detected.[10] Switching to the meat, milk, and dairy products of grass-fed animals is one way to restore this vital nutrient to your diet.
The CLA Bonus. Meat and dairy products from grass-fed 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 products contain from three to five times more CLA than products from animals fed conventional diets.[11] (A steak from the most marbled grass-fed animals will have the most CLA ,as much of the CLA is stored in fat cells.)
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 reduced tumor growth. [12] There is new evidence that CLA may also reduce cancer risk in humans. In a Finnish study, women who had the highest levels of CLA in their diet, had a 60 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those with the lowest levels. Switching from grain-fed to grassfed meat and dairy products places women in this lowest risk category.13 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 grain-fed 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 also higher in vitamin E. The graph below shows vitamin E levels in meat from: 1) feedlot cattle, 2) feedlot cattle given high doses of synthetic vitamin E (1,000 IU per day), and 3) cattle raised on fresh pasture with no added supplements. The meat from the pastured cattle is four times higher in vitamin E than the meat from the feedlot cattle and, interestingly, almost twice as high as the meat from the feedlot cattle given vitamin E supplements. [14#] 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.
Data from: Smith, G.C. "Dietary supplementation of vitamin E to cattle to improve shelf life and case life of beef for domestic and international markets." Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1171
Click here to read Super Healthy Milk, an article about the health benefits of dairy products from grass-fed animals.
Summary References— See bottom of page
Eating moderate amounts of grass-fed meat for only 4 weeks will give you healthier levels of essential fats, according to a 2011 study in the British Journal of Nutrition.
The British research showed that healthy volunteers who ate grass-fed meat increased their blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids and decreased their level of pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. These changes are linked with a lower risk of a host of disorders, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, depression, and inflammatory disease.
Interestingly, volunteers who consumed conventional, grain-fed meat ended up with lower levels of omega-3s and higher levels of omega-6s than they had at the beginning of the study, suggesting that eating conventional meat had been detrimental to their health.
British Journal of Nutrition (2011) Red meat from animals offered a grass diet increases plasma and platelet N-3 PUFA in healthy consumers. Volume 105, pages 80-89.
The meat and Dairy products raised on pasture are higher in omega-3s than animals raised in factory farms. The most abundant omega-3 in pastured products is called “alpha-linolenic acid” or ALA. A study of breast cancer survivors revealed that the women with the most ALA in their tissues—and therefore the most ALA in their diets—were one fourth as likely to have their cancers return as women with the least amount. Most women who die from breast cancer die from a tumor that has metastasized, not from the original tumor. This is yet another reason to eat cheese, milk, and meat from pastured animals.
British Journal of Cancer, 1994. Volume 70 pages 330-4.
So said French researcher Gerard Ailhaud, commenting on the results of a new study showing that mice fed the amount of omega-6 fatty acids present in the modern western diet grow fatter and fatter with each succeeding generation. In the picture shown, the mouse on the left was raised on the high levels of omega-6 fatty acids and low levels of omega-3 fatty acids typical of the American diet. In addition to being grossly overweight, it has the warning signs of diabetes. The healthy mouse on the right was raised on standard mouse chow. The two mice got equal amounts of exercise. The mice are the fourth generation to be raised on the two types of diet.
Omega-6 fatty acids are essential for health, but the amount consumed by most Americans increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and cancer. Omega-6s are most abundant in vegetable oils such as corn oil, safflower oil, and cottonseed oils. (Olive oil is low in omega- 6 fatty acids.) Few people realize that grain-fed animals are also a major source of omega-6s. Meat and dairy products from animals fed a high-grain diet, which is the typical feedlot diet, have up to ten times more omega-6s than products from animals raised on their natural diet of pasture.
This study suggests that if we switch to food with a healthy balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, we will be leaner and healthier, and so will our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
Massiera, F; Barbry, P; Guesnet, P; Joly, A; Luquet, S; Brest,, CM; Mohsen-Kanson, T; Amri, E and G. Ailhaud. A Western-like fat diet is sufficient to induce a gradual enhancement in fat mass over generations. Journal of Lipid Research. August 2010. Volume 51, pages 2352-2361
Grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in ten different ways, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:
Lambs raised on pasture are higher in protein, lower in fat
A team of scientists from the USDA compared grassfed lambs with lambs fed grain in a feedlot. They found that "lambs grazing pasture had 14% less fat and about 8% more protein compared to grain-fed lamb." The researchers acknowledged that "consumer desires for healthier meats have shifted the emphasis to leaner, trimmer carcasses.." and that raising more sheep on pasture will "benefit our economy by reducing reliance upon expensive grain supplements..." For more information, refer to Autumn-grazed Orchardgrass-white Clover Pasture: Nutritive Value Of Herbage And Lamb Performance.
Two new studies suggest that grassfed meat and dairy products may reduce the risk of breast cancer CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is a cancer-fighting fat that is most abundant in grassfed products. Two new European studies link a diet high in CLA with a lower risk of breast cancer. In Finland, researchers measured CLA levels in the serum of women with and without breast cancer. Those women with the most CLA had a significantly lower risk of the disease. Meanwhile, French researchers measured CLA levels in the breast tissues of 360 women. Once again, the women with the most CLA had the lowest risk of cancer. In fact, the women with the most CLA had a staggering 74% lower risk of breast cancer than the women with the least CLA.
The most natural and effective way to increase your intake of CLA is to eat the meat and dairy products of grassfed animals.
(A. Aro et al, Kuopio University, Finland; Bougnoux, P, Lavillonniere F, Riboli E. "Inverse relation between CLA in adipose breast tissue and risk of breast cancer. A case-control study in France." Inform 10;5:S43, 1999)
The more milk a cow produces, the more dilute the vitamin content of her milk
The goal of the commercial dairy industry is to coax the maximum amount of milk out of each cow through a high-tech combination of selective breeding, confinement housing, synthetic hormones, and a high-energy grain diet. It has succeeded admirably. Today's super cows produce as much as 17,000 pounds of milk per cycle—20 times more milk than a cow needs to sustain a healthy calf. Unfortunately for consumers, the cow transfers a set amount of vitamins to her milk, and the greater her milk volume, the more dilute the vitamin content of the milk, especially vitamins E and beta-carotene. According to the journal article cited below, "It follows that continuing breeding and management systems that focus solely on increasing milk and milk fat yield will result in a steady dilution in the milk fat of these vitamins and antioxidants..."
Dairy cows raised on pasture and free of hormone implants produce less milk than commercial cows, but the milk is therefore richer in vitamin content. This is one of those times when less is more.
(Jensen, S. K. "Quantitative secretion and maximal secretion capacity of retinol, beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol into cows' milk." J Dairy Res 66, no. 4 (1999): 511-22. )
Milk from grassfed cows has hidden benefits
Until recently, all of the experiments demonstrating the cancer-fighting properties of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) have used synthetic CLA. To see whether the CLA that occurs naturally in cow's milk has similar cancer-fighting properties, researchers recently compared the two. They fed one group of rats butter that was high in CLA and fed another group of rats an equivalent amount of synthetic CLA. As one would expect, the natural CLA proved to be just as effective in blocking tumor growth as the man-made variety. (In both cases, cancer yield was reduced by about 50 percent.) However, the high CLA butter had an added benefit: the rats eating the butter accumulated even more CLA in their tissues than the rats fed an equivalent amount of synthetic CLA. The reason? Researchers believe that the rats were converting another "good" fat found in the butter, trans-vaccenic acid or TVA, into CLA, giving them a second helping of this cancer-fighting fat. (Click here for more information about TVA.)
(Ip, C., S. Banni, et al. (1999). "Conjugated Linoleic Acid-Enriched Butter Fat Alters Mammary Gland Morphogenesis and Reduces Cancer Risk in Rats." J Nutr 129(12): 2135-2142.)
Grassfed meat has a similar fat profile to wild game
When cattle are free to forage on their natural diet of grass, their meat is almost as lean as wild game. The graph below shows that grassfed beef has an overall fat content similar to antelope, deer, and elk.
This second graph shows that grain-fed beef has a much higher ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids than wild game or grass-fed beef. A high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids has been linked with an increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, allergies, depression, obesity, and auto-immune disorders. (Simopoulos and Robinson, The Omega Diet, published by HarperCollins in 1999.) A ratio of four or lower is considered ideal. The ratio in grain-fed beef is more than 14 to 1. In grassfed beef, it is approximately two to one.
(Data for both graphs comes from G.J. Miller, "Lipids in Wild Ruminant Animals and Steers." J. of Food Quality, 9:331-343, 1986.)
Switching to grassfed products helps balance the essential fats in your diet
There are two types of fats that are essential for your health—omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. The typical western diet is overloaded with omega-6 fatty acids and deficient in omega-3s, upsetting a critical balance. Look at the graph below and you will see that fresh pasture has two times more omega-3 than omega-6 fatty acids. Grain and soy, on the other hand, have far more omega-6s than omega-3s.
Therefore, when you switch to grassfed products, you are helping to correct the gross imbalance in the western diet. Eating a balanced ratio of essential fatty acids is linked with a lower risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and mental disorders. (To learn more about this essential balance, read The Omega Diet by Simopoulos and Robinson, HarperCollins 1999.)
( US Dairy Forage Research Center, 1995 Research Summaries.)
Switching from grainfed to grassfed meat is a healthy, natural way to lose weight
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with one out of every two adults burdened by excess weight. To help trim the fat, Procter and Gamble has given us Olestra, "the no-fat cooking oil with the full-fat flavor." There are a couple of problems with Olestra. First, it cuts down on your body's absorption of beta-carotene and vitamin E. Second, it can cause "bloating, cramping, nausea, and loose stools or diarrhea."
Nature has given us a healthier alternative to weight control—eat meat from animals raised on fresh pasture. Meat from grassfed animals has about half the fat as meat from grainfed animals and significantly fewer calories. It also gives you a bonus supply of vitamins E, A, D, and beta-carotene.
(Burton P. Koonsvitsky et al, "Olestra Affects Serum Concentrations of Alpha-Tocopherol and Carotenoids" J of Nutrition, Vol. 127 No. 8 August 1997, pp. 1636S-1645S)
Grassfed lambs have more lutein
The more that nutritionists learn about naturally occurring antioxidants, the more they like lutein. Lutein is closely related to beta-carotene, but is absorbed more readily. Lutein reduces the risk of macular degeneration (a leading cause of blindness) and may also help prevent breast and colon cancer.
Meat from sheep raised on pasture has twice as much lutein as meat from grain-fed sheep—yet another nutritional advantage of raising animals naturally.
(Kruggel, W.G., "Influence of sex and diet on lutein in lamb fat." J of Animal Science 54: 970-975, 1982.)
Grassfed products supply much needed vitamin E
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control recently determined the vitamin E status of 16,000 American men and women. Twenty-percent per cent of white Americans, 41 per cent of African Americans, and 28 per cent of Mexican Americans were deficient in vitamin E. Vitamin E deficiencies have been linked with diabetes, immune disorders, AIDS, muscle damage in exercise, Parkinson's disease, eye diseases, and lung and liver diseases. As you can see by several of the posts below, switching to the products of animals raised on grass (which is far richer in vitamin E than grain) would help prevent this widespread deficiency. (Ford, Earl S. and Sowell, Anne. "Serum alpha-tocopherol status in the United States population: findings from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey." American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 150, August 1, 1999, pp. 290-300.)
Milk from cows that graze on intensively managed pasture has fewer undesirable bacteriaManagement Intensive Grazing or "MIG" is the practice of shifting livestock from paddock to paddock on a frequent basis to enhance the yield and quality of the pasture. Milk from cows raised under this system was found to be lower in bacterial count than milk from cows raised in standard confinement dairies. (Goldberg, J. J., E. E. Wildman, et al. (1992). "The influence of intensively managed rotational grazing, traditional continuous grazing, and confinement housing on bulk tank milk quality and udder health."
(J Dairy Sci 75(1): 96-104).
Finishing lambs on pasture cuts costs and enhances the quality of the meat
According to this North Carolina study, lambs raised on alfalfa pasture had "higher carcass weight average dressing percentage, yield grade and carcass value (P<<.05) than those fed on the grain-based ration. . . The high quality carcasses were produced at a much reduced cost as compared to traditional feeding management." All told, the net return for the lambs raised on pasture was $15.97/head higher. For more details, read Use Of Alfalfa Pasture For Finishing Lambs.
In a second grazing experiment, meat from lambs finished on pasture had 14 percent less fat and 8 percent more protein than grain-fed lambs. Click here for details of this study.
Meats, eggs, and dairy products from pastured animals are ideal for your health. Compared with commercial products, they offer you more "good" fats, and fewer "bad" fats. They are richer in antioxidants; including vitamins E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. Furthermore, they do not contain traces of added hormones, antibiotics or other drugs.
Below is a summary of these important benefits. Following the summary is a list of news bulletins that provide additional reasons for finding a local provider of grass-fed food.
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.
Extra Omega-3s. Meat from grass-fed animals has two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain- fed animals. Omega-3s are called "good fats" because they 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 suffer a heart attack.[3] Omega-3s are essential for your brain as well. People with a diet rich in omega-3s are less likely to suffer from depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder (hyperactivity), or Alzheimer's disease.[4]
Another benefit of omega-3s is that they may reduce your risk of cancer. In animal studies, these essential fats have slowed the growth of a wide array of cancers and also kept them from spreading.[5] 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 and also hasten recovery from surgery.[6,7]
Omega-3s are most abundant in seafood and certain nuts and seeds such as flaxseeds and walnuts, but they are also found in animals raised on pasture. The reason is simple. Omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and algae. Sixty percent of the fatty acids in grass are omega-3s. When cattle are taken off omega-3 rich grass and shipped to a feedlot to be fattened on omega-3 poor grain, they begin losing their store of this beneficial fat. Each day that an animal spends in the feedlot, its supply of omega-3s is diminished.[8] The graph below illustrates this steady decline.
Data from: J Animal Sci (1993) 71(8):2079-88.
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 10 times more omega-3s than eggs from factory hens.[9]
It has been estimated that only 40 percent of Americans consume an adequate supply of omega-3 fatty acids. Twenty percent have blood levels so low that they cannot be detected.[10] Switching to the meat, milk, and dairy products of grass-fed animals is one way to restore this vital nutrient to your diet.
The CLA Bonus. Meat and dairy products from grass-fed 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 products contain from three to five times more CLA than products from animals fed conventional diets.[11] (A steak from the most marbled grass-fed animals will have the most CLA ,as much of the CLA is stored in fat cells.)
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 reduced tumor growth. [12] There is new evidence that CLA may also reduce cancer risk in humans. In a Finnish study, women who had the highest levels of CLA in their diet, had a 60 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those with the lowest levels. Switching from grain-fed to grassfed meat and dairy products places women in this lowest risk category.13 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 grain-fed 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 also higher in vitamin E. The graph below shows vitamin E levels in meat from: 1) feedlot cattle, 2) feedlot cattle given high doses of synthetic vitamin E (1,000 IU per day), and 3) cattle raised on fresh pasture with no added supplements. The meat from the pastured cattle is four times higher in vitamin E than the meat from the feedlot cattle and, interestingly, almost twice as high as the meat from the feedlot cattle given vitamin E supplements. [14#] 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.
Data from: Smith, G.C. "Dietary supplementation of vitamin E to cattle to improve shelf life and case life of beef for domestic and international markets." Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1171
Click here to read Super Healthy Milk, an article about the health benefits of dairy products from grass-fed animals.
Summary References— See bottom of page
Eating moderate amounts of grass-fed meat for only 4 weeks will give you healthier levels of essential fats, according to a 2011 study in the British Journal of Nutrition.
The British research showed that healthy volunteers who ate grass-fed meat increased their blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids and decreased their level of pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. These changes are linked with a lower risk of a host of disorders, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, depression, and inflammatory disease.
Interestingly, volunteers who consumed conventional, grain-fed meat ended up with lower levels of omega-3s and higher levels of omega-6s than they had at the beginning of the study, suggesting that eating conventional meat had been detrimental to their health.
British Journal of Nutrition (2011) Red meat from animals offered a grass diet increases plasma and platelet N-3 PUFA in healthy consumers. Volume 105, pages 80-89.
The meat and Dairy products raised on pasture are higher in omega-3s than animals raised in factory farms. The most abundant omega-3 in pastured products is called “alpha-linolenic acid” or ALA. A study of breast cancer survivors revealed that the women with the most ALA in their tissues—and therefore the most ALA in their diets—were one fourth as likely to have their cancers return as women with the least amount. Most women who die from breast cancer die from a tumor that has metastasized, not from the original tumor. This is yet another reason to eat cheese, milk, and meat from pastured animals.
British Journal of Cancer, 1994. Volume 70 pages 330-4.
So said French researcher Gerard Ailhaud, commenting on the results of a new study showing that mice fed the amount of omega-6 fatty acids present in the modern western diet grow fatter and fatter with each succeeding generation. In the picture shown, the mouse on the left was raised on the high levels of omega-6 fatty acids and low levels of omega-3 fatty acids typical of the American diet. In addition to being grossly overweight, it has the warning signs of diabetes. The healthy mouse on the right was raised on standard mouse chow. The two mice got equal amounts of exercise. The mice are the fourth generation to be raised on the two types of diet.
Omega-6 fatty acids are essential for health, but the amount consumed by most Americans increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and cancer. Omega-6s are most abundant in vegetable oils such as corn oil, safflower oil, and cottonseed oils. (Olive oil is low in omega- 6 fatty acids.) Few people realize that grain-fed animals are also a major source of omega-6s. Meat and dairy products from animals fed a high-grain diet, which is the typical feedlot diet, have up to ten times more omega-6s than products from animals raised on their natural diet of pasture.
This study suggests that if we switch to food with a healthy balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, we will be leaner and healthier, and so will our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
Massiera, F; Barbry, P; Guesnet, P; Joly, A; Luquet, S; Brest,, CM; Mohsen-Kanson, T; Amri, E and G. Ailhaud. A Western-like fat diet is sufficient to induce a gradual enhancement in fat mass over generations. Journal of Lipid Research. August 2010. Volume 51, pages 2352-2361
Grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in ten different ways, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:
- Lower in total fat
- Higher in beta-carotene
- Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
- Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
- Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
- Higher in total omega-3s
- A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
- Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
- Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
- Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease
Lambs raised on pasture are higher in protein, lower in fat
A team of scientists from the USDA compared grassfed lambs with lambs fed grain in a feedlot. They found that "lambs grazing pasture had 14% less fat and about 8% more protein compared to grain-fed lamb." The researchers acknowledged that "consumer desires for healthier meats have shifted the emphasis to leaner, trimmer carcasses.." and that raising more sheep on pasture will "benefit our economy by reducing reliance upon expensive grain supplements..." For more information, refer to Autumn-grazed Orchardgrass-white Clover Pasture: Nutritive Value Of Herbage And Lamb Performance.
Two new studies suggest that grassfed meat and dairy products may reduce the risk of breast cancer CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is a cancer-fighting fat that is most abundant in grassfed products. Two new European studies link a diet high in CLA with a lower risk of breast cancer. In Finland, researchers measured CLA levels in the serum of women with and without breast cancer. Those women with the most CLA had a significantly lower risk of the disease. Meanwhile, French researchers measured CLA levels in the breast tissues of 360 women. Once again, the women with the most CLA had the lowest risk of cancer. In fact, the women with the most CLA had a staggering 74% lower risk of breast cancer than the women with the least CLA.
The most natural and effective way to increase your intake of CLA is to eat the meat and dairy products of grassfed animals.
(A. Aro et al, Kuopio University, Finland; Bougnoux, P, Lavillonniere F, Riboli E. "Inverse relation between CLA in adipose breast tissue and risk of breast cancer. A case-control study in France." Inform 10;5:S43, 1999)
The more milk a cow produces, the more dilute the vitamin content of her milk
The goal of the commercial dairy industry is to coax the maximum amount of milk out of each cow through a high-tech combination of selective breeding, confinement housing, synthetic hormones, and a high-energy grain diet. It has succeeded admirably. Today's super cows produce as much as 17,000 pounds of milk per cycle—20 times more milk than a cow needs to sustain a healthy calf. Unfortunately for consumers, the cow transfers a set amount of vitamins to her milk, and the greater her milk volume, the more dilute the vitamin content of the milk, especially vitamins E and beta-carotene. According to the journal article cited below, "It follows that continuing breeding and management systems that focus solely on increasing milk and milk fat yield will result in a steady dilution in the milk fat of these vitamins and antioxidants..."
Dairy cows raised on pasture and free of hormone implants produce less milk than commercial cows, but the milk is therefore richer in vitamin content. This is one of those times when less is more.
(Jensen, S. K. "Quantitative secretion and maximal secretion capacity of retinol, beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol into cows' milk." J Dairy Res 66, no. 4 (1999): 511-22. )
Milk from grassfed cows has hidden benefits
Until recently, all of the experiments demonstrating the cancer-fighting properties of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) have used synthetic CLA. To see whether the CLA that occurs naturally in cow's milk has similar cancer-fighting properties, researchers recently compared the two. They fed one group of rats butter that was high in CLA and fed another group of rats an equivalent amount of synthetic CLA. As one would expect, the natural CLA proved to be just as effective in blocking tumor growth as the man-made variety. (In both cases, cancer yield was reduced by about 50 percent.) However, the high CLA butter had an added benefit: the rats eating the butter accumulated even more CLA in their tissues than the rats fed an equivalent amount of synthetic CLA. The reason? Researchers believe that the rats were converting another "good" fat found in the butter, trans-vaccenic acid or TVA, into CLA, giving them a second helping of this cancer-fighting fat. (Click here for more information about TVA.)
(Ip, C., S. Banni, et al. (1999). "Conjugated Linoleic Acid-Enriched Butter Fat Alters Mammary Gland Morphogenesis and Reduces Cancer Risk in Rats." J Nutr 129(12): 2135-2142.)
Grassfed meat has a similar fat profile to wild game
When cattle are free to forage on their natural diet of grass, their meat is almost as lean as wild game. The graph below shows that grassfed beef has an overall fat content similar to antelope, deer, and elk.
This second graph shows that grain-fed beef has a much higher ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids than wild game or grass-fed beef. A high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids has been linked with an increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, allergies, depression, obesity, and auto-immune disorders. (Simopoulos and Robinson, The Omega Diet, published by HarperCollins in 1999.) A ratio of four or lower is considered ideal. The ratio in grain-fed beef is more than 14 to 1. In grassfed beef, it is approximately two to one.
(Data for both graphs comes from G.J. Miller, "Lipids in Wild Ruminant Animals and Steers." J. of Food Quality, 9:331-343, 1986.)
Switching to grassfed products helps balance the essential fats in your diet
There are two types of fats that are essential for your health—omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. The typical western diet is overloaded with omega-6 fatty acids and deficient in omega-3s, upsetting a critical balance. Look at the graph below and you will see that fresh pasture has two times more omega-3 than omega-6 fatty acids. Grain and soy, on the other hand, have far more omega-6s than omega-3s.
Therefore, when you switch to grassfed products, you are helping to correct the gross imbalance in the western diet. Eating a balanced ratio of essential fatty acids is linked with a lower risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and mental disorders. (To learn more about this essential balance, read The Omega Diet by Simopoulos and Robinson, HarperCollins 1999.)
( US Dairy Forage Research Center, 1995 Research Summaries.)
Switching from grainfed to grassfed meat is a healthy, natural way to lose weight
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with one out of every two adults burdened by excess weight. To help trim the fat, Procter and Gamble has given us Olestra, "the no-fat cooking oil with the full-fat flavor." There are a couple of problems with Olestra. First, it cuts down on your body's absorption of beta-carotene and vitamin E. Second, it can cause "bloating, cramping, nausea, and loose stools or diarrhea."
Nature has given us a healthier alternative to weight control—eat meat from animals raised on fresh pasture. Meat from grassfed animals has about half the fat as meat from grainfed animals and significantly fewer calories. It also gives you a bonus supply of vitamins E, A, D, and beta-carotene.
(Burton P. Koonsvitsky et al, "Olestra Affects Serum Concentrations of Alpha-Tocopherol and Carotenoids" J of Nutrition, Vol. 127 No. 8 August 1997, pp. 1636S-1645S)
Grassfed lambs have more lutein
The more that nutritionists learn about naturally occurring antioxidants, the more they like lutein. Lutein is closely related to beta-carotene, but is absorbed more readily. Lutein reduces the risk of macular degeneration (a leading cause of blindness) and may also help prevent breast and colon cancer.
Meat from sheep raised on pasture has twice as much lutein as meat from grain-fed sheep—yet another nutritional advantage of raising animals naturally.
(Kruggel, W.G., "Influence of sex and diet on lutein in lamb fat." J of Animal Science 54: 970-975, 1982.)
Grassfed products supply much needed vitamin E
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control recently determined the vitamin E status of 16,000 American men and women. Twenty-percent per cent of white Americans, 41 per cent of African Americans, and 28 per cent of Mexican Americans were deficient in vitamin E. Vitamin E deficiencies have been linked with diabetes, immune disorders, AIDS, muscle damage in exercise, Parkinson's disease, eye diseases, and lung and liver diseases. As you can see by several of the posts below, switching to the products of animals raised on grass (which is far richer in vitamin E than grain) would help prevent this widespread deficiency. (Ford, Earl S. and Sowell, Anne. "Serum alpha-tocopherol status in the United States population: findings from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey." American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 150, August 1, 1999, pp. 290-300.)
Milk from cows that graze on intensively managed pasture has fewer undesirable bacteriaManagement Intensive Grazing or "MIG" is the practice of shifting livestock from paddock to paddock on a frequent basis to enhance the yield and quality of the pasture. Milk from cows raised under this system was found to be lower in bacterial count than milk from cows raised in standard confinement dairies. (Goldberg, J. J., E. E. Wildman, et al. (1992). "The influence of intensively managed rotational grazing, traditional continuous grazing, and confinement housing on bulk tank milk quality and udder health."
(J Dairy Sci 75(1): 96-104).
Finishing lambs on pasture cuts costs and enhances the quality of the meat
According to this North Carolina study, lambs raised on alfalfa pasture had "higher carcass weight average dressing percentage, yield grade and carcass value (P<<.05) than those fed on the grain-based ration. . . The high quality carcasses were produced at a much reduced cost as compared to traditional feeding management." All told, the net return for the lambs raised on pasture was $15.97/head higher. For more details, read Use Of Alfalfa Pasture For Finishing Lambs.
In a second grazing experiment, meat from lambs finished on pasture had 14 percent less fat and 8 percent more protein than grain-fed lambs. Click here for details of this study.