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Why to Choose Grass-Fed Meat vs Grain-Fed
Much like some of the other basic nutrition topics we’ve been covering recently, I know for many of you, this information on Why to Choose Grass-fed Meat, it may be old news. Feel free to skip on by and wait for the next post, but if this information is new to you or you want a refresher or to learn more, I got you. As you have heard me say, time and time again, every day, every single day, I encounter people outside my little sheltered food/nutrition bubble, who haven’t yet received this information and knowledge that many of us take for granted, being deeply rooted in our daily food choices for some time. Rather than assuming that everyone already knows this stuff, I would rather create simple posts that are easily accessible to them/you to share, inform and empower you with the knowledge to make better decisions for you and your health.
Nutrition
Not all meat is created equal. But, I am sure most of you know that at this point. As you also know from recents posts here on Tasty Yummies, fat can absolutely be an incredibly nutrient rich part of your diet, but this same macronutrient when of the wrong variety, can also cause numerous diseases, inflammation, digestive issues and more. The diet of the animals we eat, can greatly change the fat in it’s tissues (and consequently the meat that we eat), among other nutritional differences. According to a study 1http://www.csuchico.edu/grassfedbeef/research/Review%20Grassfed%20Beef%202010.pdf conducted by California State University’s College of Agriculture, grass-fed beef nutrition includes significantly more omega-3 fatty acids (2 to 4 times more yhan grain-fed) and more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than grain-fed beef. The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 in grain-fed meat is much worse than grass-fed and it’s not because the omega-6 content of beef fat skyrockets with grain feeding; it is however because the omega-3 content is basically nonexistent in the grain-fed animals. Due to the modern, standard American diet (SAD), many people are highly omega-3 deficient and therefore the ratio to bad omega-6 fats is severely imbalanced due to it’s prevalence in a SAD, which can lead to a chronic exacerbated inflammatory response, a general state of systemic inflammation, and the development of the various diseases with an inflammatory root.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid of CLA is a strong polyunsaturated fatty acid that must be obtained from our diets. CLA has been shown to discourage weight gain and build muscle, as well as support metabolic and cellular health by helping to transport fatty acids into the mitochondria and boost immune health. It has even been shown to lower the risk of cancer. 2https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15941017 High-quality grass-fed beef and butter from healthy, grass-fed cows or other animals are the top sources of CLA.
Grass-fed beef, is also one of the best protein foods around, is also higher in precursors for vitamin A and E and cancer and heart disease-fighting antioxidants compared to grain-fed beef. It is also higher in B vitamins, vitamin K and trace minerals like magnesium, calcium, and selenium. Grass-finished beef has higher proportions of cholesterol neutral stearic fatty acids and less cholesterol-elevating short chain fatty acids, such as myristic and palmitic acid. Grass-fed meat truly shines in the micronutrient profile for one major reason: Grass-fed cows get more nutritious food.
Ideally these animals are grass-fed for their whole life. Only exclusively grass-fed cows live out their entire lives on grassland. The rest may start their lives on open pasture and are then eventually moved to a feedlot. Often meat being sold as “grass-fed” is an animal that was fed grass for a short time, early in it’s life, but finished with grain, to increase weight gain, to fatten them up and reduce costs and increase profitablity. Just 80 days of grain feeding was enough to destroy the omega-3 content of the beef. CLA content plummeted in the same amount of time. The longer the animals were fed grains, the lower the quality of the meat. This is one of the many reasons that 100% grass-fed or grass-fed and grass-finished should be sought out.
Read more about the cost of grass-fed meat and how the labeling of grass-fed animals can be downright deceitful. While the FDA no longer governs this label claim, you should still look for it and additionally look for seals such as American Grassfed or PCO Certified 100% GrassFed for assurance that the claim was verified and means the animals were 100% grass fed and raised on pasture. You can also look for The Certified Grassfed by AGW seal. 3http://greenerchoices.org/2016/12/30/grassfed-general-claim/ Even more reasons to get to know your farmer or rancher and ask the important questions directly to the person that actually knows. As Michael Pollan says “shake the hand that feeds you“!
References
1. ↑ http://www.csuchico.edu/grassfedbeef/research/Review%20Grassfed%20Beef%202010.pdf 2. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15941017 3. ↑ http://greenerchoices.org/2016/12/30/grassfed-general-claim/ -
How-to Build an Epic Grain-free Cheese and Charcuterie Board
When it comes to entertaining, boards are the ultimate in wow factor without a ton of fuss. More specifically I am a HUGE fan of cheese and meat boards. Selfishly when entertaining, since I prefer to avoid grains and greasy chips and snacks, cheese and charcuterie boards offer a great, pretty low maintenance way for me to have everything that I want, while still making all of my guests happy.
My cheese and charcuterie boards are generally focused around being totally grain-free and then depending on my guests, I will often have a generous pile of toasted crostini, that I serve to the side, separately for the non gluten-free or grain-free folks. I simple arrange sliced crostini in a single layer on a cookie sheet, brush both sides with olive oil and toss under the broiler for a few minutes on each side. Add a sprinkle of sea salt. It’s the fastest way to lots of toast.
Follow along for all of my tips on How-to Build an Epic Grain-free Cheese and Charcuterie Board.
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Greek Lamb Burgers with Tzatziki {gluten-free, paleo-friendly}
I am back in New York right now, visiting my family for the week. I’ve been home but a couple of days and it’s been jam-packed with family, friends, fun and of course – eating. We have yet to fill our faces with a Greek feast, but I know it’s coming, that’s always on my MUST-HAVE list when I am home.
In moving to California over three years ago, I have found myself learning how to recreate some of my most favorite Greek dishes that I grew up eating, as well as many that I didn’t. To me, Greek food is the flavor of family and comfort and it’s the taste of home. Good homemade Greek food is always what I crave when I am feeling homesick and missing my family. Lamb is certainly a Greek favorite and while we traditionally enjoy leg of lamb roasted or grilled, I have really come to love ground lamb, as meatballs, in homemade gyro meat, in moussaka or especially these tasty burgers.
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Greek Lamb Gyro Bowls with Tzatziki
Being away from my family living in California, it has gotten a bit easier with time and there are less and less tears over random moments, holidays, but one of the things I miss most is Sunday dinner as one a big family.
I grew up eating delicious home cooked Greek food. My family, they know their way around the kitchen. Everyone has their specialties and their things. My mom is an incredible baker, while not Greek herself she has mastered Greek desserts and pastries, baklava, koulourakia cookies. My dad is the king of savory, the grill master, the Greek God of souvlaki, marinated grilled leg of lamb, roasted potatoes among many other specialties. Sadly while my dad makes THE best lamb you’ll ever eat, neither he nor anyone else in our family has ever mastered homemade gyro. Whenever my parents serve up gyro, which isn’t super often, it usually comes already prepared and frozen. Meh. It makes me sad that we aren’t making it ourselves. Also sadly, these pre-made gyro meats tend to be very processed and they almost always contains gluten, so naturally I won’t touch them. Short of going to a more traditional shop, cart or restaurant, where they cook the meat traditionally over a spinning spit or rotisserie – it’s impossible to get the real thing, I haven’t had it in many, many years.
Traditional Greek gyro, from what I have read, is made with whole cuts of pork, slowly cooked rotisserie style, and thinly shaved, while Americanized Greek gyro is the pressed, almost sausage-like, thinly sliced minced beef and/or lamb blend. Usually served in a pita, wrap style it is a meal that I never get to eat, yet I still find myself craving it.
I am home in New York right now, with my family, visiting and meeting my brand new nephew Keaton James, born just three weeks ago. As I was preparing for this trip home to Buffalo, I got giddy at the thought of all the homemade Greek food I would be eating. Greek food is my comfort, it’s what I crave at the holidays, when I am homesick or when I come down with a bug. Greek food from a restaurant is just never the same and somehow making a big feast of Greek food at home, just the two of us, while I do it occasionally, it just never tastes the same to me. This is the food best served with a large group of the people you love most. A big Greek feast needs to come with a side of very loud chatter, tons of laughs, stories from back in the day and it needs kids running around the very same living room that my dad ran around as a little kid.
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50 Gluten-free Curry Recipes
Hello Tasty Yummies readers, its Meg from Beard and Bonnet here! I am happy to be filling in for Beth today while she is fulfilling her dream of becoming a yoga instructor. Way to go Beth, I am so incredibly proud of you.
Confession: curry is my current obsession. I’m not really picky when it comes to eating curry; I like Thai curries, Indian Curry, Red, Green, and Yellow Curry. I love it all, I love it a lot, and I know that Beth does, too. So today I decided to hit up a few of our blogging buddies and round up 50 delicious gluten-free curry recipes to share with you.
There is a little something for everyone in this round up; there are even a few recipes for gluten-free Naan and Sweet Curry Brown Sugar Popcorn. Oh yeah, and even though I write a gluten-free vegetarian blog I know that Beth occasionally posts recipes with meat so I figured what the heck, I’ll even throw in a few of those!
Do you have a favorite curry recipe?
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Our Trip to Sojourner Farms
I am very excited to tell you about this great farm we took a trip to this past Friday. It was just over an hour drive from Downtown Buffalo and worth every minute of it. Sojourner Farms is located in Olean, NY, run by Pierre and Lesa Dionne.
From their website:
Having both grown up on commercial (i.e. chemical and fertilizer-intensive) potato farms, Lesa and I for several reasons, had no interest what-so-ever in that type of food production. Serendipity would have it that we would become owners of an abandoned dairy farm and the question was what to do with all that fallow land. We sure didn’t want to go into the type of farming we had grown up with but again, fate stepped in and a few years ago Cornell Co-op extension brought a gentleman by the name of Joel Salatin as a guest speaker at an alternative-farming seminar in Alfred and he planted the seed in me to seek further information about this up and coming “radical” approach to farming called pastured meat production.
This type of farming seemed much more user-friendly and sustainable ecologically, and as a practicing Physician, it was obvious to me that this was a much healthier way to raise meat both for the consumer and the farmer. Not knowing if this was something we wanted to pursue in a big way, we followed Mr. Salatin’s suggestion and began with pastured poultry since it was seasonal and not capital intensive to get into.
The laying hens
The moveable, open-air, chicken houses, which allow them plenty of room and constant fresh pasture to feed on.
I did a lot of research on what I was looking for in a farm, I knew that although we really didn’t eat meat often, when we did, I wanted to know where it came from and how it was raised. I want the meat I eat to be without hormones and antibiotics (or any chemicals for that matter), I want to know that the animals are raised humanely and given room to roam and fresh grass to eat. Having learned about Sojourner Farms a few months back, exchanging many emails with Pierre and subsequently placing an order for four chickens and 1/5 of a pig, this brought us on the journey to see the farm and to pick up our food this past Friday afternoon. What a fabulous and life-changing, short trip we were lucky enough to take. It is so incredibly refreshing to see the happy animals roaming the many acres of grassy farmland and to know that they are all well-treated and living the lives they deserve to live. We were able to speak at great length with Pierre about how he acquired the 260 acres of land he owns, how he got into farming in this manner, which (as you would guess) it isn’t easy and it is very costly to run. Pierre is still a practicing physician in town (two days a week) and has a full-time daily farm hand on staff. Lesa is a full time school teacher. Pierre and Lesa feel “…that if more people knew how most of our food is produced commercially, they would demand significant paradigm shifts. We, as a society, have delegated the task of monitoring food quality to others and they may not always have the consumer’s best interest at heart.”
Happy cows, grazing on delicious pasture at Sojourner
One of the very many beautiful views.
Being able to shake the hand of the man that raised the food we would soon be eating, asking questions about how the animals are raised and fed, seeing the land they live on and feed off of, it is an experience that really cannot be put into words. I truly feel that if more people were aware of the foods they eat and where it comes from, more people would take action to ensure that same food is of the utmost quality, both ethically and otherwise. We owe it to ourselves to be educated about what we consume, what it is doing to us, the animals (if you choose to eat meat), and the environment. Your actions can speak louder than you know and supporting the places that share those beliefs is the only way to help make the changes you seek, a reality. The trip to Sojourner was probably the single most emotional food related experience I can ever recall from my lifetime. I feel so lucky to have found their farms and to be able to support them and what they are doing.
On the drive back to the city, we stopped at a farmer’s stand bought some tomatoes, baby potatoes, and fresh from the field, strawberries and lettuce. From those two stops we were able to make an amazing dinner. We butterflied and grilled a whole chicken along with some baby potatoes for grilled herb potato salad and I threw together a delicious green salad with tomatoes, walnuts and feta. Since, I know we will be making this exact meal again, I decided to forgo the photos and recipes this time. Mark and I were so happy to not be rushing off somewhere and to be together (alone), that we wanted to enjoy a beautiful dinner, slowly and quietly without interruption. That chicken was hands-down, THE best chicken we have ever eaten in my life. So fresh, so flavorful and I truly feel like you can taste the love and care taken every single step of the way. Thank you Pierre and Lesa, for all that you are doing.
