Friday, May 4, 2018

The Benefits To Grass Fed Beef And Pork

By Ronald Miller


Healthy nutritional content is concerned with the fatty acid composition of foods. Meat is one of the big culprits. Grass fed beef and pork is a winner every time. The contrast between these and that from concentrated animal feeding operations is significant. Human consumption and impact on humans is the most significant.

Among the problems in the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations is the poor health considerations. Animal waste infected with E.Coli have been found in these waste runoffs. The food they are fed is very poor, also. They are given anything which the industry wants to dispose of. This includes meats not fit to eat, their manure, and even plastic is fed to replace the fiber they are lacking due to their diet. They are given antibiotics to help them stay well and gain more.

Antibiotic usage in the feeding of animals is a major concern. Over 80% of antibiotic usage in the United States is given to animals to protect them from disease due to the atrocious conditions they are subjected to. These antibiotics cause "super germs" that become immune to the antibiotic. When humans eat this meat, these germs are passed on to them and cause resistance to antibiotic in illnesses of the human. This makes many illnesses difficult to control.

The type of food that the factory/farm raised animals is a major issue as well. The foods contain arsenic in an attempt to increase the growth and improve the color of the meat. It is consumed in small amounts, but even in small amounts appears in the meat that is eaten. Even these small amounts exceed the 2 micrograms/kg/day daily that is the safety limit the World Health Organization considers safe.

Although pigs are not considered grass eaters, as they eat other things, they are called pastured pigs. This is a pig that is raised in an open pasture, with access to all the foods naturally eaten by then. They are free to root and find things they prefer to eat.

Fat quality is an issue in pork as well as beef. Pigs, as opposed to what they eat in the wild, are fed mostly corn and soybean meal. This means they have a lot of Omega-6 in their diet, which affects the amount in their meat that humans eat. The percentage of Omega-6 to Omega-3 is what makes meat better. Omega-6 is an inflammatory and Omega-3 is an anti-inflammatory. The best ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 is between 1:1 and 4:1.

The benefits to pastured pigs is evident from a couple of studies done. The pastured pigs have a lot more Omega-3's. Acorns, a natural food preferred by pastured pigs, is a high source of Omega-3 that barn-raised pigs don't get. The natural diet of these pigs gave them much more benefit than the foods chosen for commercial pigs or barn-raised ones that are raised to fatten them up.

A study of two groups of pigs that were fed different foods showed the benefit of pasture fed animals. One group had a food high in Omega-3, linseed oil, and another group of barn raised pigs were fed foods high in Omega-6. The ratio of 03:06 was 2:1 for ham from the group fed linseed oil and was 12:1 in the ham of those in the barn raised group. Obviously there is an advantage to feeding the pigs with the more natural high Omega-3 foods.




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