Thursday, August 6, 2009

Meat lovers: How to buy healthy beef

Tip from Dr. Heidi.

Meat lovers: Here's how to buy beef that won't make you fat, sick or tired.

From this day on, when you shop,
ALWAYS ask for - no - insist, on 100% grass-fed beef.
The regular industrial feedlot beef has much more fat than grass-fed. And the kind of fat in it is the BAD fat. (Way more Omega 6s than are healthy). Vs the good fat (Omega 3 and CLA).

Not because of the animals themselves. But because of what bad guys feed their animals and shoot them up with. (Feed - corn and soy, plus shoot them up with antibiotics - they get sick eating corn and soy instead of grass - and growth hormones. So they grow faster than they're supposed to.)

One 100% GF farmer describes it here - naked link. (We're buyers.)
Good fats help you lose weight, build muscle, and they're good for your heart, not bad, says Dr. Heidi.
If you are putting on the pounds and you love meat like I do, do not settle for any less than 100% grass-fed. Most health super markets (like Whole Foods) carry it. Even some of the traditional supermarkets are getting in on the act.

Just ask. No. Insist.
If you need any more reason to go for 100% grass-fed (you may get nightmares) read Michael Pollan's stunning and best selling opus on this very topic Omnivore's Dilemma.

P.S. Just in from the New York Times - another reason to demand 100% grass-fed: Illnesses Are Linked to Recalled Beef (industrial, of course.)

6 comments:

Rhonda said...

Traders Joe's market WAS carrying grassfed ground beef. Now, they are not going to carry it anymore.

I can't get a straight answer as to why not.

I was so happy that a market like Trader Joe's was on the cutting edge but it looks like they have "fallen off the grassfed wagon". I was hoping that I would have an alternative to Whole Foods.

Such a shame....

Mary Nolan said...

Some Wal Marts and one locally owned grocery store here carry Bison ground meat and steaks.
Delicious.
Mary

QueensMary said...

I live in Waxhaw, NC and go to my small town local butcher who buys from local farmers he trusts. He told me the dirty little secret of "some" grass fed beef that is sold is that they are simply very old dairy cows with tough, stringy meat. I moved here from the Big Apple and I see the all the local cows eating grass ALL day long, every day. It made me wonder how is a cow
NOT grass fed, dairy or otherwise? Maybe Trader Joe's had complaints as to tough, stringy meat because their source was selling butchered old dairy cows?

www.wholefoodandmore.net said...

I was intrigued when Dr. Heidi talked with me about grass-fed beef but I didn't like the taste of beef so it took a few weeks for me to get my nerve up to eat it. I was lucky to find a local farmer at the St Paul Farmers Market that raises his cows on 100% grass. I also order beef from Tropical Traditions (the beef comes from WI, local to me) http://www.grassfedtraditions.com/grass_fed_beef.htm

I am a beef eater again as long as it is 100% grass-fed. The taste tells all...

Robin
www.wholefoodandmore.com

Paul Eilers said...

We have a local farmer's market in our area. They are downtown on Tuesday and Saturday mornings.

We went there and asked for someone local who sold grass-fed meat and was given several names and sources.

Paul

Eat Well. Live Well.
PurpleGreenPops.com

Michael said...

Be Careful. Unfortunately there are some stores that are carrying grain fed bison.