Instantly improve nutrition in your diet with free-range meat

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

I’m not sure why there’s seldom heard a discouraging word when you’re home, home on the range. But this might be one of the reasons: superior nutrition from the meat of free-range animals.

If you only needed one reason to eat beef from free-range livestock, omega-3 content would be an excellent reason.

Grass-fed animals produce meat that’s very high in omega-3 fatty acids compared to factory-farmed animals that are fattened with grain feed. This is one reason why meat-eaters of a century ago were generally in better health than meat-eaters of today.

But omega-3 is just one of the healthy benefits. Here are five more reasons to choose grass-fed beef over factory-farmed beef:

• Higher vitamin E content
• Higher vitamin A content
• Higher conjugated linoleic acid content
• Lower caloric content
• Lower levels of chemical pesticides and herbicides

In addition, when animals are free to move about in large pastures, disease risk is much lower, so the need for antibiotics is dramatically reduced. But in factory farming, disease is so common that virtually all animals are given antibiotics. Then antibiotics end up in the meat, consumers eat the meat, and this contributes to our society-wide resistance to antibiotics.

That alone is disturbing enough. But there’s more: E. coli – the bacteria with certain strains that prompt severe illness. A Cornell University study found that grain-fed animals contain about 300 times more E. coli than grass-fed animals.

Also, something about the grain feed makes E. coli more acid resistant, so the bacteria are more likely to survive the trip through our stomach acids. Harmful E. coli in grass-fed beef is neutralized more efficiently in the stomach.

A good egg

Like beef, the egg has gotten a bad rap over the past couple of decades. But nutritionally, the egg is a thing of beauty.

Alternative medicine pioneer, William Campbell Douglass II, M.D., considers a farm-fresh egg to be a “perfect food.” And there’s plenty of evidence to back that up. Eggs provide a powerhouse of nutrients: essential amino acids, riboflavin, vitamins B and D, and minerals, including calcium, potassium, and iron.

By “farm fresh,” Dr. Douglass means free-range, of course – which makes a big difference. In a previous e-Alert I told you about a Mother Earth News article that detailed the results of four egg studies:

• 1974: Free-range eggs contained 50 percent more folic acid and 70 percent more vitamin B12 compared to factory- farmed eggs
• 1988: Free-range eggs contained 13 times more omega-3 fatty acids compared to factory-farmed eggs
• 1997: Free-range eggs contained higher omega-3 and vitamin E levels compared to factory-farmed eggs
• 2003: Free-range eggs contained three times more omega-3, twice as much vitamin E, and 40 percent more vitamin A compared to factory-farmed eggs

And free-range eggs are less likely to contain salmonella, the bacterium that’s the primary culprit behind most cases of food poisoning.

A recent UK government survey of chicken operations shows that nearly 25 percent of farms that cage their birds tested positive for salmonella, while only 6.5 percent of free range flocks tested positive, and less than five percent of organic flocks tested positive. The highest levels of salmonella were detected in the largest flocks.

Factory farms often have 30,000 birds or more, and the largest farms may have as many as half a million chickens – all kept in cramped cages.

Not good for the chickens. And not good for you.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Sources:
“Grass-Fed Beef” Patti Bess, The Union, 2/19/08, theunion.com
“Salmonella Levels Over 5x Higher in Battery Eggs than Organic” Peter Shield, Natural Choices, 1/2/08, naturalchoices.co.uk
“Keep Animal Waste Out of Our Waters – Stop Factory Farm Pollution” The Sierra Club, sierraclub.org