Learn the Benefits Of Grass Fed Beef
Courtesy of Nick Ranch Grass Fed Beef

As you will see, products from pastured animals are ideal for your health. Similar to wild game, they contain the amounts and kinds of nutrients that your body “expects” to be fed. Switching to grass fed products may reduce your risk for a number of diseases, including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Lower in Fat and Calories

There are marked nutritional differences between the meat of pasture raised and feedlot raised animals. To begin with, meat from grass fed beef, lamb, and bison is lower in total fat. For example, a sirloin steak from a grass fed steer has about one-half to one-third as much fat as a similar cut from a grain fed steer. When meat is lean, it actually lowers your LDL cholesterol levels.

Because grass fed meat is so lean, 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 number of calories) A 6-ounce steak from a grass-finished steer has almost 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak from a grain fed steer. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds per year), switching to grass fed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year, without requiring any willpower change in your eating habits. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you will lose about six pounds a year. If all Americans switched to grass fed meat, our national epidemic of obesity might begin to diminish. [1]

Extra Omega-3s

Although grass fed meat is low in total fat, it has two to six times more omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are "good fats" that 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. Omega-3s are essential for your brain as well. People with a diet rich in Omega-3s are less likely to suffer from depression.

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 kept them from spreading. 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 hasten recovery from surgery.

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 diminishes. When chickens are housed indoor and deprived of greens, their meat and eggs 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. It has been estimated that only 40 percent of Americans consume a sufficient supply of Omega-3 fatty acids. Twenty percent have levels so low that they cannot be detected. Switching to the meat, milk, and dairy products of grass fed animals is one way to restore this vital nutrient to your diet. [2]

The CLA Bonus

CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) 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. 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 grass fed meat and dairy products places women in this lowest category. Researcher Dr. Tilak Dhiman from Utah State University estimates that you may be able to lower your risk of cancer simply by eating each of the following grass fed products each day:

• one glass of whole milk
• one ounce of cheese
• 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.