The Relevance with Knowing the Distinction for Grass-Fed Beef
A number of suppliers of beef will describe their product "grass-fed" due to the fact that at some point within the cattle's life it had in fact eaten grass. That can be rather disingenuous as all beef livestock tend to be provided with grass at some stage in their existence. This is in comparison with many dairy cows which have been grain-fed their entire lives and might never see a blade of grass. So what we actually want to find out is when the cattle that we're eating were in point of fact fed grass. To put it differently grass-fed beef is of insignificant importance; grass-finished beef is the thing that we need to know.
Just how are we to know for sure what cattle were provided with just before it was directed at the abattoir? The only way we can for certain know is to be alert to the practices for the suppliers which are sourcing that meat. And it is an important factor in the quality of the beef you eat. In a recent test, one group of cattle was permitted to forage on grass and also the other using a dry distiller's grain. Following a three month time the dry distiller's grain set acquired basically no health advantages with the end product. On the other hand, the grass fed livestock enjoyed those positive factors that may be anticipated.
One of the big benefits of beef which is finished grass-fed is the greater balanced ratio of omega-3 fats and omega-6 fats. Because of the vast rise in highly processed foods and vegetable oils this balance has gotten tilted too much on the side of omega-6s. That is the key reason why overall health for those who eat the typical Western diet has worsened. Our intake of omega-6 has exploded by an incredible 100,000 times compared to 100 years back, with processed foods the main cause. Grass-finished beef can help when we're pounding down that sirloin.
When can we expect this situation to return toward more grass-finished beef? The solution is when there's greater demand for grass-finished animal meat in the United States. It is most certainly not that it cannot be done; in fact, now there is a market for it in the United States, but the vast majority of it is imported. In Australia approximately 70% of the cattle are pasture-raised as well as grass-finished, and in many other nations such as Brazil, Uruguay and New Zealand grass-finished beef is significantly more common. The explanation is probably that in these countries it is actually less expensive to grass-finish cattle than grain-finish. But from a health standpoint it is something that we must always take into account whenever we eat beef.