Grain Free Beef – 100% Grass Fed Beef

Why only 100% Grass Fed Beef will do!

The omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. Many people are now being sold ‘Grass fed Beef’, it’s the new food jargon. But before you spend your extra pennies on a juicy grass fed steak there is a few questions you need to ask. Here’s the rub.

Firstly there is a lot of misinformation and confusion about fats, much of our health and nutrition advice seems to have been based on questionable studies and have a surprisingly political agenda.

For example, recent comprehensive, large population studies show that saturated fats have little or no adverse effects upon cardiovascular disease.

It seems that the more important health factor when watching our fat is the ratio of omega – 3 to omega – 6 fatty acids. Throughout human evolution we have spent millions of years eating a diet rich in fish and wild game, these foods are an abundant source of omega -3 long chain fatty acids (EPA and DHA). Our consumption of omega 6 seed oils was by comparison very small.

Anthropological research suggests that our hunter- gatherer forefathers ate a diet that had a ratio of 1:1 of omega -6 and omega- 3. It also appears that these same forefathers were free from the diseases that plague our modern society. As the industrial revolution unfolded over the last century and a half, cereals and vegetable oils became a more prominent part of people’s diet, also animals began to be fed grains too which reduced the omega -3 content of meat.

Fast forward to modern day and many diets have a ratio of 25:1 omega-6 to omega-3. What does this mean for health? Well omega -3 and omega-6 compete for the same conversion enzymes, this means (in very simplistic terms) that the more omega-6 you eat the less ‘room’ there is for omega-3. Massively elevated omega-6 consumption seems to correlate with an increase in all inflammatory diseases including.

type 2 diabetes
metabolic syndrome
irritable bowel syndrome & inflammatory bowel disease
psychiatric disorders
obesity
macular degeneration
rheumatoid arthritis
asthma
cancer
autoimmune diseases
What is even more alarming is the clear correlation between a rising intake of n-6 and increased mortality from heart disease.

Ok so what the heck has that got to do with my steak?

Our meat is raised in a very different way nowadays and this may be contributing to your high intake of omega-6. We should be getting our omega-3 from fish and meat however due to more industrialised farming methods most animals are now grain fed for some or all of their life. For an animal to produce meat that is healthful for us to eat and rich in omega 3, the animal’s digestion needs to be working properly. Beef animals when eating their natural forage diet of grass have a healthy pH of 7, this creates the perfect environment for the fermentation bacteria that in turn produce high levels of CLA, omega -3, branch chain amino acids vitamins and digestive enzymes. Just 30 days of feeding a bovine grain can throw the pH downwards towards pH4 and undo the chemistry of 200 days of munching grass.

In an acidic environment the healthy bacteria are replaced by a fermentation bacteria that impedes the healthy by-products and increases the levels of omega -6. The cattle become sick as their liver cannot cope. The result – farmers feed anti-biotics to cattle in order to prevent disease.

Most paleo and primal followers are buying grass fed meat because they believe that it will be rich in omega – 3.

An Australian study looked at the effects on healthful fats in the meat of animals that were fed to three groups 1) 100% pasture diet, 2) fed for 80 days on a grain ration, 3) 120 plus days on a grain ration. The result was that only the grass fed group contained the levels of omega-3 (30mg of long chain n-3 FA/100g muscle) required by the food standards agency for the food to be considered a source of omega -3 fatty acids.

So it is clear, unless it is stated that it is 100% Grass fed, or it carries a label such as the ‘Pastoral’ label that guarantee’s such standards, then be VERY suspicious. http://www.pastureforlife.org/

It is simply not good enough to assume that it has been 100% grass fed beef or grain free beef.

In the UK it is very unusual to find animals that are not grain fed towards their slaughter , the vast majority of Farmers ‘finish’ their animals on cereals in order to get them to the desired weight and conformation required by the buyers, butchers and supermarkets.

Don’t be a sucker and fall for the newest marketing trick, support farmers and retailers that are selling GENUINE 100% grass fed beef and grain free beef.

Our 100% grass fed Beef – Is reared to organic standards and higher, it will receive no medicines, be on land managed for conservation without the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The gran free beef animals will eat nothing but grass and fodder crop silage from birth to slaughter. Our beef is 100% Grass Fed Beef and is Grain Free Beef certified ‘Pasture for Life’.

2 thoughts on “Grain Free Beef – 100% Grass Fed Beef”

Sally BanksAugust 7, 2019 at 9:08 am
I live in biggin Hill Kent. Do you provide for this area?

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- Caroline GrindrodSeptember 25, 2019 at 1:37 pm
  Hi, yes DPD deliver within the UK.
  
  Reply