Healthier Meats are Grass Fed
Everyone has heard the names whispered in fearful voices during the last few years; avian flu, swine flu and mad cow disease. These health scares have all come from one main source; commercially raised animals, which are distributed into our stores and groceries. These animals are almost universally infected with many harmful and disease-causing bacteria and viruses; and that’s not all! Industrial sized amounts of antibiotics are administered to those animals in the hope of heading off the several illnesses before they totally overtake their bodies. These antibiotics do not usually have quite the intended effect, however; often the medications kill off the weaker strains of bacteria, allowing the more resistant, and therefore more dangerous, bacteria to thrive. These are commonly known facts in the agribusiness corporations, so why are we so shocked when we hear the word ‘pandemic’?
These diseases come about merely because of the conditions in which the animals are raised; they are brought up in detrimental surroundings that act as giant Petri dishes for bacteria. However, there is an option which many are turning to in these times of uncertainty about the mass-marketed food supply. Grass-fed beef, chicken and dairy products are virtually free of the bacteria and diseases that run uncontrolled through mass produced meats and products. Grass fed and grass finished meats are healthier and more nutritious than their commercial counterparts. Many of the unethical commercial practices employed in raising mass-marketed beef and other animals, including the overuse of human antibiotics on animals, have been banned in many European countries for years, including England. Grass farming does not use any of the damaging tactics that are used by the commercial farming industry.|These issues that alarm the majority of people come about mostly because of the conditions in which factory-farm animals are brought up. Luckily, there is something that can be done to guard you and your family from the risks involved when partaking in the mainstream meats. Grass fed and grass finished meats are the option to which many are turning to get more safe sources of protein for their families. Pastured steers and grass fed chicken are not brought up in the harsh and inhospitable environments as those that are raised in feedlots. They are allowed to feast on open pastures and have the individual space they need to flourish and live blissful, healthy lives. Because they enjoy this better lifestyle and are raised and allowed to grow and mature at a natural rate, they are much healthier for us, as well. Many other nationalities have known for many years that the tactics used by commercial farmers are inhumane, risky and plainly, wrong. Grass fed animals are virtually free of viruses and harmful bacteria on any scale, and that means much less risk for disease in the meats supplied by sustainable agriculture practices.
Grass fed meat tastes better than the supermarket varieties that are produced by agribusiness. Favorites like rib eye steaks and ground beef are more succulent and flavorful when they come from grass fed cattle, simply they are healthy, naturally raised animals living and eating their intended diets. Grass fed beef is essentially different from commercially raised beef in that the animals are not required to survive on foodstuffs that they would normally never consume, nor are they caged in shoulder-to-shoulder and made to bear harsh and contaminated living conditions. Instead, grass fed animals are given the space the need to thrive, and they are allowed to graze without restraint in what really are ‘greener pastures’, beneficial to their health and vitality. The better health enjoyed by grass fed animals is transferred to you when you eat grass fed and grass finished beef. The healthful properties of vitamin-rich grass fed beef are not like those of any other meats on the market.
As our country grows growingly apprehensive about health, as we ought to be, many people are bearing in mind the quantity of calories they ingest. Yet another benefit of grass fed and grass finished beef is this; if you were to substitute all of your beef with grass fed beef; without changing anything else in your eating habits, you would save yourself over 17,000 calories each year! At that rate you would lose about six pounds a year. What a jumpstart to a better, more vigorous way of life! Imagining the opportunities, however, is nothing compared to living the reality. Find out just how much better your life can be, and not just around the dinner table; make free range chicken legs the first step to your superior life.
- Becky Langley