How important is this grass-fed thing? page 2

[schutejame]

Lots of posts around here recommending eating fat

[Dirlot]

Wild fish

[JoanieL]

The quality of the fat of an animal that has been exposed to pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones is different the fat from grass fed animals as to vitamins, pesticide levels, etc. One fairly easy way to deal with that is to buy lean cuts of those kinds of meats, trim the fat, and then add back in fats you know aren't as contaminated - olive oil, avocado oil, pastured butter, etc., when you prepare them.

Also, it's still illegal to feed pigs hormones, so if someone tries to sell you expensive hormone-free grocery store pork, they're just yanking your chain. Grass fed pigs (and really pastured chickens) are a whole other animal, and they will be more expensive.

[Dirlot]

I am not doubting you but what an odd law, no hormone pork but other meats are fair game

[Damiana]

It's not a necessity. Buy and eat the type of produce and meats that you can afford.

[JoanieL]

Dirlot, I think it all has to do with milk production. BGH was introduced to make the cows produce more milk per cow per day.

That unnatural state led to udder infection (pus in the milk) which led to chronic use of antibiotics.

My use of grass fed for pigs was wrong though, as pigs are omnivores, so I guess there I should have used the terms free range or pastured.

(For some reason, I feel like breaking out into a loud rendition of Born Free.)

[ryanmercer]

Like everyone else said, you don't need to sweat it if you can't get grass fed.

But as a student in college, I'm on a pretty strict budget, and I'm able to get grass fed by getting involved in cow shares. I bought an eighth of a grass-fed cow a couple of months ago and I still have a couple cuts left. And it only came out to $7/lb, and included everything from ground beef to filets. Awesome deal, I highly recommend you look around for one in your area.

Heh that's only $2555 a year for dinner.

[RichMahogany]

If you're not getting grass-fed meats, I'd tend toward the leaner cuts and MAKE SURE TO ADD PLENTY OF GOOD FAT. So put grass-fed butter (if you can get it) on your lean, conventional steak, or cook everything in as much coconut oil as possible, etc.

But yeah, to echo the others, don't let the fact that it's not optimal stop you from doing the best you can with what is available to you. You'll be way healthier even eating conventional, corn-fed, CAFO beef than you would eating Twinkies and Pepsi.

[TuppTupp]

I think it's similar buying a car. Sure, you should get the Prius that will get you from A to B and has a great miles-per-gallon value, but right now you only have $500 to spend on a car. You should probably still get the best MPG that you can afford (meaning leaner cuts if grain+hormone fed beef), but a used $500 car can still get you from point A to point B.

The underlying message in all of the articles (and posts) on this site as I understand it is basically "be the best you can be".
Grass fed, pastured unicorn is probably better than the grain fed beef you have access to right now, but lean grain fed beef with some butter/coconut oil, some veggies and maybe a nice sauce with heavy cream is still better than a sandwich, a pizza or a cookie.

[ChocoTaco369]

Where do you live? Do you have a Shop Rite near you?

If you do, I recommend the following:

1.) Shop Rite on occasion carries a "Nature's Reserve" brand of beef. It is grassfed/free range from Australia. About once a month, they have whole beef tenderloin on sale for $5.99-$6.99/lb. I just bought two - one for $5.99/lb that I sectioned into about 20 filet mignon steaks a few weeks ago, and another one for $6.99/lb that I'm saving for New Year's dinner. Seriously, $6-7/lb for grassfed filet mignon...and they have it A LOT. Funny thing is, their CAFO USDA whole beef tenderloin goes on sale simultaneously for $10/lb...I don't understand how that pricing structure works out. The USDA ones are 50% larger and way fattier, too.

2.) Shop Rite also carries flash-frozen pastured Australian AND New Zealand lamb shoulder. It retails for $3.99/lb. They're cheap shoulder cuts but they have the marrow in...and again, pastured...for $4/lb. Often, the fresh shoulder goes on sale for $4/lb...also about once a month.

3.) They also sell a Clayton's Organic brand - it is grassfed and sorghum finished. It ain't corn or soy, so that's a big step in the right direction. They have many cuts in the $5-6/lb range.

Look around at your local grocery store. If you can find deals on lamb, it is VERY easy to find lamb that is a "Product of Australia." Australian lamb is usually free range, or at least much better than US lamb. New Zealand is grassfed pretty much 100% of the time. You can always move to lamb and you're getting MUCH better quality meats.

I believe all US chicken is also antibiotic free? It's always fed corn and soy as a rule of thumb - even if it's organic, and even pastured is supplemented with corn or soy.