A Good Food Day: Reboot Your Health with Food That Tastes Great (28 page)

A Comparison of Factory-Farm and
Pasture-Raised Meats

I’m a firm believer in the old saying “You are what you eat.” If you eat animals, you have to take this one step further. You are not only what
you
eat, you are what that cow in your cheeseburger ate, or what the chicken in your box of fried wings feasted on for lunch last week. There is a vast difference between the nutritional value of pasture-raised, humanely raised meat and the type you’re most likely eating—factory-farm meat from sickly animals that ate cheap corn and grain products and were pumped with hormones and antibiotics. That’s why it’s incredibly important to get the highest quality meat your wallet allows. Much of what’s available at American supermarkets is meat from industrial-scale factory farms that treat animals as products rather than living things. Profit is their bottom line, and little thought is given to the actual care of the animal or the environment. The bigger their profits, the more our meat supply is compromised.

Feedlot cattle and chickens are fed a diet of mostly cheap, pesticide-laced corn and other grains—they fatten up fast, similar to people shoveling down high-carb foods. In addition, cattle are often given hormones to further promote unnaturally quick growth. But the issue with cattle is that their stomachs are designed to digest grasses, not grains. This practice wreaks havoc on cows’ health, so they have to be injected with antibiotics regularly. To make matters worse, these cattle, pigs, and chickens spend most of their stressful lives standing in piles of feces while packed together tighter than a subway car during morning rush hour. The variety of environmental, economic, and moral problems ensuing from this backward process is mind-boggling.

Now consider what it’s like for pasture-raised animals. They roam freely while grazing on a natural diet of grass and hay. They’re never given growth hormones and rarely given antibiotics. These animals are raised much closer to the way nature intended, so they’re healthier. If the meat you eat comes from these animals, you’re healthier too. Pasture-raised grass-fed beef is lower in overall fat than grain-fed beef, but higher in good fats like omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which help strengthen your heart and immune system. Grain-fed beef contains more omega-6 fatty acids, the type of fat that in large quantities contributes to chronic inflammation and
cancer
. It’s not just about fat—meat and dairy from grass-fed cows have up to four times more vitamin E (another powerful heart disease– and cancer-fighter), and more vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, and magnesium. On the flavor front, your taste buds are primed for well-marbled corn-fed meat that explodes with fat and sweetness. But grass-fed beef is every bit as flavorful—it’s more savory, earthier, just plain “beefier.” I love it, and the quick technique used in the
Rosemary-Lemon Minute Steak
is my favorite way to bring out its flavor.

You’re far better off with pasture-fed chicken too. With more omega-3s and vitamin E, and less
overall saturated fat, it is heads and shoulders above the quality of meat from grain-fed chickens in filthy feedlots. Just look at the difference between pastured chickens’ bright yellow egg yolks and the murky, pale feedlot chicken yolks. Pasture-raised chickens also have more flavor than their factory-raised counterparts because they were able to munch away on a range of different natural foods, rather than synthetic food.

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to know what you’re getting at the grocery store. The labels on meat packaging are notoriously baffling, and some of them are just smoke-and-mirrors marketing terms rather than official certifications. Here are a number of clarifications on what these different terms mean, so you know how to shop smart for meat that not only tastes good, but is infinitely better for you:

With beef, know that even if it’s USDA-Certified Organic, it’s not necessarily grass-fed. Certified Organic beef means the beef comes from cattle that haven’t been shot up with antibiotics or hormones and have been fed certified organic food. But that cow could have been raised on corn and other grains, which means it still has an unhealthy fat balance of more omega-6s than omega-3s. Even if cattle are fed organic grains, their meat is not as nutritious as grass-fed.

Ideally, you can purchase red meat (beef, sheep, and lamb) that’s certified grass-fed by the American Grassfed Association. Your neighborhood supermarket may not carry it, so a good place to start is your local farmers’ market. Ask these vendors questions. Do you raise your livestock? Is your meat hormone- and antibiotic-free? What do you feed your animals? Even if it isn’t certified 100% grass-fed, meat from a trusted local farmer feeding their livestock grass and hay is a good choice. You can also try retail stores along the lines of Whole Foods. When buying poultry, birds labeled as USDA-Certified Organic and pastured or pasture-raised are the best option. These are easier to find in supermarkets these days. Great online resources like
EatWild.org
,
AmericanGrassFed.org
, and
LocalHarvest.org
have directories of pasture-based farms in your area. Some of them will ship the meat straight to your door.

For many people, the downside of buying pastured meat is its high price tag. It can be shocking, if you’re used to buying standard-issue, grain-fed meat. My family goes the “pay more and eat less” route suggested by Michael Pollan. The price may sting, but I know I’m paying the true cost of what it takes to raise and feed animals in a healthy, ethical, environmentally sound way.

*No Antibiotics Added/*Raised Without Antibiotics/Antibiotic-Free:
Meat and poultry products can be labeled “no antibiotics added,” “raised without antibiotics,” and “no antibiotics” if the producer documents that the animals were raised without antibiotics, and that the meat is not from a sick animal treated with antibiotics. Note: The label “antibiotic-free” isn’t USDA-approved, and is not allowed on meat labels.

*Cage-Free:
On an egg carton, this means that the laying hens were not raised in cages, but it doesn’t always mean the hens have access to the outdoors, nor does it tell you what the hens are fed. On a package of chicken, this term is meaningless—poultry raised for their meat are rarely caged.

Certified humane:
The Humane Farm Animal Care, a nonprofit organization, regulates this label, and certifies that the farm animals were treated humanely—not raised in cages or crates, injected with growth hormones, or unnecessarily administered antibiotics.

*Free Range:
This label on a package of chicken tells you the birds have been allowed access to the outdoors. It is not the same as pastured, because there’s no requirement for the amount of time the chicken is outside, nor the quality or size of the outdoor space.

*Grass-Fed:
The gold standard for this certification is from the American Grassfed Association, which says “100% grass-fed” on meat and dairy products from animals raised solely on natural grasses and hay, not grains. The USDA grass-fed label is not as comprehensive—there is a loophole allowing animals to spend part of their lives in confined pens.

Halal:
Meat with the halal label is acceptable according to Islamic law, and guarantees that the animal was fed a natural diet and slaughtered in a specific way. But it does not have standards for antibiotic usage or the environment the animal is raised in.

*No Hormones Administered/Hormone-Free:
This is for beef and dairy products, and can be used only if producers document that the cattle were raised without hormones. It doesn’t specify if the animal received antibiotics.

Kosher:
Kosher certified meat and dairy is acceptable according to Jewish dietary laws. To be kosher, the meat has to come from an animal slaughtered according to specific standards, but does not address the use of growth hormones or antibiotics.

*Natural:
This term only clarifies that no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives were added to the meat during processing.

Naturally raised:
This standard clarifies “livestock used for the production of meat and meat products have been raised entirely without growth promotants, antibiotics, and have never been fed animal by-products.” So you get some assurance about how the animal was fed, but you can’t tell if it was raised outdoors or crammed in cages.

*Organic/*Certified Organic:
This means that animals have been raised without antibiotics and hormones and that, if they were fed grains, those grains are organic. Certified organic meat must also come from animals that have at least some access to pasture. All food labeled as organic is verified by an independent organization.

Pasture-Raised/Pastured:
This label implies that cattle had year-round access to a pasture. “Pasture-raised” and “100% grass-fed” are the only labels meant to give you the assurance that the animals were not fed grains, which is why many people consider these even better than “organic.” However, pasture-raised is not a regulated term, so producers can use it however they like.

I like using chicken wings in addition to chicken
bones because that bit of meat boosts the flavor of the broth, and chicken wings are inexpensive and typically easier to find than chicken feet and necks. If you don’t see packages of chicken bones in the meat section of your grocery store, ask the butcher—there’s a good chance they have some in the back. If not, you can increase the chicken wings to 6 pounds (just make sure you use a larger pot). Besides their amazing flavor and incomparable usefulness in cooking, bone broths are powerful health tonics. You know chicken soup’s reputation as a remedy for colds and the flu? There’s science to back that up: Any broth made by boiling animal bones with a few vegetables and herbs has immense benefits. Bone broths are high in minerals like calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous, which are good for bones and teeth. The collagen in bone broths supports the development of healthy joints, ligaments and tendons, hair, and skin. Gelatin maximizes the effects of digestive juices, making it easier to digest protein, grains, and beans. And the reason it’s particularly great when you’re sick is that all the good stuff in bone broths is easily processed and absorbed by your body. Since broths are a concentrated source of animal bones, it’s important that you use bones only from pasture-raised chicken, grass-fed beef, or wild-caught fish.