The Better Baby Book (10 page)

Meat and Butter from Grass-Fed Animals

If this book hasn't already shocked you with science-backed advice that contradicts the conventional wisdom, get ready, because we are about to present the facts that fly in the face of the largest piece of nutritional dogma of all. We might as well start by just stating the truth: red meat and butter are some of the healthiest things you can eat—as long as they come from healthy animals.

No matter how much evidence supports this, and despite the thousands of years that people have eaten red meat, most people who hear this statement respond with disbelief, denial, disgust, or even anger. After all, if this is true (and it is), the guilt you felt every time you enjoyed steak was for nothing, and that flavorless butter substitute you smeared on your toast wasn't healthier (actually, it was unhealthy, but that's another story). Worst of all, it means you have been lied to about your health, and the people who were supposed to be keeping you safe were asleep on the job.

That's how we felt when we did the research and switched to meat and butter from grass-fed animals. In fact, all of the people we've counseled, pregnant or not, who have followed our advice to increase their intake of healthy beef, lamb, and butter reported large increases in energy and mental clarity, easy muscle formation, and fat loss, usually within two to four weeks. Lana ate red meat and multiple tablespoons of butter nearly every day during both pregnancies. Both of us
felt
healthier from eating butter and meat, and the profound improvements in our lipid chemistry (a summary of the levels of HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and other fats in the bloodstream) showed that we actually
were
healthier. The reason for these changes is that we were cutting polyunsaturated oils from our diet and replacing them with more stable, health-enhancing saturated and monounsaturated fats.

We'll be the first to tell you, however, that all meat and butter are not created equal, and we consciously chose the right sources. If you decide to increase your intake of meat and dairy to support your pregnancy, it's absolutely critical that you choose products from grass-fed animals. We'll go into a little detail to make the case that switching to meat and butter from grass-fed animals will have a huge impact on your health—and your baby's, too.

Good Meat, Bad Meat: Choose Beef and Lamb from Grass-Fed Animals

Meat from grain-fed cattle, sheep, or bison contains seven to eight grams of fat per three-ounce serving. That's about three times the fat content of meat from grass-fed animals, which averages two and a half grams per three-ounce serving. Meat from grass-fed animals is so low in fat that it's actually too low to support optimal hormone production for a pregnant woman. That's why it's a good idea to accompany a dish of this meat with a nice butter sauce or some guacamole.

But it's not just the amount of fat that matters, it's the type. Most of the fat in meat from grain-fed animals is easily oxidized polyunsaturated omega-6 fat. The fat in this meat also contains the unhealthy hormones that ranchers add to make the animal grow more quickly, along with mold toxins from poor-quality feed.

The fat that is in meat from grass-fed animals, in contrast, is almost entirely saturated and monounsaturated. It's actually healthy fat, which will support your baby's growing nervous system. A study published in the June 2008
Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry
showed that the fat composition of meat from grass-fed animals is “clearly superior” to that of meat from grain-fed animals and “remarkably beneficial” for the human diet. Beef from grass-fed cattle has actually been shown to lower problem cholesterol levels.

How You Cook It Matters

Cook your meat to no more than medium, and instead of searing the outside, put the grill or oven at 250 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and cook the meat gently so it is not charred on the outside and is still pink inside. Use a digital meat thermometer if you need it. We cook our meat at a low temperature until the inside is 115 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit, then take it out of the oven. The meat continues to cook after it's removed; the internal temperature may rise another five degrees before we serve it.

Even healthy fats can be oxidized if they're cooked for too long or at too high heat. The different fat composition of meat from grass-fed animals makes them cook more quickly than meat from grain-fed animals. Always cook slowly and gently on low heat, whether you're cooking on the stove, on the grill, or in the oven.

The Benefits of Meat from Grass-Fed Animals

Meat from grass-fed cattle has two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain-fed animals does. That's because omega-3 is produced in the chloroplasts (the site of photosynthesis) of green leaves, including grass, and grass-fed cattle get to eat lots of them. The
Journal of Animal Science
published a study that tracked the omega-3 levels in grass-fed cattle that were switched to a grain-fed diet; the omega-3 levels decreased every day. The result was the same for the meat and eggs of chickens that have no access to fresh green foods.

Omega-3 is central to cell function and heart health. People who eat a diet rich in omega-3 experience lower rates of heart attack, depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, and Alzheimer's disease. Omega-3 has also been shown to slow the growth of some types of cancer. Nearly 20 percent of Americans have omega-3 blood levels that are so low they cannot be detected.

Meat from grain-fed animals also has a dangerously lopsided ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids: fourteen to one! A high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the body has been linked to a variety of health problems, including increased rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease, among others. Four to one is a healthy dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. The ratio in beef from grass-fed cattle is an even more optimal ratio of two to one, on par with most fish, including wild caught salmon.

Meat from grass-fed animals has also been shown to be three to five times higher than meat from grain-fed animals in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which reduces cancer tumor growth, increases lean body mass, and promotes healthy cardiovascular function. The same goes for vitamins A and E: meat from grass-fed cattle has two to four times as much of these important vitamins as meat from grain-fed cattle. It is also interesting to note that the meat from grass-fed cattle contained twice as much vitamin E as the meat from grain-fed cattle even when the grain-fed cattle were heavily supplemented with synthetic vitamin E.

Grain-fed cattle are far more susceptible than grass-fed cattle to infection with
E. coli
bacteria, which can be deadly to humans. The reduction in risk from aggressive
E. coli
species alone justifies the switch to meat from grass-fed animals.

What about Pork and Fowl?

It's true that if pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese eat what they're supposed to, their meat will be healthier, too. But even when these animals eat a natural diet, their fats still aren't as healthy as beef and lamb from grass-fed animals. That's because they contain much more polyunsaturated fat than beef and lamb do. Polyunsaturated fats oxidize easily when they're cooked (or even exposed to oxygen or light) and become carcinogenic. Unfortunately, unlike beef and lamb, which can be eaten rare or medium rare, pork and fowl all must be cooked thoroughly to be eaten safely. So it's impossible to avoid oxidized polyunsaturated fats when eating these meats.

The amount of unhealthy polyunsaturated fat in animals

The fat from chicken and turkey is about 20 percent polyunsaturated, and the fat from duck and goose about 13 percent. That's a lot more polyunsaturated fat than in beef and lamb, which are only 3 percent, or in pork, which is 12 percent. This means that on average, eating pork is healthier than eating chicken or turkey. And, in fact, we do enjoy bacon for breakfast sometimes, provided it's cooked gently (thoroughly, but not charred or crispy).

You might look at the fat composition of olive oil, see that it's about 10 percent polyunsaturated fat, and wonder why we recommend eating that but not chicken, fowl, or pork. The trick is that we only eat olive oil that has not been used in cooking or otherwise heated. When polyunsaturated fats aren't heated and oxidized, a moderate amount is fine to eat.

If you do choose to eat fowl and pork, it's still important to buy products made from healthy animals that ate good-quality diets. For chicken and turkey, organic free-range is best. Duck and goose is by far the healthiest, if it's wild game. In the store, organic is best. As for pork, it's essential to find out what the pigs were fed. In the wild, pigs are omnivores and will forage for a variety of things. They'll eat vegetation, grass, roots, and any animal carcasses they find, including mice, rats, and rabbits. When raised domestically, pigs that were fed vegetables, roots, and protein feeds will typically produce healthier pork. Pork from pigs that were factory-farmed or that didn't eat natural foods isn't likely to be healthy.

Good Dairy, Bad Dairy: Choose Butter from Grass-Fed Animals

You know from chapter 4 that we don't recommend drinking milk or eating cheese because of the negative effects of casein, especially when the milk is pasteurized. However, butter is one dairy product that doesn't have much casein at all, and it's a healthy, satisfying part of our diet. Another reason to eat butter is that it's one of the oils you should use for cooking. It doesn't oxidize easily when heated.

When buying butter, it's just as important to choose butter made from grass-fed cows or goats as it is to choose meat made that way. The fat in butter from grass-fed cows is actually good for you, unlike the fat in butter made from grain-fed cows (and unlike what you have probably been led to believe).

Unfortunately, modern dairy practice confines cows and feeds them a diet high in grain, corn, and soy, which are not natural food sources for cattle. The reason for this strange diet is simple: it makes cows produce many more gallons of milk per day. In 1999, however, researchers discovered that the less milk a cow produces, the higher the concentration of vitamins and nutrients in the milk. In other words, a cow transfers the same amount of vitamins into her milk no matter how much milk she produces. Today's supercows may produce twenty times as much milk, but their milk is severely diluted in terms of its vitamin content.

A look at other research shows that many of the benefits of meat from grass-fed animals are also found in butter from grass-fed animals. A 2006 study concluded that the more that fresh pasture was added to a cow's diet, the more omega-3 the butter contained. Butter from grass-fed cows contains far more vitamins E and A, beta-carotene, and CLA than butter from grain-fed cows. Butter concentrates the fat-soluble nutrients from milk, but only if the nutrients are present in the first place, of course. Grass-fed cows' butter is lower in mycotoxins, both because there's less mold on grass than on grains and because milk processing concentrates the toxins in the milk solids, most of which are removed when making butter.