Choose Grass Fed Meats For Better Health

Confused About Fat?  Choose Grass Fed!
by Jo Robinson

In my Grandma’s day, there was no such thing as a bad fat. All fat was “good” simply because it tasted good. My Grandma fried her eggs in bacon grease, added bacon grease to her cakes and pancakes, made her pie crusts from lard, and served butter with her homemade bread. My grandmother was able to thrive on all that saturated fat—but not my grandfather. He suffered from angina and died from heart failure at a relatively young age.

My grandfather wasn’t alone. Population studies from the first half of the 20th century showed that Americans in general had a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease than people from other countries, especially Japan, Italy and Greece. Was all that saturated fat to blame? The Japanese were eating very little fat of any kind, while the people of the Mediterranean were swimming in olive oil, an oil that is very low in saturated fat but high in monounsaturated oils.

So, in the 1960s, word came from on high that we should cut back on the butter, cream, eggs and red meat. But, interestingly, the experts did not advise us to switch to an ultra-low fat diet like the Japanese, nor to use monounsaturated oils like the Greeks or Italians. Instead, we were advised to replace saturated fat with polyunsaturated oils—primarily corn oil and safflower. Never mind the fact that no people in the history of this planet had ever eaten large amounts of this type of oil. It was deemed “the right thing to do.” Why? First of all, the United States had far more corn fields than olive groves, so it seemed reasonable to use the type of oil that we had in abundance. But just as important, according to the best medical data at the time, corn oil and safflower oil seemed to lower cholesterol levels better than monounsaturated oils.

Today, we know that’s not true. In the 1960s, researchers did not differentiate between “good” HDL cholesterol and “bad” LDL cholesterol. Instead, they lumped both types together and focused on lowering the sum of the two. Polyunsaturated oils seemed to do this better than monounsaturated oils. We now know they achieve this feat by lowering both our bad and our good cholesterol, in effect throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Monounsaturated oils leave our HDL intact.

In hindsight, it’s not surprising, then, that our death rate from cardiovascular disease remained high in the 1970s and 80s even though we were eating far less butter, eggs, bacon grease, and red meat: We had been told to replace saturated fat with the wrong kind of oil.

During this same era, our national health statistics were highlighting another problem, this one even more ominous: an increasing number of people were dying from cancer. Why were cancer deaths going up? Was it the fact that our environment was more polluted? That our food had more additives, herbicides and pesticides? That our lives were more stressful? That we were not eating enough fruits and vegetables? Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.

But there was another reason we were losing the war against cancer: the supposedly “heart-healthy” corn oil and safflower oil that the doctors had advised us to pour on our salads and spread on our bread contained high amounts of a type of fat called “omega-6 fatty acids.” There is now strong evidence that omega-6s can make cancer cells grow faster and more invasive. For example, if you were to inject a colony of rats with human cancer cells and then put some of the rats on a corn oil diet, some on a butterfat diet, and some on a beef fat diet, the ones given the omega-6 rich corn oil would be afflicted with larger and more aggressive tumors.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us, we were getting a second helping of omega-6s from our animal products. Starting in the 1950s, the meat industry had begun taking our animals off pasture and fattening them on grains high in omega-6s, adding to our intake of these potentially cancer-promoting fats.

In the early 1990s, we learned that our modern diet was harboring yet another unhealthy fat: trans-fatty acids. Trans-fatty acids are formed during the hydrogenation process that converts vegetable oil into margarine and shortening. Carefully designed studies were showing that these manmade fats are worse for our cardiovascular system than the animal fats they replaced. Like some saturated fats, they raise our bad cholesterol. But unlike the fats found in nature, they also lower our good cholesterol—delivering a double whammy to our coronary arteries. “Maybe butter is better after all,” conceded the health experts.

Given all this conflicting advice about fat, consumers were ready to lob their tubs of margarine at their doctors. For decades they had been skimping on butter, even though margarine tasted little better than salty Vaseline. Now they were being told that margarine might increase their risk of a heart attack!

Some people revolted by trying to abandon fat altogether. For breakfast, they made do with dry toast and fat-free cottage cheese. For lunch, they ate salad greens sprinkled with pepper and vinegar. Dinner was a skinless chicken breast poached in broth. Or better yet, a soy burger topped with lettuce. Dessert? Well, after all that self-denial, what else but a big bowl of fat-free ice cream and a box of Snackwell cookies. Thank goodness calories no longer counted! Only fat made you fat!

Or, so the diet gurus had told us. Paradoxically, while we were doing our best to ferret out all the fat grams, we were getting fatter and fatter. We were also becoming more prone to diabetes. Replacing fat with sugar and refined carbohydrates was proving to be no more beneficial than replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated oils.

At long last, in the mid-1990s, the first truly good news about fat began to emerge from the medical labs. The first fats to be given the green light were the monounsaturated oils, the ones that had helped protect the health of the Mediterraneans for so many generations. These oils are great for the heart, the scientists discovered, and they do not promote cancer. They are also a deterrent against diabetes. The news came fifty years too late, but it was welcome nonetheless. Please pass the olive oil!

Stearic acid, the most abundant fat in beef and chocolate, was also found to be beneficial. Unlike some other saturated fats, stearic acid does not raise your bad cholesterol and it may even give your good cholesterol a little boost. Hooray!

Then, at the tail end of the 20th century, two more “good” fats were added to the roster—omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, the fat found in the meat and dairy products of ruminants. Both of these fats show signs of being potent weapons against cancer. However, the omega-3s may be the best of all the good fats because they are also linked with a lower risk of virtually all the so-called “diseases of civilization,” including cardiovascular disease, depression, ADHD, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, asthma, and autoimmune diseases.

So, some of you may be wondering, what does this brief history of fat have to do with grassfarming? Few people realize that all omega-3s originate in the green leaves of plants and algae. Fish have large amounts of this good fat because they eat small fish that eat smaller fish that dine on omega-3 rich algae and phytoplankton. Grazing animals have more omega-3s because they get the omega-3s directly from the grass. In both cases, the omega-3s are ultimately passed on to humans, the top of the food chain.

Products from grassfed animals offer us more than omega-3s. They contain significant amounts of two “good” fats, monounsaturated oils and stearic acid, but no manmade trans-fatty acids. They are also the richest known natural source of CLA and contain extra amounts of vitamin E and beta-carotene. Finally, grassfed meat is lower than feedlot meat in total fat and calories, making it ideally suited for our sedentary lifestyles.

I don’t believe it’s a matter of luck or chance that grassfed products have so many of the good fats but so few of the bad. In fact, I’ll wager that the more that is discovered about fat in the coming years, the more grassfed meat will shine. The reason for my confidence is simple: our bodies are superbly adapted to this type of food. In the distant past, grassfed meat was the only meat around. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors either brought home a grazing ruminant such as elk, deer, or bison, or a predator that preyed on those animals. Either way, the nutrients found in grass made their way into the animals’ flesh, and ultimately, into our own.

Over the eons, our bodies began to “expect” the kinds and amounts of fat found in grassfed meat. Our hearts counted on the omega-3s to stabilize their rhythm and keep blood clots from forming. Our brain cells relied on omega-3 to build flexible, receptor-rich membranes. Our immune systems used the omega-3s and CLA to help fend off cancer. And because wild game is relatively lean, our bodies weren’t burdened with unnecessary amounts of fat or calories.

When we switch from grainfed to grassfed meat, then, we are simply returning to our original diet, the diet that is most in harmony with our physiology. Every cell and system of our bodies function better when we eat products from animals raised on grass.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Jo Robinson is a New York Times bestselling writer. She is the author or coauthor of 11 nationally published books including Pasture Perfect, which is a comprehensive overview of the benefits of choosing products from pasture-raised animals, and The Omega Diet (with Dr. Artemis Simopoulos) that describes an omega-3 enriched Mediterranean diet that may be the healthiest eating program of all. To order her books or learn more about grassfed products, visit http://eatwild.com.

PICK UP YOUR COPY AND LEARN MORE

Pasture Perfect: The Far-Reaching Benefits of Choosing Meat, Eggs, and Dairy Products from Grass-Fed Animals

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Missing you and wishing you a blessed holiday season.

Happy November!

Are you missing the farmers’ market as much as I am?

-Jill

Rustys Grass Finished Foods Open Ranch Event

There’s plenty of fun for the whole family, such as horseshoes, volleyball, and a hay ride across our beautiful ranch.  Bring your favorite lounge chair for a little R&R in the peaceful East Texas countryside.

You Have the Power to Save Money on Your Electric Bill

What is Kids Cook At Market?

Kids Cook At Market is an opportunity to share the fun of the farmers’ market with the next generation.  As the kids are led through the entire farmers’ market, they talk with area farmers and food producers, taste samples, learn how to pick fresh foods, then head back to the Savor the Flavors Recipe Station to create their own treats.

Kids Cook At Market is held the last Saturday of each month of the farmers’ market season.
The remaining dates for the 2009 season are

• July 25
• August 29
• September 26

The event begins at 9 a.m., we ask all the kids be present 15 minutes before it begins.  Kids ages 7 to 13 years are welcome to participate.  Parents are encouraged to leave their children with the adult leaders to allow a little free shopping time for the parents.  The event lasts 35 to 45 minutes.  Email Jill [at] SulphurSpringsFarmersMarket.com to pre-registered for the event.

June kicked off the first Kids Cook at Market at Main Street Farmers’ Market.

For our first event, Kim Sellers, Registered Dietitian for Hopkins Memorial Hospital, talked about nutrition and the importance of eating fruits & vegetables.   The kids really absorbed what Kim had to say and never hesitated to share what they knew in return.  It was a blast!!

Take a look for yourself.

After exploring the flavors of the market, it was time to get our fruits and head back to the Savor the Flavors Recipe Station to make Fruit Parfaits.

These chefs worked with fresh peaches, blackberries, cantaloupe, and organic yogurt to create the fruitiest treats.  It was very cool to watch the bigger chefs naturally help the smaller chefs with cutting the fruits.  This was a serious bunch, quietly working to develop their own styles.

Kids Cook At Market would like to thank the following for donating their time, produce, fresh baked goods, and kitchen tools to make our first kid friendly event at the Main Street Farmers’ Market.

• Texas AgriLife Extension
• Webb’s Farm Fresh Produce
• SW Farm
• The Boudin Man
• Seven Seas Coffee Roasting Company
• Sloans Creek Farm
• South Spoon Farms, LLC
• JC’S Cookies
• ciboVino restaurant
• Bar V Brand
• Kim Assunto Sellers
• Simple Daily Recipes

Kids Cook at Market is looking for sponsors to help support this event.  If you know of individuals, clubs, non-profit organizations, or businesses that would love to show their support, please click here for more information.

Summer Recipes Request!

Do you have a delicious summer fruit ice cream, gelato or sherbet recipe? Or a fantastic salad or salad dressing recipe using fresh produce from our farmers markets? We’re interested in your favorite family recipes for “those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” that feature our local, seasonal produce.

Please email your recipes to jill@sulphurspringsfarmersmarket.com and include your name, email and source* of your recipe. Unfortunately, we cannot accept recipes that are not digital. We will be publishing many of the recipes right here on SulphurSpringsFarmersMarket.com.

*Please be sure to attribute the source of your recipe as accurately as possible to avoid copyright issues. If this is Aunt Mimi’s Layered Salad recipe that has been passed down for generations, you may indicate it is a family recipe. However, if you know Aunt Mimi used Joy of Cooking cookbook as her original inspiration for the recipe, be sure to say, “Adapted from recipe in Joy of Cooking.” If you have a favorite recipe that you’ve used from Rachel Ray (or other chef or food celebrity) and have made changes of your own, you should say, “Recipe inspired by Rachel Ray.”

RAIN or SHINE, Farmers’ Market Fans KEEP SHOPPING!

It feels as if every Saturday since the Main Street Farmers’ Market has been open, there’s always the threat of rain.  But it hasn’t stopped the die-hard food lovers from mixin’ it up with the merchants downtown.

You know who you are and we love seeing your faces week after week.

Yesterday for example, the weather started out beautifully!  Dry, sunny and cool, perfect for a day out at market. The merchants started setting up at 7 a.m. and by 7:30 a.m.  shoppers were carrying away bags loaded with goodies. Our block party for food lovers was off to a great start.  The morning ROCKED!  By nine o’clock, Main Street was FULL of food lovers.  The aromas of Roasted Zucchini Quesadillas, grilled burgers and fresh roasted coffee danced with the jazz music over everyone’s head.  Merchants couldn’t blow open their plastic bags fast enough as shopper after shopper indulged themselves on healthy foods and sweet treats.

Then somewhere around noon, the sprinkling of raindrops turned to a downpour in a matter of minutes.  Squeals of laughter echoed through the street as merchants scrabbled to protect their goods, and shoppers ran for the nearest canopy for shelter.

Here’s a free tip for the downtown shop owners, have a canopy installed on your store just for those moments when shoppers need shelter.  Observe the next two photos.  This farmers’ market family had no intention of leaving over a little rain; they were waiting it out.  Then, they noticed the store behind them was open.

Shoppers will be shoppers when you give them an open store. $ca- ching$

Rain is always a blessed event.  At the Main Street Farmers’ Market, it’s a time to huddle a little closer under a canopy and make new friends, shoppers get to know the merchants better, merchants learn what the shoppers are looking for, and we all get to share some laughs with old friends.  But you know, Main Street Farmers’ Market is MORE than a spot for commerce, it’s a growing vibrant community.  An event for whole families to experience together week after week.  It’s the place where children explore new foods and parents have a relaxing stroll while they shop.  Where newly weds and empty nesters plan romantic dinners for two and friends sit on the benches to break bread together.  It’s a safe and fun place to hang for HOURS. *sigh*

RAIN OR SHINE, we can count on the Main Street Farmers’ Market to be open for business and community every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. until October 17, 2009.

Main Street Farmers’ Market Fan Page

Now that you’ve been to the Main Street Farmers’ Market and had a chance to experience our block party for food lovers.  Let us know what you enjoy most in the comment section below.  And if you see something missing from the market, we want to know about that, too. ;D

Eat Shop and Meet Up With Friends

Main Street Farmers’ Market is more than food, it’s about community.

Keep up with What’s Fresh from the Farm
The early bird gets the worm, and in the case for market shoppers that means all the best products.  Stay updated all week with Facebook updates from market staff and friends.  We’ll let you know what’s happening at the market and what’s just rolled in from the farms.

Become a Fan on Facebook, Join Main Street Farmers’ Market Fan Page.

Keep up to date about events, new vendors, recipes and more with our Main Street Farmers’ Market e-Letter.  Fill in the Stay Connected box with your name and email address.