Finding Alternatives To Grass-Fed Beef

This is a guest post from Greg Hayes, the author of Live Fit Blog.  Check out his fitness blog for more ruminations on fitting fitness into busy lives.

Brandon’s recent post on grass-fed beef got me thinking about a conversation I had with a friend a few months ago.  She was asking me why I would want to eat venison.  Having never eaten venison, and knowing you can’t buy it in stores (at least in the U.S.), she found the whole idea somewhat appalling.  But she, too had watched the documentary Food, Inc., and was distraught by those images as well.  She had questions – about hunting, raising cattle, and why one would ever care to try a red meat other than beef.  So we talked.

The fact of the matter is we’ve changed the physiology of cattle through selective breeding.  Beef is tender because, unlike almost any other animal on the planet, fat is threaded into the muscle.  Most animals have a layer of muscle, and then a layer of fat, with the fat layer located between the skin and the muscle (in most cases).  If you go back and examine the steaks cut from grass-fed beef, one can clearly see the white lines in the steak.  That’s fat, and its responsible for the tenderness so prized among beef steaks.  It just so happens there’s more of it in traditional steaks than grass-fed.

The industrialization of cattle ranching, and the fact that beef is sold by the pound, encourages the industry to seek ways of cheaply increasing weight on the hoof.  This leads to practices such as grain finishing, helps explain the outgrowth of the rendering industry, and even partially explains the use of low-dose antibiotics in cattle.  It’s also the reason traditionally grown beef is relatively inexpensive.  The consumer is paying for cheap fat, which reduces cost.

There are multiple reasons grass-fed beef holds so much appeal for consumers, with at least the perception of more humane treatment being high on the list.  After all – the cattle aren’t trapped before a trough, being fed calories that only generate fat.  This inexorably leads to lower fat content, and perhaps more important from a health perspective, improves the ratio of healthy to unhealthy fats.

So back to our original question.  Why would one be interested in eating red meat other than beef?

From a health perspective, nearly every other red-meat will be substantially lower in fat content than beef   Grass-fed or not, by virtue of fat not being threaded with muscle, more of the fat is removed during processing and handling.  Not only is the overall fat content lower, but generally speaking, the balance of fats is healthier as well.  These reasons help explain why heart patients are told to eat foods like rabbit, rather than beef.

There are a variety of unconventional alternatives to beef that many people never consider.  Unlike in other parts of the world, many in the U.S. have never tried the likes of venison, moose, or even goat, which is a mainstay in much of the world.  Laws like the Lacey Act (PDF) have existed since as far back as 1900 for the sole purpose of protecting wildlife from being commercialized.  This is as it should be.  Wild game should be just that in  my opinion — wild.  But as people move away from activities like hunting and fishing, they also suffer the unfortunate consequence of depriving themselves of some of the best tablefare to be found.

This quandry eventually sparked the growth of organizations like the North American Deer Farmer’s Association, which was established for the purpose of helping develop wild game herds, starting with overseas breeding stock.  Through DNA registries, farmers certify that their herds are genetically distinct from native North American stock, which provides a means for anyone to savor healthier alternatives to grass-fed beef, while at the same time, protecting the integrity of North American wildlife.  It’s a win-win combination for consumers and wildlife alike.

A Healthy Dad is always happy to take guest posts from like-minded bloggers. If you’d like to submit a guest post, just drop me a line!