Thursday, July 15, 2010

Grass Versus Grain Given Beef

By Esther Alarcon

Beef options and the natural environment - grain or grass given?

It is a bit tricky writing on the topic of meat as it could be a very polarizing concern. So to begin with, I'd just like to mention that reducing meat intake is actually a terrific way to lessen the environmental impact of one's lifestyle - and when you make the choice of following a vegan or vegetarian diet, much more power to you.

Having that crucial point done; let's press on. The majority of us are not likely to give up eating beef in the near future, but we could help make some more educated choices about our meat expenditures. Knowing more about the problems can also be a trigger for lowering or ceasing beef intake now, or providing the best way in making that choice later on.

Back when beef showcased very, very intensely in my personal diet plan (I am nevertheless an omnivore, carnivore, whatever you desire to call it); the mention of grain fed meat could have me drooling and imagining fat succulent meats sizzling over a charcoal barbecue grill.

These days, the phrase brings up all sorts of turmoil within me and I tend to eat little from it. What are the causes?

Cattle weren't designed to take in grain

It makes sense but it never occurred to me until somebody pointed it. The digestive system of livestock was made to manage grass, definitely not grain - and unfortunately the majority of the meat we buy nowadays is grain fed.

While grain helps fatten the particular creatures up quickly, it seems that it is really, really harmful to cattle and could cause agonizing disorders just like feedlot bloat as the outcome of an eating plan containing too much starch and too minimal dietary fiber. Unattended, feedlot bloat can suffocate cattle.

Acidosis is another side effect that may also be a painful or life threatening condition. According to Michael Pollan, writer of publications including "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "Food Guidelines", acidosis could lead to bloat, looseness of the bowels, stomach problems, liver health problems and a total deterioration of the body's defense mechanisms, meaning the animals are susceptible to bacterial attacks and a variety of other illnesses.

Grain fed meat often need to be treated a lot more intensely with supplements and medicines to make up for the things they are missing from the actual diet plan which was intended for all of them. After that there is the issue of some other stuff becoming introduced to their particular feed such as (based on local regulations) ammonium sulfate, blood meal, bone meal, dried up cattle manure, defluorinated phosphate, fat from poultry, meat meal, poultry litter and also dried out poultry manure - again, to comprise for what they lose out on by getting grain fed.

Must we torture our food? I hate to think of the collective struggling going on right this minute due to some manufacturer farming methods.

Large swathes of rainforest and other timbered areas have been wiped out to grow corn and soy beans to feed to cattle. While soy beans are not regarded a grain (they're a legume), they could have a similar effect as corn on the animals.

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