Corn, It's What's Bad for You

Instead of "Beef, It's What's for Dinner," I thought my title might be better. I'm not saying that corn in moderation is bad for you, but too much corn along with other grain products is bad for you. Today, the American diet is not balanced. It's heavily weighted with grain and grain-based products. Scientists are discovering this excess may be the root cause for most of today's major ailments: cancer, depression, obesity, insulin resistance, allergies, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and more.

One would think that everyone would be lit up like downtown lights in their attempt to eat right. Therefore, to get the word out on the fatty acid research that started coming out 15 years should be a snap, right? Wrong. American business is big business. That means it is entrenched with huge capital investments in fixed assets. Therefore, it is fully committed to the status quo. That makes it nearly impossible for large businesses to promote radical change. And keep in mind, they are also the major advertisers that grease the skids for our nation's media and the major taxpayers that support the government with its many agencies that educate and regulate.

For a small time example of this, I had a fellow from a feedlot respond to one of my "mass" e-mail notices about grass-fed beef. His testy answer was full of indignation. He told me to "pay attention," in other words, he's a feedlot man so why would he even want to hear about grass-fed beef.

I laughingly thought to myself, now here is the big-time stagecoach builder responding to a notice by the upstart Henry Ford. At least I hope that's the case.

You can see I have faith in the ability of folks to change the status quo. The right products will win out over time. The truth always prevails in time. The negative stories about corn and other grains will continue to come out. And what is sacrilegious today will slowly change. As it does, industry will change. Some big companies will wither and die. Others will make the required changes. Some new upstarts will win the day. Some will fail along the way. That's how the free market system works. It's not perfect, but it eventually gets the job done better than any other system.

No, Not Corn Again

I found an article in the Texas Polled Hereford Association News that was originally printed in the Louisiana Cattlemen. It was by Dr. Todd Duenckel, DVM. He said he had a call last winter from a stressed-out rancher. The man reported that he had several yearling calves that were down and they wouldn't get up. The vet rushed over expecting to see some pretty severe pneumonia cases.

When he arrived, the calves were perky and bright eyed. They looked healthy, except they wouldn't get up. On closer examination he discovered they all had broken legs or hip bones. He immediately suspected the diet. The rancher told him that 30 days earlier he had switched from dairy pellets to straight ground corn and nothing else. Immediately the veterinarian knew the "disease" the calves had was a form of "rickets," or calcium deficiency. Corn is tremendously deficit in calcium. He also stated that adding soybean meal to the corn ration could have intensified the problem! With the extra protein the calves would have grown faster, further stressing their weak bones.

Then he described two more ailments caused by corn screenings. One is acidosis, which is a severe increase in stomach acidity that can be fatal. The other was aflatoxins that are concentrated by the corn screening process in the corn screenings. They attack the liver.
I think he should have added a couple more problems to his list of corn-based ailments, one being founder and the other stomach ulcers. Those are common problems in feedlot cattle, especially founder.

Several years ago my wife and I visited some of our cattle that we had sent to a feedlot in Kansas. It was an experience. From a distance our cattle looked fat and sleek like all the other fat steers. We were mighty proud. But when we got closer to the pens, we noticed that a lot of cattle limped around and it was not just ours. We watched them for awhile and decided it was a sad state of affairs that all cattle had to go through this on their final days on Earth.

In his article Dr. Duenckel also said, "Now, most Louisiana cow-calf operations will never have a problem like this (broken bones from too much corn). Cows with a substantial portion of their diet in forage should obtain plenty of calcium to prevent anything like this dramatic from happening."

To me, these experiences with grain mean that if we keep our cattle on grass there will be fewer health problems. I found this to be true when I went to a 100% forage-based operation. My operation is based on no hay, no grain, no cubes, and no protein licks 365 days a year. Now you couldn't pay me to switch back.

Rationalizing

A meat scientist and I were talking. I asked him for his opinion on the importance of the health benefits with the better fatty acid ratios in grass-fed beef. He said that grass-fed anything certainly had more Omega 3 fats, the good fats. Then he added that the pig promotion folks took a hard look at using the grass-fed approach as a marking angle. After much study they concluded a pork consumer would have to eat more than a side of bacon a day from a grass-fed hog to make any difference in their fatty acid intake. So they abandoned the idea.

I found this line of thinking rather amazing. The average American diet consists of food products with an average Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of about 25:1. Nutritionists say it should be no higher than 4:1. This means if Americans are going to win the battle against cancer, heart disease, diabetes, attention deficit syndrome, and a whole host of other aliments tied to foods too high in Omega 6 fatty acids, they are going to have to change their diets. Obviously, no one food product can solve the problem by itself.

Man evolved on a diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, fowl, and meat. If he changes just one aspect of his diet, in most cases that will not change the overall picture of his fatty acid consumption. But if he learns which foods are good for him, he can make rapid and dramatic changes that will put him on the right track. At the same time he can really enjoy eating became there is a wide variety of foods that will fit the bill.

As each food product high in Omega 3 fatty acids is combined into making up the daily diet, the total picture comes together in a complete diet with the proper balance of fatty acids, which will make the consumer healthier. So I have no illusions that grass-fed beef will, by itself, do the trick to improve the health of all Americans. But a combination of a wide variety of grass-fed meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products will help considerably. And if folks then eat more fruits, vegetables, green leafy plants, and nuts at the same time, eureka, they'll hit the target. But they'll never hit the target if every food producer rationalizes away the chance to be a leader in producing good food.

Moderation

I had another conversation with a fellow employed by our Beef Checkoff money. We were talking about beef and health. He said that he believed if folks ate meat in moderation, it would be good for them. Well, I disagree. For starters, if you're promoting food, the minute you say one should consume it in moderation, you've tainted the product. We all know that mice will develop health problems if they eat certain things in excess. To imply that meat should only be consumed in moderation sounds a lot like drinking beer: Don't drink too much or you're in deep trouble. Don't eat too much beef or you'll get what?

Beef producers will never be successful if the general populace fears their product. And telling them to eat it in moderation (three-ounce servings per day, week, or month?) sounds like the death knell to me, the death of my cattle business.

That's another reason why we should be producing man's finest health food, which is meat from critters that ate grass and no grain. With grass-fed beef (or bison, lamb, hogs, goats, etc.) man doesn't have to worry about moderation. He can just eat. Yes, anyone can go off the deep end and be ridiculous. I'm not talking about that; I'm talking about eating. And that means one doesn't have to tell folks to eat grass-fed meat of any kind in moderation. He can tell them to eat it because it's good for them.

When ancient man killed a mastodon, he threw a big party and everyone gorged themselves. Back then man didn't eat meat in moderation unless he couldn't find it. And that's the way man evolved. So we can thank God that we don't have to be afraid of eating our grass-fed meat products. We can just eat them and smile knowing we are doing our body good.

Of Mice and Cattle

Is grain good for cattle? Have you ever wondered? Or do you feed grain because others feed grain and the cattle seem to grow quite well? Of course, there's that mantra everyone hears that grain-fed cattle make better-tasting beef. And another mantra Agricultural Extension beats the drum over is that cattle with high quantities of intramuscular fat are going to be more tender, better tasting, and more profitable. Of course, that's not always the case, but that's not the first time Extension didn't let the facts get in the way of being correct.

So let's ask the question again. Is grain good for cattle? In her book, The Omega Diet, Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D., delivers a compelling message about why Americans need to rethink their diet. In making her points she quotes data derived from numerous scientific studies. In many of these studies the subjects being fed were mice. I know mice aren't humans and they certainly aren't cattle. But as I review the scientific experiments and see the association scientists make between mice and men, why can't I make an association between mice and cattle?

In virtually every experiment where the mice were fed high levels of Omega 6 fatty acids, their tumors grew faster and were more aggressive. When mice were fed diets high in Omega 3 fatty acids, tumor growth slowed and the tumors were less likely to spread.
When mice were fed high Omega 6 diets they developed obesity and insulin resistance. When their diets were supplemented with Omega 3 fatty acids their metabolisms normalized and they weighed less. Both diets contained the same number of calories.

When rats on a high Omega 6 diet were tested in a maze, they made the right choice only 60% of the time. Rats on the high Omega 3 diet made the right choice 90% of the time.

In a life-or-death test, mice were placed in a tank of water with a small, slightly submerged platform in the middle. On the second day of the tests, the mice with Omega 3 diets reached the platform in an average of 42 seconds, while the mice on Omega 6 diets took 81 seconds.

Mice with a lupuslike condition were fed fish oil high in Omega 3 or grain-fed beef fat high in Omega 6. In 18 months 85% of the fish oil mice were still alive, but only 2% of the grain-fed, beef-fat mice were alive.

Health Ailments Tied to Wrong Fat

There are many more studies cited in The Omega Diet (Amazon link) that were conducted on humans. In all cases people with high Omega 6 diets suffered problems not experienced by those with diets properly balanced between Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids. We know for a fact that Americans are the world's second-largest consumers of Omega 6 oils (corn oil, vegetable shortening, etc.) topped only by the Israelis. And the scientific evidence to date strongly suggests that the glut of Omega 6 fatty acids contributes to high rates of cancer, depression, obesity, insulin resistance, allergies, autoimmune diseases, and diabetes.

Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids are not manufactured by one's body. They must come from the diet, and man evolved with a diet that was evenly balanced in Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. Today, scientists say that in the modern American diet the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids is about 25 to 1 and should be no more than 4 to 1.

Man's ancestral line diverged from the chimpanzee more than four million years ago, yet there is only a 1.6% difference in the genes. It is thought that there is a negligible difference between the genetic makeup of modern man and the man of the Paleolithic era, which would be 40,000 to 15,000 years ago. So, our body expects the chemical composition of its food to be the same as that of the man who lived 40,000 years ago. If we change the chemical composition of our foods over a period of a few hundred years, there is no way our stone age bodies can adapt as fast.

Early man ate mostly fish, meat, fruits, and vegetables. Cereals, bread, and dairy products are relative latecomers to man's diet. Even though we think these three are essentials, they are foreign to man's evolutionary diet.

Omega 3 fatty acids are concentrated in green leaves of plants and a few seeds and nuts such as flaxseeds, rapeseed, and walnuts. Omega 6 fatty acids are in seeds and grains. Today the American diet is top-heavy in cereal, bread, crackers, pastries, cakes, and cookies, not to mention the many other products such as foods cooked in corn oil, margarine, and products from animals (meats, eggs, and dairy) fed high-grain diets.

Cattle Prefer Leafy Greens

When I observe my cattle as they graze, I know for a fact they didn't evolve eating very much grain. I even plant rye in my winter pastures, but I've noticed that long before the seeds mature the cattle pay very little attention to the seed head. But they continue to go after the green leafy parts of the plants. If mice and humans can suffer body breakdowns (I am not referring to infectious diseases from germs, but the body attacking itself with cancer, depression, obesity, insulin resistance, allergies, autoimmune diseases, and diabetes) from eating foods high in Omega 6, one can't believe that grain is good for cattle.

Grain-fed cattle can weigh 1,200 pounds in 12 months. If they are raised on forage alone it takes them two years to reach that weight. Scientists have documented that the massive injection of grain that is required to achieve this accelerated growth tilts the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids in the meat of the cattle from a good 4 to 1 to more than 20 to 1, which is a horrible ratio. And if it does that, might it not also create health problems in the future for the grain-fed cattle that are not slaughtered?

It certainly appears that grass-fed beef is a far superior product for man to eat than grain-fed beef.

Grass-Fed Beef In A Nutshell

For generations we've been told that grain-fed beef is better beef. It's a great, natural, healthy food. But that rosy picture is losing its luster as new scientific discoveries in the fields of human health and nutrition keep advancing.

The August 1998 issue of the Angus Journal included a supplement titled Feeding Options. In the supplement's first article, written by Troy Smith, there's an interesting line. "For the ruminant animal, there's nothing more natural than range." Just think about this for a moment. Notice the words "natural" and "range." Also, "there's nothing more natural" means that every other situation is less natural. Probably the least natural cattle feeds are chicken manure; dead animal parts; waste products from food, beverage, and candy factories; silage; and grain.

Cattle evolved on this Earth eating green leafy plants, mostly grass. They ate virtually no grain. This is important since scientists are reporting that many of America's leading health problems are due to diets top heavy in Omega 6 fatty acids versus Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 6 fats come mainly from grains. Omega 3 fats come mainly from green leafy plants.

The story on the fatty acids (the good fats and bad fats) is very important. It started back in 1985 when dietitians and scientists started making new discoveries about fat. They found out that there are many kinds of fats, some of them crucial for human health. Some of the most crucial fats are in the list of compounds that make up the cell walls for all of the body's cells. That means some fats are not what we usually associate with the fat we can see on a body. With more study the dietitians and scientists figured out that the human body needs a particular balance of certain fats in its diet because the body's only sources for those fats are from food. Two of the most important are the Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids.

After isolating these fatty acids scientific experiments determined that if the ratio of Omega 6 fatty acids to Omega 3 fatty acids exceeds 4:1, people have more health problems. This is especially meaningful since grain-fed beef can have ratios that exceed 20:1 whereby grass-fed beef is down around 3:1. (See the accompanying chart that was copied from Jo Robinson's book: Why Grassfed Is Best!) Similar ratios are also found in all grain-fed versus grass-fed livestock products.

The health problems associated with diets high in Omega 6 and low in Omega 3 are cancer, heart disease, arthritis, depression, obesity, insulin resistance, allergies, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and the list goes on. These diseases are not associated with bacterial infections. They are bodies failing, not from aging, but from improper diets.

We think this makes the positive health story for natural grass-fed beef rather ironclad.

What about the eating experience?

Beef "quality" grades (prime, choice, select, and standard) are supposed to compare the "eating experience." But everyone knows that in taste tests sometimes standard grades of beef provide better eating experiences than some prime grades of beef. So the current grading system is highly flawed. Yet it's the measure the beef industry uses to sell beef to the consumer. Since this system is based on fat, it promotes fat, not meat.

Unfortunately, what the "industry wants" is not what the consumer actually wants. The industry wants the fattest beef possible because it has been selling Americans on the concept that the fattest beef is the best beef. Most consumers want healthy, satisfying food.

The beef industry's fascination with fat started about a century ago. The feedlot industry then evolved on the basis of the grain feeding concept. And for the past 50 years the modern grain-fed beef industry has been promoting fat as the reason why beef has good flavor, why it is juicy, and why it is tender. All the while it has been promoting fat the beef industry has had to fight a rearguard action because many "modern" health problems have been linked to eating beef.

But it wasn't until just recently that scientists determined that it wasn't just beef that caused the dramatic increase in health problems in the United States, but the feeding of grain in the production of all meat, poultry, and dairy products and the dramatic reduction of Omega 3 fatty acids in the American diet that was the culprit. To this day the beef industry is still writing off the health problem association as hokum and myth. But the facts are overwhelming and in time the consumer will learn the truth.

Despite the scientific research and the conclusions being drawn, the beef industry is promoting fat more today than ever before. The drumbeat is loud and long. "More fat means higher quality." "Higher quality receives higher price." "More fat means higher quality." "Higher quality receives higher price." The beat goes on.

What is really amazing about this whole fat/quality thing is that the beef industry's position on this is pure B.S. from beginning to end. There have been many scientific studies regarding meat. So the data is well documented.

We know that there is at best a 10% correlation between intramuscular fat and tenderness.

We know that studies comparing tenderness in grain-fed beef versus grass-fed beef have shown no significant differences.

We know that in grain-fed beef the flavor is in the fat, and that the meat has very little flavor.

We know that in grass-fed beef there is definitely flavor in the meat, because there is very little fat.

We know that fat is juicy, but meat can be juicy too, so fat isn't needed for a juicy steak.

We know that dietitians say people shouldn't eat excessive quantities of fat.

We know that diets high in Omega 6 fatty acids are very bad for human health.

We know that grain-fed beef products have high ratios of Omega 6 fatty acids to Omega 3 fatty acids even if they are extra lean, grain-fed beef products. (That's because the fatty acids are in the cell walls of all tissue.)

We know that grass-fed beef is a natural source of Omega 3 fatty acids. And unlike grain-fed beef it is also high in CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid), beta carotene, and vitamins A and E.

For a fact the flavor, look, smell, and texture of grass-fed beef differsfrom grain-fed beef. So some consumers will have to learn to like grass-fed beef. Others will like it immediately because it actually tastes like beef. Others will gladly learn to like it because it does a body good.

Yes, the time for Grass-Fed Beef is now

Source:

http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com

http://www.slanker.com