Beef from a cow raised on pasture is a safer choice than feedlot beef, offers richer flavor and more nutrition, and is even healthier for you than a chicken breast. Here are five benefits of eating pasture-raised cattle:
Grass-fed beef is one-third to three times leaner than conventional grain-fed beef, and as a consequence has fewer calories, too.
Grass-fed beef has two to four times more essential omega-3 fatty acids than feedlot beef. It also contains more beta carotene, vitamin E and folic acid.
Researchers have found grass-fed beef contains two newly discovered good fats: conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and trans-vaccenic acid (TVA). CLA shows great promise in lab animal studies of helping fight cancers and cardiovascular disease.
Grass-fed beef has no extra hormones or traces of antibiotics. The animals also live a low-stress life, grazing outside on pasture, in contrast to the stinking, dusty, shadeless conditions in most commercial feedlots.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or more commonly, mad cow disease), has not been found in grass-finished animals. And grass-finished cattle are also less likely to be contaminated with acid-resistant forms of E. coli, a serious food-borne bacteria.
