Taste. Taste is my number one reason for choosing pastured-raised meats. I will never forget (remember, I’m a foodie!) the first time my husband and I tried a pastured raised chicken, like butta I tell ya. So full of flavor and juicy. One of those bites that just makes your shoulders drop and you wanna fall out of your chair good.
Now for my other reasons. If you are interested in animal welfare at all, choose pastured-raised meats, every. time. The animals are allowed to be what God created them to be. When animals have access to grass, it is giving them what their bodies need to be the best-tasting meat. Giving chickens access to grass gives the eggs a bright deep orange color. If your egg yolks are pale yellow, those chickens have never seen a blade of grass. They often aren’t allowed to leave a very small cage and have very sad lives. The same goes for beef cattle, they are stuck in CAFO’s, Confined Animal Feeding Operations, all of their lives, never seeing a blade of grass. Instead, they are fed a diet of GMO corn and soy, which means when you start with poor nutrition in, you get poor nutrition out. The reason they do this for one it’s cheaper, for two, the restaurants want every piece of meat exactly the same so it cooks exactly the same. When you use 100% grass-fed or grass-finished meat, not every piece of meat is the exact same but has exceptional flavor.
As I touched on above, the nutrition is so much better. Conventionally raised meats have a higher amount of arachidonic acid which can cause inflammation in the brain. Pastured-raised eggs have higher amounts of vitamins A, E, D, and omega 3’s. Pastured-raised chicken has higher amounts of iron, omega 3’s, and more antioxidants. Pastured-raised beef has higher amounts of omega 3 fatty acids, and vitamin D.
Choosing higher-quality meat and eggs is the healthiest option, but often it is more expensive. Check out websites like Misfit Market to buy your meats, i.e. Cooks Venture, where the meat has been discounted but just as tasty. Also, look for Homestead farmers in your area to buy locally. If you’re in Central Ohio, look for Hammerie Farms, FreshOrr Farms or Berry’s Family Farms.
Verse of the Day - Genesis 1:25
God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Written by Karen Scarberry, LEHP, BCNWP
03/24
No Author, What causes depression?, Harvard Health Publishing, published January 10, 2022, https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression
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(n.d)(n.a.) The difference between pastured raised eggs and omega 3 eggs
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(na)(nd) Why are CAFO’s bad. Accessed 03/10/24
Badger, M May/Jun 2018 The Nutrition of Pasture-Raised Chicken and Meats Accessed 03/21/24 https://apppa.org/The-Nutrition-of-Pasture-Raised-Chicken-and-Meats#:~:text=Pasture%2Draised%20chicken%20meat%20tends,vitamin%20D%2C%20and%20more%20antioxidants.
Grass Roots Farmers Co-op Grass Fed Ground Beef:Nutritional Facts and how to cook Accessed 03/21/24 https://grassrootscoop.com/blogs/recipes/grass-fed-ground-beef-nutrition#:~:text=Nutrient%20composition,3%20fatty%20acids%20are%20significant.
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