Hi ya'll!

I'd like to offer these thoughts for your consideration. I hope you will contribute to this discussion, as I believe it is very timely and important to our health.

My husband and I have recently started eating only GRASSFED/free range (no corn feed) meats that have not been injected with hormones or antibiotics. It's impossible to to do when eating out, I realize this, but at least at home, we can control this.

We've found this (expensive) meat is MUCH tastier. It also cooks a lot faster. It's my understanding that the fat melts at a lower temperature in the grass fed beef! Now that should tell us something!

So I have to ask, just exactly what impact do you think eating these corn fed and hormone injected meats has had on our bodies over the years?

Is it possible that eating these damaged foods is partially responsible for poor health, possibly adding to the cravings issue, and basically helping to make us fat? I'm not saying it's THE cause, mind you! Please don't think I'm saying that. But I can't help but believe that this FAKE food has had a dramatic negative impact on our health!

What do you think?

It's very expensive to eat this way, but we've decided it's worth it to us for our health's sake and have cut back in other areas to make up the difference. Unfortunately, now I can't even get excited about ads now in the local supermarket when corn fed (typical supermarket) New York steaks go on sale for $5.99 pound or less.

And sadly, it will add between $100 to $200 a month to our food bill to eat only these quality meats. It's so sad it's come to this! But what else can we do? I can't continue to put this fake food into my body. I'm at the age where everything I put into my mouth makes me think about what I'm doing to my body and how it will affect the rest of my life. I wanna live a HEALTHFUL life, not be bedridden and sickly in my old age, or obese and unable to do the fun outdoor things I'm starting to really enjoy now.

They didn't eat hormone injected corn-feed-fed meat back in the old days, they grazed them and free ranged em, and it wasn't until all the processing came into being that we started getting fat and unhealthy!

So I ask your opinions on this meat issue. And feel free to bring other processed foods into the picture if you wish, but I really am concerned about the meat issue, since SPers eat no processed foods anyway.

Now go at it and discuss!

--Betty

Yes, I agree with that 100%.

Unfortunately, it is more expensive, but I feel so much better about what I am eating. Not just the meat, but eggs too, I get from free range chickens. Was going to invest in a cow or goat so that I could get raw dairy, but then realized dairy bothered me, and it was going to cost me about $600 a year. So I decided I didn't eat enough dairy to do that.

I barely eat out at all anymore because of this. I keep wondering what I am eating. Even in my salads. Luckily there are a couple of organic places here, and they even do lunches and salads and such, so I do pretty well.

I do think that our food supply is a huge source of the increase in diseases...especially female diseases and the increase in male breast cancer. I don't even see how anyone could argue logically against it. They know an increase in female hormones increases estrogen dependent cancers...they know these hormones are in all meats...2+2=4 in my book!

Let's see what others have to say!

I buy all my meat and chickens from a family farm that pasture-raises their animals. This is different than buying "free-range" chickens and eggs in the grocery store, since these are still raised on factory farms and just have to have theoretical access to the outside. The grass fed/pasture raised meat and chicken is higher in Omega 3's and lower in saturated fat, in addition to the benefits mentioned above. Humans were not meant to eat artificially fattened animals! I also prefer pasture raised animals because they receive better treatment.

Jen

Jen that makes sense to me, the play on words, the theoretical ACCESS to the range, not that they are truly let go on it to feed! Shows how deep the deception goes!

I guess the key thing here for me at this point in time is GRASS FED, not fed on crappy feed with corn and who knows what else. Range raised would be the ultimate for me. I can't even imagine how good the meat must be!

I have seen ads in health mags for organic venison, etc. I may give that a try. I do have friends who are deer and boar hunters, so perhaps I can either have them take me hunting or buy some meat from them.

I do like the idea of getting meat from a family who farms organically. I am looking into finding someone around here who does that. We have access to hundreds of farms and I'm sure I can find someone! I already have organic veggie farms round here, so that would be an added attraction.

Quietone, YES, that female hormone issue is a scary one! I think there is something to that cancer link. I really do. Maybe it's because I'm getting older that I even care about my health now--the Lord knows that I didn't when I was in my 20s--but I really am quite concerned about this. But I DO still love to eat out at my fave places and won't stop that. I figure I can do what I can about it and let the Lord deal with the rest of it. Otherwise I'd make myself nuts!

Let's see if anyone else has any ideas about this subject. It's so slow over in this forum that it may take a year for 5 responses!

--Betty

I believe that the hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals injected into these animals are having a serious effect on human nutrition. I too struggle with the expense of organics, but can I afford not to? I currently do not buy organic meat, but then again, I'm just returning to eating meat, and I still don't care for too much...that may change I want to do what's best for my family. I'll be checking out the prices of organic meats soon.

Hi Betty,
I completely agree that poisoned meat poisons us. We are what we eat. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria isn't just from the overuse of antibiotics in the human population, but in the animal population as well. And hormones affect our hormones as well.

I eat organic/free range as much as possible. There's a cattle ranch east of Co. Springs that raises only pasture-grazed, predator-friendly cattle. Their meat cooks and tastes completely different, almost like buffalo! (I love buffalo, too -- they don't need to give them growth hormones ) I've also found a completely free-range buffalo ranch out here, too. I always make sure that the animals aren't finished off on corn in a stressed-out feedlot. And a friend of ours raises his own chickens, turkeys, and ducks. We're very fortunate.

IMHO, corn-feeding animals is contributing to human allergies. I can't eat corn products without getting migraines, facial flushing, and body aches. If the meat was finished off on corn in a feedlot, I get a reaction (not quite as bad as when I eat corn, but close).

I think we should all eat as "cleanly" as possible.

One of my customers works for a major pharmaceutical co and his job is to investigate the "secondhand" effects of antibiotics on other animals fed meat that was so treated. His opinion is NOT what his company wanted him to have. He believes that the reason microbes are becoming more resistant to antibiotics is the overuse on our whole food supply. Also, he doesn't think that the hormones fed to them gets out of their system as quickly or as efficiently as the drug industry would like you to think. (Hormones were not his area of study, but he has drawn some conclusions based on his own work with antibiotics).

Now, I believe all that, but.... I would have to drive and drive in order to get non-treated beef or chicken. I've done it before, but it is very costly in both time and money. Also, fish isn't safe either, with mercury poisoning and so on. High-order predatory fish seem safer than crustacieons, (is that the right word? shrimp, lobster, scallops, etc). And salmon farming is causing huge problems in the wild salmon industry. So are we really any safer with it?

I so soak my veggies in mild bleach water to try and remove as many pesticides and so on as possible. But it is getting old. very old. I grow my own veggies in the summertime and I freeze as much as is practical. I don't use pesticides and my only "fertilizer" is bunny poo from my own herd of bunnies. (I grow them for the angora fiber, which I use and also sell.) But bunny feed is mainly alfalfa and some other stuff. Is it safe??
You gotta wonder.
Donna

Is there a place to order small quantities of hormone free chicken, beef, pork? That seems it would be cheaper. I cannot buy a whole cow because some cuts I would never eat and dh does not really like beef.

I am going to have to look into this. Marianne

Are there no health food stores where you are?

There are some websites, but I don't remember any of them because I go to the natural food places here. But I saw some of them on food network. Maybe if you went to their website, they would have them listed.

There are some but I thought the price would be better if you could buy in small quantities. Maybe not. Thanks.

Marianne

Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Company is one of the ones I saw in whatever program I saw. They do ship, but I don't know the prices off-hand. They have bison, elk and trout.

Although I tend to be skeptical of a lot of health-food hype, I will say this:

When I was a kid, I remembering hearing in the news about how red meat is supposed to be bad for you, and eggs, and dairy fat. But then there was the living example of my dad, his siblings and parents. They lived on a farm, had eggs and whole milk every day, and ate plenty of red meat, and they were all incredibly fit! (Except for the one who moved to New York city.) Their cattle fed in the pasture, and from their own home-grown field corn. Even into their old age, they're all like the Energizer bunny -- they just keep going and going, right up until about their last year, in their 90's, when the old body just gives out once and for all. No cancer; no heart disease. And even as a kid, I thought, "Something doesn't add up here."

So, yeah, as you've preached many times, Betty, I think it's about whole foods. Sticking to foods that are as close as possible to how God made 'em, and keeping man's "refinements" to a minimum.

Can't say I've gotten to the point where I'm willing to fork out the extra bucks for the good stuff at the grocery store, though. I'm hoping all those years of eating my grandpa's beef bought me something, health-wise!

A tip for those looking to buy farm-raised beef... You might investigate splitting a side of beef with another family. We have done that in the past. Lucky us; living in Kansas, it's not too hard to find someone who knows someone w/ a butcher cow. This thread prompted me to Google the subject; here's one source I found that I'll be checking out: http://www.dustdevil.com/windyhillcharolais/

Thanks for the food for tho't, Betty. (Pun intended; sorry!)

janana