Why Grass-Fed has Higher Omega-3s

You’ve heard the phrase “You are what you eat”.  But have you ever heard the phrase “You are what your food ate”.  This term was coined by authors Anne Bikle and David R Montgomery who later wrote a book titled “What Your Food Ate.  How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health”.  Many studies show that the nutrients present in beef vary depending on what the cattle eat over the course of their lives.  What a cow eats can significantly affect the nutrient composition of its beef. This is particularly evident when it comes to fatty acid composition.

Cattle did not evolve to eat grain.  Their complex digestive system, which can convert cellulose (from grasses and legumes) into digestible feed and then into muscle mass (beef) evolved to consume forage – otherwise known as grasses and other legumes like clover.  Cattle are grazers.

This does not mean that cattle don’t love grain.  Just like children love donuts and cookies – which perhaps are not the most “nutritious” food – cattle love high calorie grain.  Unfortunately, their digestive systems have not evolved to digest grain and consuming too much grain can harm them, and potentially harm you – the consumer.  Having said that, grain has a much greater calorie density than forage.  Feedlots have capitalized on this and offer “grain finished” beef. (This is not our practice or process at Otsquago Creek.  Our cattle are 100% Grass-Fed and Grass-Finished.)  A quick way to put weight on an animal is too feed it a diet high in calorie dense grain, instead of forage (grass and hay).

Grass-fed beef contains less total fat than grain-fed beef, which means that gram for gram, grass-fed beef contains fewer calories.  Piedmontese Beef, because of the double muscling, also contains fewer calories.

In addition, the composition of fatty acids is different:

• Monounsaturated fat. Grass-fed beef contains much less monounsaturated fat than grain-fed beef.
• Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats. Grass- and grain-fed beef contain very similar amounts of omega-6 fatty acids.
• Omega-3s. This is where grass-fed makes a major difference, containing up to five times as much Omega-3.
• Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Grass-fed beef contains about twice as much CLA as grain-fed beef. This fatty acid is associated with a few health benefits

Health experts advise an intake of 250-2000mg of Omega-3s (EPA and DHA) per day for optimal health. Unfortunately, over 2/3 of adults and 95% of children in the US are deficient in Omega-3s.

While you can, if need be, take an Omega-3 supplement, you can also choose the path of “You are what your food ate”, being sure to consume reasonable quantities of protein that contain the nutrients that your body needs to thrive.