Grass-fed and finished beef and bison are truly a superfood that we should not skip out on in our daily lives. It is one of the most nutrient dense protein sources available and beyond amino acids contains a plethora of highly bioavailable heme iron, b vitamins (especially b12), zinc and selenium. It is is also full of healthy fatty acids like CLA and omega 3!

Cows and other ruminants have the special ability to extract nutrients out of the insoluble fibers in plants and grasses that we humans cannot. Therefor we need them in order to “Predigest” the plants so that we can benefit from the nutrition too, which we can do by eating high quality red meat 🥩

Most cows spend a brief amount of their youth on pasture where they eat a bit of grass, but are shipped off to be “finished” aka fattened up in feedlots where they are fed with PUFA rich grains such as corn and soy which they biologically cannot digest. This leads to a rancid acid build up in their digestive tracts creating the characteristic “gross cow dung” smell. To combat this inner infection, cows are then fed antibiotics and other hormones to get them as big as possible with minimal cost and feed.

As a result, their tissues are full of these unhealthy PUFAS and medications, which not only harm the animal but will also wreck havoc in the bodies of those who consume it. It is known that PUFAS can disrupt blood sugar, metabolism and hijack mitochondria, in addition to messing with digestion and detox. Do you really want to eat this kind of meat?

Additionally, this study points out that cattle are protein up-cycles, meaning that they make protein more available for human consumption. Grass-fed cows are much more efficient at this:

If you’re interested to learn more about PUFAS and how to avoid them, read this!

Like with everything, you want to eat as wide of a variety of cuts as possible to benefit from all the nutrients 😋

For example, if you only eat filet mignon and other lean cuts of steak, you are missing out on many fat soluable vitamins such D, A and K2 and cholesterol which are more concentrated in offal like liver and fattier cuts like ribeyes. Sirloins also contain more zinc compared to a filet.

In fact, our ancestors actually went right for the marrow and fattier tissues and left the lean meat for last.

Cooking with tallow also ensures that you get a healthy load of animal based fat, which is a brain and mitochondrial super fuel. Your body needs the cholesterol found in animal fats to build a healthy brain (20% of your cholesterol stored are in the brain) and to manufacture healthy hormones and neurotransmitters! The brain also needs cholesterol to build myelin sheaths and synapses (these protect and connect neurons) 🧠

You can make your own by rendering beef fat (which you can purchase very cheaply from regenerative farms such as US Wellness Meats) or you can purchase your own jar from companies like Epic or Fatworks. Just make sure it’s 100% grass fed and finished since the fat is where animals store their toxins!

If you don’t have a problem with dairy, you can also incorporate raw and grass-fed butter, ghee, cream and cheese into your diet. All are full of healthy fats and fat soluble vitamins, especially vitamin K2, which Weston A Price refers to as “Activator X”- basically a magic molecule needed to optimal body function 🤓

We like cultured ghee from Pure Indian Foods and grass-fed butter from Lewis Road Creamery. Both are bright yellow indicating that the cows ate nutritious grass!

If you’re interested in a raw cheese, I recommend US Wellness Meats. Keep in mind that raw cheese is only recommended for those who are not milk protein intolerant and should not be consumed by those who have thyroid problems since casein is a gluten cross reactant!

Bone in cuts such as short ribs, tomahawks and roasts are also a fabulous way to get collagen rich peptides that are essential for healthy joints, hair, tendons and cartilage. When you cook with the bone in, minerals leach out into the meat as well!

Ground beef is a great and less expensive alternative since it usually uses trimmings from all kinds of cuts ensuring that you get all the nutrients, vitamins and fatty acids in addition to healthy bio-available amino acids! Meat is a complete protein!

That’s a great excuse to eat a keto style burger 🍔 or a low carb chili 🌶

Another way to eat less tender cuts is to utilize stew meat which usually comes from the shoulders and legs. These cuts are tougher because the muscles are doing a lot of hard work and are very dense. Our favorite stew recipe is this fat fueled Gulasch 😋

You can also use the bones to make a collagen rich bone broth to use as a base for soups. Bone broths supply is with collagen, gelatin and other peptides!

If you really can’t stomach bone in cuts or broths, I recommend you supplement with a good collagen and gelatin supplement to make sure you get the right balance of amino acids. Both Bulletproof and Marigolds have good products either in bar or powder/latte form! Collagen is really a must for healthy tissues, joints, nails and skin!

Lastly, you can enjoy the nutrient dense organ meats in products such as head cheese (tongue), liverwurst (heart, kidney and liver) and braunschweiger (liver), all which are available at US Wellness Meats which is one of my favorite sources of grass-fed beef. There are even ground beef blends that contain about 20% offal. You can barely taste the difference and it’s a great way to get all the nourishment 💪🏻

My favorite products from US Wellness Meats include their organ meat sausages, their filet mignon (also the bone in variety), flank and coulette steaks, as well as their ground beef (75/25) and ground beef patties (75/25)!

Other suppliers I regularly purchase from is Northstar Bison 🦬 and White Oak Pastures!

Northstar bison has fantastic bison brats for those who don’t do well with pork (like me), and super yummy bison steaks and ground bison/burgers! I recently made a super yummy tomahawk and a batch of baby back ribs 😍

You can save 10$ on your first order with my referral link

You can also visit your local farmers market where there are usually local farmers who sell their pastured and grass fed meats! Check out http://www.eatwild.com for a directory to find someone near you!

If you online shop at the grocery store, look for 100% grass fed and finished and ideally also pasture raised. Stores like Whole Foods usually have an animal welfare ranking system and for beef I usually try to get everything over step 4.

One brand that I’ve seen at Whole Foods and some other stores is called Force of Nature which sells regeneratively raised animal products of very high quality!

Lastly, it’s always a good idea to rotate the different cuts but also to eat both beef and bison/Buffalo since each species boasts a different nutritional profile!

So I challenge you, honor the beef and the bison and fill up your plate with a wide variety of cuts, even if you’re unfamiliar with them. Every part of the animal can nourish you in its own special way and will fuel your body to peak performance🙌🏻

Did you know that consuming animal products can actually help reverse climate change ?

That is only if we as humans decide to properly raise livestock. This determines the impact of animals like cows. In other words, it’s not the cow, it’s the how.

Regenerative agriculture refers to a land management practice that focuses on reversing climate change by rebuilding organic matter in soil and restoring degraded pasture and soil biodiversity.

This type of farming creates mini ecosystems since farmers rotate different crops and animal species that work in tandem with another to create a healthy land.

It also prioritizes animal welfare since they are eating their natural diet of forage, bugs, etc which in turn creates healthier animals, which at the end of the day are healthier for us to consume as well (they have the species appropriate fatty acid and protein profiles)!

When ruminants like bison and cattle graze, they help restore the all the important top-soil that we are loosing every year!

In fact, 95% of the top soil we use today to grow crops was created by large bison and Buffalo herds!

Unfortunately, modern farming which includes the heavy use of pesticides and continual plowing/mono culture agriculture has depleted the topsoil and has lead to a diminished mineral and vitamin density which results in inferior crops.

The majority of the damage when it comes to agricultural GHG emissions is due to plowing up fields for crop production, not belching cattle, and most of the opportunity for improvement in this area comes from no-till cropping practices.

Journal of Water and Soil Conservation

Right now, the majority of the farmland is being used to grow crops like corn, wheat and soy. Companies use genetically modified crops and pesticides such as Round-Up (actually an antibiotic) to grow sturdy plants with a high yield. These three commodity crops are used to make everything from alcohol, high fructose corn syrup, fake meat, vegetable oils and many processed foods found on supermarket shelves (both for humans and for pets). They are grown through mono cropping which means that the same plant is grown on the same land, which depletes the soil of nutrients and minerals.

Not only is topsoil needed to grow food and sustain our world population, but it is also critical for absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. In other words, we need it to prevent the accumulation of green house gasses in the atmosphere, which is a critical component of global warming!

What about methane producing cow manure?

Concentrated animal feces from factory farms are a much different environmental issue than scattered cattle poop, urine, and hoof across grasslands in a natural system. In well-managed systems without a lot of antibiotics or drugs given to the animals, large dung beetle populations are re-established. These dung beetles help break down manure, and recent studies found they help to mitigate methane emissions from it. (source) How do they do this? Methane thrives in low-oxygen environments. As they tunnel through manure, dung beetles provide ways for oxygen to circulate, preventing methane formation.

Book: Sacred Cow

Regenerative farming utilizes multi-paddock grazing to let the ruminants and grasslands work in synergy! The grasslands need the animal droppings as fertilizer and the microbes in the poop give the soil “life”. The animals then trapple the manure into the soil which mixes the bacteria and fungi into it. Certain fungi feed minerals back into the plant, which nourished the plants and allows them to grow longer roots. The longer the roots of the plants, the more carbon can be sequestered from the atmosphere.

As herds graze, dung, urine and old plant matter are trampled into the ground where they can decompose and enrich the soil’s network of microbial life. The cows graze the grass, the sheep and goats prefer the weeds, and the poultry peck at the roots, bugs, and grubs. Through this kind of rotation, the pastures are grazed and fertilized in three ways.

Will Harris of White Oak Pastures

The animals are rotated between paddocks, often together with other species, to give the planes a chance to recover and generate new topsoil!

Additionally, crop rotation is important so that the soil that is created by the animals isn’t depleted of its nutrients, and can continue to provide nutritious grass to feed its helpers.

Well-managed rotational grazing accomplishes all four of these concepts. Perennial pastures, once planted, will rarely be disturbed with tillage. Each pasture is planted with a diverse mix of 15 different species, including grasses, forbs (flowers), and legumes. This does not include the additional species of plants that will naturally come into the pasture over time. The pasture has living roots in the soil at all times. These hold the soil, prevent erosion, and allow rain water to filter into the ground. These roots are also constantly pumping carbon into the soil after each grazing event, helping to mitigate global warming, and increasing soil organic matter.

– Ryan Heinen from Gwenyn Hill Farm

It’s no doubt that animals in feedlots contribute to global warming, as summarized below by a study in 2013:

A 2013 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that livestock contribute 14.5 percent of human-driven greenhouse gas emissions, of which beef cattle represent 42 percent of the emissions. As the report highlights, the main sources for these emissions come from feed production and processing (mostly driven by fertilizer applications on crops fed to animals), enteric fermentation (how the animal digests the food) and manure management (yes, what comes out the backside). However, the climate impact of each of these drivers fluctuates based on how the animals are raised. An estimated 97 percent of cattle (PDF) in the United States finish their days (the final four to six months of life) in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) where the cows live in close proximity to each other, eating grains and other crops, and producing a lot of waste, which ends up in manure lagoons that release potent greenhouse gasses and pollute local waterways.

However, animal raising can also be a “carbon sink” as demonstrated by White Oak Pastures. A LCA analysis in 2017 shows that:

White Oak Pastures offsets as much as 85 percent of the farm’s total carbon emissions and at least 100 percent of the beef emissions. For every kilogram of beef produced, 3.5kg of carbon are sequestered in the farm’s plants and soil. In other words, the study suggests that — unlike a conventional beef operation — White Oak Pastures’ beef is a carbon sink.

It was also shown that the consumption of a White Oak Pastures beef patty offsets the production of a vegan fake meat patty.

Another study looked at the entire lifecycle of 100% grass-fed beef at a farm in Georgia, showing that the net total emissions were -3.5 Kg Co2-eq per Kg of fresh meat. This is significant because not only is it better than conventional beef, pork and chicken, but it’s better than the claims of Beyond Burgers and soybean production.

Like White Oak Pastures, there are many National and local farms that are practicing regenerative agriculture. Examples include Primal Pastures, Northstar Bison and US Wellness Meats. There are also many other local farmers you can support. The best resource to find regenerative meat in your area is http://www.eatwild.com

One brand also found at the supermarket is called Force of Nature. They sell regeneratively farmed heirloom chicken, bison, beef, pork as well as wild caught venison and boar! I really love their ground blends, which also contain some offal so it’s a Great way to eat nose to tail!

Lastly, cattle aren’t only used to feed us but can also play an important part in other industries. Inedible parts are used to make clothing, rubber and even certain medications. Honoring the whole animal is important!