I saw a few days ago that McDonald's had an e coli outbreak, thanks to the quarter pounder. It got me thinking about the outbreak and the quarter pounder. The patty that they use is just so sad looking to me. I love a good ol' quarter pounder but I am not getting it at McDonald's.
Not to mention that the US issued a multi-state health alert over illegally imported meat. This involves various meat and poultry products that were illegally imported from Burma. Even scarier, these products were shipped to MINNESOTA! Not just Minnesota but Arizona, California, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. You may go to https://www.ntd.com/us-issues-multi-state-health-alert-over-illegally-imported-meat_1025435.html to check out the article and see what it all entails for the meat recall.
Farm fresh from your local trusted farmer is the best way to be able to secure that you have purchased legit US homegrown meat. The transparency that the farmer provides allows for you to be able to know not only where your food came from, but how it was raised, and how it was packaged before it came to you. When was the last time you saw on the news a local farm's e coli outbreak? It makes me stop and think and thankful that I am able to purchase from a trusted source. Yes, we do have to have ours shipped in because we are rural but I can also do a pickup in Fargo if I have to too. But let's go one step father though and discuss how if you are buying local, buy grass fed grass finished for an even better nutritional value and to better your health.
First question to get out of the way, isn't grass fed, grass finished? Nope. If you see grass fed it may means that it has ate grass up until the last approximately three months. Then grain will be given so that the cattle will gain weight more rapidly because a non grass fed cow will take 18-22 months but a grass fed cow will take 30 months. So, to shave off the extra months of feeding, grain will be given so that the fattening process happens more rapidly.
So now, the question is, what is the difference between grass fed/grain finished and grass fed/grass finished. This is where the nutritional value of your meat comes into play. Grass fed/grass finished has carotenoids in abundance! What are carotenoids? Well, these are beauties I tell ya. They are a potent antioxidant that are derived from the pigment of grass and it protects your body form premature aging and diseases (such as Alzheimer's and cancer). This is huge. The off the shelf meat does contain carotenoids but how your meat is raised plays a huge part in what abundance of carotenoids you get. Also, it is rich in vitamins A, B, E, K, and abundant in heart healthy Omega 3 fats. Last, it contains CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which may protect you from certain cancers. Now, you can go down the rabbit hole of investigating the benefits but here I just highlighted on the few major ones that mean the most to us.
As we continue on our journey of trying to find food that is better for us, we will always sing the praises of farm fresh. We will always promote grass fed grass finished because we need to take our health back and we need to know where our food is from and how our food is made. That is a decision that we as consumers are in control of. If you want a quick read on the benefits click on the link below:
https://www.drberg.com/blog/grass-fed-products-goes-beyond-just-omega-3-fatty-acids?srsltid=AfmBOoqiRB-fVcu5ZkQgna8BImksM5rmYQk4AY8l0z3XXWshqXPnOiQy
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