Ed Fashbaugh

The new dietary guidelines emphasize the importance of nutrient-dense foods from plants and animals. We need both and shouldn’t demonize either.

"Grain-finished beef is toxic! The cow ate corn so now the meat has PUFAs and inflammatory omega-6!" The cow has a rumen. You don't. There's a difference. Ruminant digestion biohydrogenates fats. That means the cow's four-chambered fermentation system converts unstable polyunsaturated fatty acids from grains into stable saturated fats. The inflammatory seed oil goes in. Beef tallow comes out. This is why beef fat is 50-60% saturated fat regardless of what the cow ate. The rumen did its job. PUFAs are a problem in chicken and pork because they're monogastric animals. One stomach. Whatever they eat becomes whatever you eat. Feed them corn and soy, you get inflammatory omega-6 in the meat. But cattle are ruminants. The biochemistry is completely different. Grain-finished beef is still the second most nutritious food on the planet after grass-finished beef. The difference is marginal. Both are vastly superior to any plant food. The elitism around grass-finished beef is putting people off carnivore entirely. They think they need to spend £15/pound on boutique meat or they're poisoning themselves. Absolute rubbish. Supermarket grain-finished beef has healed more people than all the grass-finished ribeyes combined, simply because more people can afford it and actually eat it consistently. Your biochemistry doesn't care if the cow's last 10% of life included barley. Your biochemistry cares that you're eating beef instead of seed oil-fried chicken with rice. Stop gatekeeping nutrition behind grass-finished premiums. British beef is 85-90% grass-fed during the animal's life anyway. The rumen exists. It does what it's supposed to. Trust the cow's digestive system more than the wellness industry's marketing department.