For all friends volunteering to prepare home-cooked meals for Joan, she has asked that meals containing meat are prepared with PASTURED meat. Below is pasted Joan's full Patreon article about the difference between Pastured vs Grained meat, and why it is so crucial especially right now, as she is strictly adhering to "my body is my temple." You can find pastured meats most likely at our local health food stores such as Good Earth Market and Good News Natural Foods. Also check out Grass Works Meat Farm.

Here is the article in full length:

Meats: Pastured vs. Grained - What's the difference?

Purchasing

It can be really confusing to decide where to spend your food dollars. Grocery stores stock cheaply priced feedlot meats, organic meats, grass-fed meats. Ever wondered how much it matters what you buy? Isn’t meat just meat? Well, nope. Not really. Read on.

It’s nice to stay away from feedlot meats in general to reduce your exposure to hormones, pesticides, herbicides, feedlot pathogens, antibiotics, and all the rest of the concerning inputs into the meat industrial complex. Buying meats labeled “organic” removes many of those concerns. However, products labeled “organic” alone miss a deeply important part of the picture. 

When it comes to meats, what you eat is only as good as what it ate, and, in the health department, what it ate really matters. Consuming grains, even “grain finishing” radically alters the nutritional content of an animal’s tissues. That means any parts of it we consume are radically altered, too. Which means that “organic”, which in grocery stores usually means fed organic grain, does not equal best quality.

Another area where this gets tricky is with “grass fed”. This is a marketing term and is in no way regulated or an assurance that a product labeled “grass fed” received no grain. Ignore this marketing ploy. What you’re ideally searching for is the best fully pastured (ie, grass fed and grass finished) animal product your budget allows. These are typically not available in most grocery stores, though some helpful regulatory labels are popping up. You may find exceptions in more consumer-conscious retailers like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or local health food stores who have good relationships with local farmers. Which points us to the best place to secure the most nourishing meats for yourself: local farmers and farmers’ markets. Be sure to ask if their product was grained at all or truly totally grass finished. Local folks, truly grass-finished, fully pastured beef & lamb plus responsibly raised chicken and pork is available at through Grass Works Meat Farm (limited products available at Lewes Farmers’ Market), and other vendors listed on eatwild in the resources section below.

So, why does it matter if meat is pastured or grained?

(NB: For this article, GF = grass fed/fully pastured vs. grained = fed corn, soy, etc.)

Ruminant animals which receive grain during their lifetime have radically different fat, phytonutrient, and antioxidant profiles than animals which are pastured. This is the case even if a creature, say a cow, is pastured all throughout its life and then just “grain finished” at the end of its life. This means each type of meat has a radically different effect on your body. Briefly,

Grass Fed Meat

Higher antioxidant content
Lower total fat than grained
The fats it does have are healthier ones (better fatty acid profile)
Lower in most saturated fats; Higher in key beneficial saturated fat, stearic acid
Grained Meat

Lower antioxidant content
Higher total fat than GF
Potentially damaging fatty acid profile
Higher potentially problematic saturated fats
To elaborate:

Fats

Saturated Fats & Cholesterol:

The saturated fats in grained meats are those believed to have negative effects on serum cholesterol levels (myristic & palmitic fatty acids). Conversely, the saturated fat GF meats are higher in is stearic acid which is believed to have a relatively neutral effect on cholesterol. The overall effect is that GF meats contain a more favorable saturated fatty acid profile for supporting healthy cholesterol levels than grained meats do. GF meats may be lower in total cholesterol, though studies are still limited in this area.

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA)

There are two main types of essential fatty acids (EFA) you hear about a lot: Omega-3 fatty acids & omega-6 fatty acids.  They fall under a bunch of different categories and names and that shizz can be confusing. Let me break it down. Omega-3 & omega-6 EFAs are both PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids), that have a different number of hydrogen bonds in their fatty acid chains, lending them different structures and therefore different roles withiin the body.

The parent omega-6 fatty acid is LA (linoleic acid). The parent omega-3 is ALA (alpha linolenic acid). We can’t synthesize them, so we call them essential, meaning it’s essential we consume them from external sources like foods or supplements. ALA and LA are considered parent omega-3s and omega-6s, respectively, because our bodies use them to create other more assimilable forms of fatty acids.

Other commonly discussed types of omega-3s besides ALA are EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid). You’ll see these sold in supplement form. Under the right conditions your body can convert ALA to DHA or EPA, however it has to work hard to do so, making it a metabolically expensive process. We really can’t make that conversion very efficiently – like, <5% of the ALA we eat actually gets converted. Meaning that if you’re depleted, undernourished, unhealthy, and/or have high inflammatory tone, you’re probably not great at converting ALA to EPA then DHA. Meaning you ought to probably eat foods containing lots of readily available EPA & DHA and not just ALA, and pastured meats are a wonderful source; grained meats are not.

The Omega-3 fatty acids perform varied and vital functions within our bodies. You want plenty, especially if you’re experiencing difficulty with your nervous, immune, or cardiovascular systems. They help keep down inflammation, increase protection and normalization of cardiovascular function, regulate immune function, ensure nerve function, cognitive function, & mood regulation, contribute to achieving healthy bodyweight, keep cells healthy and communicating properly, and decrease a significant number of pathologies.

Omega 3 fatty acids are found in some nuts & seeds and their oils, some seafoods, some brassica vegetables, & pastured/GF meats and dairy products. Food choice is an invaluable way to consume the right ratio of these essential nutrients to keep your body at its best.

6:3 Fat Ratio Matters

Omega-6s fatty acids are far more ubiquitous than 3s in the overall SAD, because they’re also in vegetable oils including corn oil, canola oil, and safflower oil, ie most processed and packaged foods. This puts most folks into disadvantageous ratio territory even before meat/dairy choice is factored in. This isn’t a case of “omega-3=good fat / omega-6=bad fat”; it’s a matter of keeping ratios in balance. We need 6s, too, just not out of proportion. Levels of one omega-6 PUFA, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is actually higher in GF than grained ruminant animals. This particular type of LA can help decrease carcinogenesis, atherosclerosis, and diabetes within our bodies. Other than CLA, omega-6 levels are typically the same in GF & grained animal products.

However, while levels may be similar, the ratio of 6:3 in grained and pastured products is not.  When it comes to EFAs, the ratio between the two of them is crucial to supporting healthy physiological function. An ideal ratio of omega-6: omega-3 EFA would fall within the range of 1:1 to 4:1, ideally 2:1 or 3:1. The grained meat standard American diet (SAD) most US citizens consume has an 11:1 to 30:1 omega-6:omega-3 ratio!!!

This is a big deal because the same enzymes that help convert the LA we eat into other omega-6 family fatty acids also convert the ALA we eat into the omega-3 family of fatty acids. That means if we consume too much of one, we diminish our body’s ability to give us access to the other. So, if you eat huge amounts of omega-6 or not enough omega-3 you can’t access the goodies in omega-3s. (No one seems to be eating too many 3s because we all get enough 6s.)  Importantly, GF/pastured meats contain significantly higher levels of bioavailable omega-3 fatty acids such as EPA & DHA which gives them a distinct advantage over grained meats in supporting our wellbeing. Eating them is a key way to normalize and balance our omega-6:3 ratio.

Vitamin Content

In addition to containing essential fatty acids and proteins, B-vitamins, & minerals, GF beef contains significant amounts of plant pigments. Ruminants which are allowed to forage freely for food (ie. GF cattle, etc.) eat more plant-pigment-rich foods. This means that their fat contains increased amounts of yellow xanthophylls, orange carotenoids, and red lycopene, which gives their meat and milk a higher antioxidant content and more nourishing fatty acid profile than grained animals.

In the case of carotenoids, we’re talking 7 times more in GF meats than in grained! Carotenoids are what our bodies use to produce fat-soluble Vitamin A. We need Vitamin A to ensure proper bone growth and vision. It’s also essential for keeping our skin healthy, particularly the linings of our mucosally-lined urinary, respiratory, vaginal, and gastrointestinal tracts. When Vitamin A can keep those skin cells healthy, they can maintain their role as a protective barrier against infiltration from potentially pathogenic microorganisms (PPMO) like viruses and bacteria. Vitamin A further helps bolster immune system function through effects on our bodies’ white blood cells.

Antioxidants

The higher antioxidant profile in GF meats helps keep them fresh for longer. The fat-soluble antioxidant Vitamin E, in particular, helps prevent the fats in cuts of meat from oxidizing, ie., going rancid/spoiling, which makes them healthier for you to consume than grained meats.

GF beef also has significantly higher concentrations of the antioxidant enzymes glutathione, superoxide dismutase, & catalase which further increase antioxidant presence within the cut of meat and within your body when you eat it. This means anti-inflammatory effects increase throughout your body when you regularly choose pastured animal products over grained.

A Note for Vegans & Vegetarians

These distinctions are important not just to humans, although this is the focus of this article. The lives of pastured free-range animals are of course experienced quite differently from the lives of factory farmed creatures. This influences their quality of life and emotional wellbeing and therefore endocrine and immune profiles, too. My vegetarian and vegan friends who don’t get readily-assimilable EPA& DHA and therefore have to rely on their body’s 5% conversion rate to form them may need to consume significantly high quantities of ALA-containing foods (flax, walnuts, cauliflower, brussels, pastured eggs & dairy, evening primrose flowers & oil, borage seed oil, black currant oil, some sea veggies, soy etc.) in order to meet their needs, especially if deficient in B-vitamins, Vitamin C, zinc, &/or magnesium.  

Resources:

http://www.eatwild.com/products/delaware.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2846864/
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=141
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=84
Purchasing

It can be really confusing to decide where to spend your food dollars. Grocery stores stock cheaply priced feedlot meats, organic meats, grass-fed meats. Ever wondered how much it matters what you buy? Isn’t meat just meat? Well, nope. Not really. Read on.

It’s nice to stay away from feedlot meats in general to reduce your exposure to hormones, pesticides, herbicides, feedlot pathogens, antibiotics, and all the rest of the concerning inputs into the meat industrial complex. Buying meats labeled “organic” removes many of those concerns. However, products labeled “organic” alone miss a deeply important part of the picture. 

When it comes to meats, what you eat is only as good as what it ate, and, in the health department, what it ate really matters. Consuming grains, even “grain finishing” radically alters the nutritional content of an animal’s tissues. That means any parts of it we consume are radically altered, too. Which means that “organic”, which in grocery stores usually means fed organic grain, does not equal best quality.

Another area where this gets tricky is with “grass fed”. This is a marketing term and is in no way regulated or an assurance that a product labeled “grass fed” received no grain. Ignore this marketing ploy. What you’re ideally searching for is the best fully pastured (ie, grass fed and grass finished) animal product your budget allows. These are typically not available in most grocery stores, though some helpful regulatory labels are popping up. You may find exceptions in more consumer-conscious retailers like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or local health food stores who have good relationships with local farmers. Which points us to the best place to secure the most nourishing meats for yourself: local farmers and farmers’ markets. Be sure to ask if their product was grained at all or truly totally grass finished. Local folks, truly grass-finished, fully pastured beef & lamb plus responsibly raised chicken and pork is available at through Grass Works Meat Farm (limited products available at Lewes Farmers’ Market), and other vendors listed on eatwild in the resources section below.

So, why does it matter if meat is pastured or grained?

(NB: For this article, GF = grass fed/fully pastured vs. grained = fed corn, soy, etc.)

Ruminant animals which receive grain during their lifetime have radically different fat, phytonutrient, and antioxidant profiles than animals which are pastured. This is the case even if a creature, say a cow, is pastured all throughout its life and then just “grain finished” at the end of its life. This means each type of meat has a radically different effect on your body. Briefly,

Grass Fed Meat

Higher antioxidant content
Lower total fat than grained
The fats it does have are healthier ones (better fatty acid profile)
Lower in most saturated fats; Higher in key beneficial saturated fat, stearic acid
Grained Meat

Lower antioxidant content
Higher total fat than GF
Potentially damaging fatty acid profile
Higher potentially problematic saturated fats
To elaborate:

Fats

Saturated Fats & Cholesterol:

The saturated fats in grained meats are those believed to have negative effects on serum cholesterol levels (myristic & palmitic fatty acids). Conversely, the saturated fat GF meats are higher in is stearic acid which is believed to have a relatively neutral effect on cholesterol. The overall effect is that GF meats contain a more favorable saturated fatty acid profile for supporting healthy cholesterol levels than grained meats do. GF meats may be lower in total cholesterol, though studies are still limited in this area.

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA)

There are two main types of essential fatty acids (EFA) you hear about a lot: Omega-3 fatty acids & omega-6 fatty acids.  They fall under a bunch of different categories and names and that shizz can be confusing. Let me break it down. Omega-3 & omega-6 EFAs are both PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids), that have a different number of hydrogen bonds in their fatty acid chains, lending them different structures and therefore different roles withiin the body.

The parent omega-6 fatty acid is LA (linoleic acid). The parent omega-3 is ALA (alpha linolenic acid). We can’t synthesize them, so we call them essential, meaning it’s essential we consume them from external sources like foods or supplements. ALA and LA are considered parent omega-3s and omega-6s, respectively, because our bodies use them to create other more assimilable forms of fatty acids.

Other commonly discussed types of omega-3s besides ALA are EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid). You’ll see these sold in supplement form. Under the right conditions your body can convert ALA to DHA or EPA, however it has to work hard to do so, making it a metabolically expensive process. We really can’t make that conversion very efficiently – like, <5% of the ALA we eat actually gets converted. Meaning that if you’re depleted, undernourished, unhealthy, and/or have high inflammatory tone, you’re probably not great at converting ALA to EPA then DHA. Meaning you ought to probably eat foods containing lots of readily available EPA & DHA and not just ALA, and pastured meats are a wonderful source; grained meats are not.

The Omega-3 fatty acids perform varied and vital functions within our bodies. You want plenty, especially if you’re experiencing difficulty with your nervous, immune, or cardiovascular systems. They help keep down inflammation, increase protection and normalization of cardiovascular function, regulate immune function, ensure nerve function, cognitive function, & mood regulation, contribute to achieving healthy bodyweight, keep cells healthy and communicating properly, and decrease a significant number of pathologies.

Omega 3 fatty acids are found in some nuts & seeds and their oils, some seafoods, some brassica vegetables, & pastured/GF meats and dairy products. Food choice is an invaluable way to consume the right ratio of these essential nutrients to keep your body at its best.

6:3 Fat Ratio Matters

Omega-6s fatty acids are far more ubiquitous than 3s in the overall SAD, because they’re also in vegetable oils including corn oil, canola oil, and safflower oil, ie most processed and packaged foods. This puts most folks into disadvantageous ratio territory even before meat/dairy choice is factored in. This isn’t a case of “omega-3=good fat / omega-6=bad fat”; it’s a matter of keeping ratios in balance. We need 6s, too, just not out of proportion. Levels of one omega-6 PUFA, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is actually higher in GF than grained ruminant animals. This particular type of LA can help decrease carcinogenesis, atherosclerosis, and diabetes within our bodies. Other than CLA, omega-6 levels are typically the same in GF & grained animal products.

However, while levels may be similar, the ratio of 6:3 in grained and pastured products is not.  When it comes to EFAs, the ratio between the two of them is crucial to supporting healthy physiological function. An ideal ratio of omega-6: omega-3 EFA would fall within the range of 1:1 to 4:1, ideally 2:1 or 3:1. The grained meat standard American diet (SAD) most US citizens consume has an 11:1 to 30:1 omega-6:omega-3 ratio!!!

This is a big deal because the same enzymes that help convert the LA we eat into other omega-6 family fatty acids also convert the ALA we eat into the omega-3 family of fatty acids. That means if we consume too much of one, we diminish our body’s ability to give us access to the other. So, if you eat huge amounts of omega-6 or not enough omega-3 you can’t access the goodies in omega-3s. (No one seems to be eating too many 3s because we all get enough 6s.)  Importantly, GF/pastured meats contain significantly higher levels of bioavailable omega-3 fatty acids such as EPA & DHA which gives them a distinct advantage over grained meats in supporting our wellbeing. Eating them is a key way to normalize and balance our omega-6:3 ratio.

Vitamin Content

In addition to containing essential fatty acids and proteins, B-vitamins, & minerals, GF beef contains significant amounts of plant pigments. Ruminants which are allowed to forage freely for food (ie. GF cattle, etc.) eat more plant-pigment-rich foods. This means that their fat contains increased amounts of yellow xanthophylls, orange carotenoids, and red lycopene, which gives their meat and milk a higher antioxidant content and more nourishing fatty acid profile than grained animals.

In the case of carotenoids, we’re talking 7 times more in GF meats than in grained! Carotenoids are what our bodies use to produce fat-soluble Vitamin A. We need Vitamin A to ensure proper bone growth and vision. It’s also essential for keeping our skin healthy, particularly the linings of our mucosally-lined urinary, respiratory, vaginal, and gastrointestinal tracts. When Vitamin A can keep those skin cells healthy, they can maintain their role as a protective barrier against infiltration from potentially pathogenic microorganisms (PPMO) like viruses and bacteria. Vitamin A further helps bolster immune system function through effects on our bodies’ white blood cells.

Antioxidants

The higher antioxidant profile in GF meats helps keep them fresh for longer. The fat-soluble antioxidant Vitamin E, in particular, helps prevent the fats in cuts of meat from oxidizing, ie., going rancid/spoiling, which makes them healthier for you to consume than grained meats.

GF beef also has significantly higher concentrations of the antioxidant enzymes glutathione, superoxide dismutase, & catalase which further increase antioxidant presence within the cut of meat and within your body when you eat it. This means anti-inflammatory effects increase throughout your body when you regularly choose pastured animal products over grained.

A Note for Vegans & Vegetarians

These distinctions are important not just to humans, although this is the focus of this article. The lives of pastured free-range animals are of course experienced quite differently from the lives of factory farmed creatures. This influences their quality of life and emotional wellbeing and therefore endocrine and immune profiles, too. My vegetarian and vegan friends who don’t get readily-assimilable EPA& DHA and therefore have to rely on their body’s 5% conversion rate to form them may need to consume significantly high quantities of ALA-containing foods (flax, walnuts, cauliflower, brussels, pastured eggs & dairy, evening primrose flowers & oil, borage seed oil, black currant oil, some sea veggies, soy etc.) in order to meet their needs, especially if deficient in B-vitamins, Vitamin C, zinc, &/or magnesium.  

Resources:

http://www.eatwild.com/products/delaware.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2846864/
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=141
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=84