There is a fascinating research project in place right now on grain-finished vs. grass-finished beef. The project isn’t done yet, but there is enough data to conclude that there is a major difference between these two types of beef.
The only reason someone would grain-finish an animal is because of cost — they can make more money off of it. But what about the nutrient density of grain-finished and grass-finished beef?
The difference between the grain-finished and grass-finished beef
First off, a scientist from this research project noted that the muscle meat from a grass-finished cow mimicked a healthy athlete. However, the grain-finished muscle mimicked a person with metabolic syndrome.
Grain-finished beef has:
- More inflammatory markers
- Higher uric acid levels
- Higher homocysteine levels
- Higher advanced glycated end products
- Higher amounts of niacinamide (a form of vitamin B3)
Grass-finished beef has:
- Higher omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA)
- Higher amount of phytonutrients
- Higher microbial diversity
- Higher amounts of niacin (a form of vitamin B3)
- Higher vitamin C levels
- Higher vitamin E levels
- Higher antitumor biomarkers
- Higher choline
- Higher carnosine
Hands down, not only were there more nutrients in the grass-fed, grass-finished beef, there were better metabolic biomarkers—which measure the overall health of the muscle.
After this research is done, they need to do the next level of the study, which is to determine if consuming a healthier animal product makes a difference on a person’s health.
Keep in mind that something is better than nothing. If you can’t do grass-fed, grass-finished beef, it’s still good to get on the keto diet.
The most important thing is to keep your carbs low. Do what you can, and don’t worry about the quality at first. The benefits of doing a low-carb diet are huge.
If you can, the next phase to work up to would be increasing the quality of the foods you eat until you get to the point where you’re doing the healthy version of the ketogenic diet.
Check out their website here: www.bionutrientinstitute.org
In Australia, most of our beef is grass-fed. Grain finished beef tends to be a little more tender, but the flavour is not as good as grass fed. I’ll stick with the grass fed
I think looking into raising chickens, the pasture raised chickens are always way healthier than “free-range” or caged chickens. Also the eggs that aren’t chemically cleaned and just straight from the chicken at room temp is healthier. Healthier animals, leads to healthier food, leads to healthier people.
In Australia, there has been studies done between the two meats! The difference is the level of Omega 3’s : grain fade has zero Omega 3, grass fed and grass finished has Omega 3’s equal to Omega 6.