Slanker's Grass-Fed Meats HOME
MEAT STORE HOME PAGE | About Us | FAQ | Why Grass-Fed? | Your Health | Omega-3 Essays | Science Links | Fatty Acid Analysis | Contaminants in Beef | Nutritionist's Corner | CrossFit: Diet and Exercise | Testimonials | Cooking | Tuna and Beef | Eggs Too! | National Disgrace | Meat News | Producer's Page | Financial Health | Contact Us | Slanker Blog
Do you like to read books on nutrition by "real" scientists? Then click on BOOKS.
Have you signed up for our award winning newsletter?
Raised 100% on grass. This bull has never even had hay, much less grain, cubes, or protein licks.
Grassfed is best!
Science Links
Science Underscores the Grassfed Story
If you're wondering why anyone in their right mind would give up their grain-fed livestock food products, when for years we've been told it was "The best there is," read on . . .
Starting in the late-1970s nutritional scientists started making revolutionary discoveries about fats. They learned that the fat we all can see in meats is only a small part of the fats in any animal's body. The science of understanding the vital role of essential fatty acids was born and with it came the knowledge that modern concocted foods will never be able to provide mankind's proper nutritional requirements.
Compared to grain-fed meats of all kinds, the nutritional benefits of meats from grass-fed livestock are huge. But there's more to eating naturally-raised (100% grass-fed) livestock products. One overlooked factor is that natural foods, or "real foods" as we like to call them, come automatically with a proper balance of the full range of nutrients our bodies require. Consequently everything we eat must be examined to see whether or not it is real food or concocted food. Fishing about for a proper balance of nutrients by buying packaged supplements, while at the same time we eat the concocted foods of Big Business, is akin to "playing God." How do we know when we get it right? God figured it out from the get go and that's why real foods always have and always will provide the perfect balance of nutrients for our bodies. Consequently, when we eat real foods we don't have to buy supplements.
(For most of the links on this page, when you select them, you will leave this site.)
Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D. Here are four papers by Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D., President, The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health, Washington, DC. She says things like; “Today industrialized societies are characterized by (1) an increase in energy intake and decrease in energy expenditure; (2) an increase in saturated fat, omega-6 fatty acids and trans fatty acids (partially hydrogenated oils), and a decrease in omega-3 fatty acid intake; (3) a decrease in complex carbohydrates and fiber; (4) an increase in cereal grains and a decrease in fruits and vegetables; and (5) a decrease in protein, antioxidants and calcium intake.” Click here to return to The Real Diet of Man.
Volumes in this series consist of exceptionally thorough reviews on topics selected as either fundamental to improved understanding of human and animal nutrition, useful in resolving present controversies, or relevant to problems of social and preventive medicine that depend for their solution on progress in nutrition. Many of the individual articles have been judged as among the most comprehensive reviews ever published on the given topic. Since the first volume appeared in 1959, the series has earned repeated praise for the quality of its scholarship and the reputation of its authors. Dr. Hibbeln has extensive international collaborations for clinical trials of omega-3 fatty acids for the prevention of suicide, postpartum depression, and violence. He is a primary collaborator in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, Bristol, UK, examining the residual effect of nutritional insufficiencies in pregnancy in childhood neurodevelopmental outcomes and relevant gene-nutrient interactions. Full Abstracts of many peer-reviewed scientific reports are available through this link.
People all around the world have been finding out about their Omega 3 levels with our tests and because of this they are finding new ways to prevent cardiovascular disease, inflammation, improve brain function and much more. Those of us here at Slanker's highly recommend that everyone take this test. After you take the test, then check in with us and let's compare results.
Dr. Loren Cordain is a member of the faculty of the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University. During the past two decades he has researched the effects of diet on human health and specifically examined links between modern diets and disease. He has revealed significant evidence that human health is optimally maintained through consumption of a diet that closely resembles our Paleolithic ancestors, consisting of grass-fed meats, fish and seafood, fresh fruits, and fresh vegetables. Additional information and specifics may be found in the articles, books, and materials listed on this Web site.
Zookeepers learned long ago that in order for an animal not just to exist but to thrive, be healthy and reproduce in captivity, it was necessary to replicate as closely as possible in the zoo the animal's natural habitat. Part of that requirement was diet. This is a well-written article that explains the Paleo approach to diet by Dr. Loren Cordain, a member of the faculty of the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University.
This resource contains more than 40 peer-reviewed, published research reports. For example, the abstract for one reads like this: Both anthropologists and nutritionists have long recognized that the diets of modern-day hunter-gatherers may represent a reference standard for modern human nutrition and a model for defense against certain diseases of affluence. Because the hunter-gatherer way of life is now probably extinct in its purely un-Westernized form, nutritionists and anthropologists must rely on indirect procedures to reconstruct the traditional diet of preagricultural humans.
Research spanning three decades suggests that grass-based diets can significantly improve the fatty acid (FA) composition and antioxidant content of beef, albeit with variable impacts on overall palatability. Grass-based diets have been shown to enhance total conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) (C18:2) isomers, trans vaccenic acid (TVA) (C18:1 t11), a precursor to CLA, and omega-3 (n-3) FAs on a g/g fat basis.
This is an interesting study, but it does indicate that in many studies the cattle are not really grass-fed and the grain-fed cattle are only partially so. That's because the researches don't know enough about the livestock business to ask the right questions. Also, some variations occur from the analytical methods used and what parts of the animal were analyzed. The differences between eating grass and being fed hay are also a question, but the grains have relatively uniform differences in EFA profiles. So if a steer is fed 160 days an 80% grain ratio (the standard mix and the grain portion is usually corn) then it's EFA ratio should be up around 15 : 1. In a feedlot steers gain about 3.2 pounds per day. So in 160 days they gain 512 pounds which is about a 68% increase in body mass.
In one ounce of corn there is: Total Omega-3 fatty acids 18.2 mg and Total Omega-6 fatty acids of 587 mg.
At the average weight in the feedlot (1000 pounds) the steer will eat 2.6% of body weight or 26 pounds of feed with 20.87 pounds of it being corn. With that kind of intake, and with the knowledge that the O6 overloads block the absorption of O3, one has to imagine significant change in the O6 direction, more than the studies suggest.
Only one study indicated a 1.44 to one ratio for grass-fed and it's grain-fed ratio was 3 : 1. To me, that means that particular study was flawed from the onset.
Raw red muscle meat contains around 20-25 g protein/100 g. Cooked red meat contains 28-36 g/100 g, because the water content decreases and nutrients become more concentrated during cooking. The protein is highly digestible, around 94% compared with the digestibility of 78% in beans and 86% in whole wheat. (9) Protein from meat provides all essential amino acids (lysine, threonine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, leucine, isoleucine, valine) and has no limiting amino acids. Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score is a method of evaluating the protein quality, with a maximum possible score of 1.0. Animal meats like beef have a score of approximately 0.9, compared with values of 0.5-0.7 for most plant foods. (10) The amino acid glutamic acid/glutamine is present in meat in the highest amounts (16.5%), followed by arginine, alanine and aspartic acid.
Schering-Plough Corporation, Enzon Pharmaceuticals, and Merck & Co., Inc. sponsor this very informative Web site focused entirely on fungi and molds. Dr. Fungus is an independent Web site dedicated to providing a wide range of scholarly peer-reviewed contemporary and historical information regarding fungi. It seeks to promote an understanding of fungi and the ways that fungal diseases of humans, animals, and plants affect people living throughout the world. It provides information to both professionals and the public by making a broad range of mycology-related images and content instantly available via the World Wide Web.
In the germ world, fungi usually lack the flair of viruses or bacteria. To people with normal, healthy immune systems, a fungus will rarely show itself — even though you carry around a microscopic film of fungus on your hair and skin, and take in invisible clouds of fungal spores with each breath. While many other microbes prefer to make a living through disease and death, a fungus is often content to wait for its host to die of something else.
In such diseases, the fungi are actively growing on and invading the body of their hosts. There is another means by which fungi can cause harm without invading our bodies. When fungi grow on a living organism or on stored food material that we consume, they may produce harmful metabolites that diffuses into their food. It is believed that fungi evolved these metabolites as a means of protecting their food supply by preventing other organisms from eating it. These metabolites are referred to as mycotoxins, which literally means "fungus poisons." From the Botony Department of the University of Hawaii.
Mycotoxins contaminate cereal grains worldwide, and their presence in pet food has been a potential health threat to companion animals. Aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, and Fusarium mycotoxins have been found in both raw ingredients and final products of pet food around the globe. Aflatoxin, a hepatotoxin and carcinogen, has caused several food poisoning outbreaks in dogs, and aflatoxin content is regulated in pet food in many countries. Ochratoxin A and Fusarium mycotoxins including trichothecenes, zearalenone, and fumonisins may have chronic effects on the health of companion animals.
The topic "Mycotoxins" and all related subjects can be very complicated and often lead to unanswered questions. www.mycotoxins.info attempts to cover these issues comprehensively and offers useful information to everybody who might be confronted with problems that can be attributed to mycotoxins.
Food-borne bacteria rightly are a major cause for concern to human health, but it is difficult to escape the conclusion that mycotoxins in foods are responsible for much higher numbers of human deaths than are food-borne bacteria.
This is a link to a pdf document of a research report published by Kansas State University discussing the cause and other aspects of mycotoxins in grains. The author is Tim Herrman. The publication date was May 2002.
What goes for animals also goes for people as you'll see in this article. Grains for people are just as likely to contain fungi and molds are grains for animal feeds, such as dog food. Mycotoxins are toxins produced by molds that can affect the health of animals in many ways. These mycotoxins can be present in hay, pasture, and grain. Mycotoxins are stable chemical compounds, they are resistant to heating and can remain in the feed for an extended period of time.
Among food contaminants, mycotoxins will have greater consequences in terms of both human and animal health as well as economics. Mycotoxins are substances produced by molds that contaminate various agricultural commodities either before harvest or under post-harvest conditions.
Candida overgrowth can cause many common symptoms of compromised health including fatigue, anxiety, depression, and impaired memory and concentration, and is also believed to play a role in the development of much more serious conditions such as mental disorders, autoimmune disease, and intolerance to a wide variety foods and chemicals. This is just the beginning of the list. Also on the list is heart disease, cancer (10,000 times worse!), obesity, and the list goes on and on and on.
This is a normal - and even healthy - reaction that indicates that parasites, fungi, viruses, bacteria or other pathogens are being effectively killed off.
The foods that humanity originally evolved to eat and those we now eat in modern civilization are in many cases significantly different--yet our basic underlying genetic inheritance remains basically the same as it was before, and has evolved only very slightly since then. Thus, many of the foods we now eat are discordant with our genetic inheritance.
Grass-fed beef, or beef produced from cattle fattened on forage only diets (little or no grain), has been reported to contain elevated concentrations of vitamin A, vitamin E, increased levels of omega-3, a more desirable omega-3:omega-6 ratio, and increased levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), all substances with favorable biological effects on human health.
A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
This is not a scientific article, but a synopsis of a book. "We think we know what to eat: less red meat and more fibre, less saturated fat and more fruit and veg, right? Wrong, according to a controversial new book by obesity researcher and nutritionist Zoe Harcombe. In 'The Obesity Epidemic: What Caused It? How Can We Stop It?' Harcombe charts her meticulous journey of research into studies that underpin dietary advice - and her myth-busting conclusions are startling."
HeartSpring.net works with state licensed naturopathic physicians and certified medical doctors, helping them to publish health articles. Physician articles are referenced with author contact information, including the physician's education, training and accreditation. Articles are chosen according to their educational value, their use of peer reviewed references, and their overall impact on human health. Many of the naturopathic physicians who publish with HeartSpring.net are members of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP)
This is a link to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The Wikipedia Encyclopedia (and dictionary) is written in English and many foreign languages. It was started by the Wikipedia Foundation Inc. in 2001 and currently contains 3,921,822 articles in English. It's one of the finest free online resource centers for information we've found.
The American Meat Institute put together a guide for consumers confused about recent claims made by some activists and media reports. It does explain many basic questions, yet in terms of addressing nutrition it misses the mark just like everyone else who recommends whole grains as a food.
Go to this link and read up on 56 afflictions troubling Americans and other grain eaters world wide that are caused and exacerbated by not eating the Paleolithic Diet.
The story on fat from grass-fed livestock is just the opposite of the story regarding the fat from grain-fed livestock. For years you've been told to avoid fat. But when it comes to grass-fed meats, the fat is good for you! We ran across a really good article covering the Big Picture on fats. For sure it debunks a lot of myths and old wives' tales. If you are concerned about saturated fats and/or fats in your food, don't miss this article.
The human body requires between five and ten grams of salt a day. Humans need a daily intake of salt. Unlike other chemicals that the body requires, sodium chloride, or salt, cannot be reproduced by the body. If the human body goes for a long period of time without enough salt the body will desiccate and die.
Comprehensive, yet easy to understand, essays by Ted Slanker that provide an overview of the advantages of grass-based foods over grain-based foods.
Even though this study used grain-fed meats, it proves that even a little of the low-grain approach works best. The Atkins Diet doesn't emphasize grass-fed meats. If it had, the meat eaters in this study would have lost considerably more weight. But just the same, this study provides some guidance about how one should eat. The link takes you to an article summarizing the research. In that research you'll see that the low-fat, restricted-calorie diet based on the American Heart Association's guidelines was worse than the Mediterranean Diet. The Mediterranean Diet came in second to the Atkins Diet. All this strongly suggests that "The Diet of Man" is the one and only diet of man. It also suggests that the dietary information of the American Heart Association is merely the status quo of the failed science of 50 years ago.
Antibiotic resistance, the acquired ability of a pathogen to withstand an antibiotic that kills off its sensitive counterparts, originally arises from random mutations in existing genes or from intact genes that already serve a similar purpose. Exposure to antibiotics and other antimicrobial products, whether in the human body, in animals, or the environment, applies selective pressure that encourages resistance to emerge favoring both “naturally resistant” strains and strains which have “acquired resistance.” Horizontal gene transfer, in which genetic information is passed between microbes, allows resistance determinants to spread within harmless environmental or commensal microorganisms and pathogens, thus creating a reservoir of resistance. Resistance is also spread by the replication of microbes that carry resistance genes, a process that produces genetically identical (or clonal) progeny. (A report from the American Academy of Microbiology.)
All animals, including humans, naturally produce significant amounts of hormones during their lifetimes since hormones are needed for normal growth and functioning. The use of added hormones is carefully regulated by law.
Essay on nutrition written by Bonnie Beardsley, MPH, LDN, RD, a professional consulting dietitian.
Science versus the Popular Media
In no way can it be called science, but there was no other place to list Food, Inc. Because a lot of people believe the movie is gospel, it is listed. It claims it lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. It implies that our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers, and our own environment. There are bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but it says there is also new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. For these reasons and more Americans are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
This is an alliance of associations that represent the livestock, meat, and poultry industries. Together, their members produce more than 90% of U.S. beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and chicken. U.S. meat and poultry is among the safest, most abundant and most affordable anywhere in the world. That success was achieved through research, technology, and plain hard work. The members are large and small, urban and rural, old-world and modern cutting edge. Despite this, the makers of "Food, Inc." and the subjects they interview seek to paint our industries as big, bad, and mechanized. They seek to prove their point though a selective use of the facts. While the makers of "Food, Inc." have the right to state their opinions, consumers and the media have the right to the facts. And that’s what this web site claims it is all about: the other side of the story.
Some of the descriptive words in my review include deception, misinformation, myths, lies, fabrications, and innuendoes. Am I referring to the movie or the food industry? Here’s a hint.
After seeing Food Inc. many viewers were inspired to seek out alternative food sources. We know, they called us. It was somewhat surprising though to learn that most of the new people did not realize that Slanker’s Grass-Fed Meats is all about nutrition. Plus they knew nothing about grass-fed meats. It made me wonder then, “Why did they call?”
I think my review will blow your mind. For an absolute fact my review will teach everyone more about America’s food industry than what they could learn from the movie Food Inc.
Eat meat. That's the dietary advice given by a team of scientists who examined the dietary role of fat in a study that combined nutritional analysis with anthropologic research about the diets of ancient hunter-gatherer societies.
An essay on Attention Deficit Disorder by Teresa Gallagher. "...kids low in Omega-3 essential fatty acids are significantly more likely to be hyperactive, have learning disorders, and to display behavioral problems."
This is an essay by John Finnegan. "...Omega-3 fats are necessary for the complete development of the human brain during pregnancy..."
"CLA is a fatty acid found in beef and dairy fats. Scientific interest in CLA was stimulated in the late 1980s when a University of Wisconsin researcher discovered its cancer-fighting properties in a study of rats fed fried hamburger. CLA cannot be produced by the human body, but it can be obtained through foods such as whole milk, butter, beef, and lamb." So check out "Amazing Graze" an article on the USDA's Web site that was published in the Agricultural Research magazine.
Nearly all food borne illnesses come from organic sources. They are bacteria, viruses, molds, and fungi. Grains and sugars are organic, yet they are very destructive to human health. These "organic" substances cause nearly all of the chronic diseases in America. But what if foods are grown "organically"? Is that truly better? This link goes to the American Council on Science and Health's review of a published report titled "Claims of Organic Food's Nutritional Superiority: A Critical Review." You can also access the actual report. This is definitely food for thought.
On the basis of a systematic review of studies of satisfactory quality, there is no evidence of a difference in nutrient quality between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs. The small differences in nutrient content detected are biologically plausible and mostly relate to differences in production methods. From an extensive report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A summery of the report at MSN Health.
Supplementing animal feed with antimicrobial agents to enhance growth has been common practice for more than 30 years and is estimated to constitute more than half the total antimicrobial use worldwide. The potential public health consequences of this use have been debated; however, until recently, clear evidence of a health risk was not available. Accumulating evidence now indicates that the use of the glycopeptide avoparcin as a growth promoter has created in food animals a major reservoir of Enterococcus faecium, which contains the high level glycopeptide resistance determinant vanA, located on the Tn1546 transposon. Furthermore, glycopeptide-resistant strains, as well as resistance determinants, can be transmitted from animals to humans.
This links to an article in the Center for Disease Control's "Emerging" Infectious Diseases journal. Emerging Infectious Diseases represents the scientific communications component of CDC's efforts against the threat of emerging infections. However, even as it addresses CDC's interest in the elusive, continuous, evolving, and global nature of these infections, the journal relies on a broad international authorship base and is rigorously peer-reviewed by independent reviewers from all over the world.
According to James Russell, USDA researcher working at Cornell, an all-grain diet is not natural to cattle. As ruminant animals, cattle are designed to consume and digest huge quantities of high-cellulose, low-nutrition grass. Diets of starchy, high-calorie grain trigger disorders in cattle that must be treated with antibiotics and other drugs...
The Eating Experience
So the health story is great, but what about the eating experience? Grass-fed beef is famous for being "chewy." Yes, grass-fed beef is leaner than grain-fed beef. But is that good? What about tenderness? Government grading specifications indicate that intramuscular fat and tenderness go hand in hand. Is that true? For the answer, check this out: The Meat Tenderness Debate.
Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, was released in early 2006. It is not scientific work. But in a novel way he tries to answer the question of what we should have for dinner. To find out, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us -- industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves -- from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops his version of the American way of eating. The first chapter is all about corn, yet corn is only one of the many grains destroying the health of many Americans. Unfortunately, Pollan has become a poster boy for the War on American Agriculture and from what I hear he is basically a vegetarian. Therefore he is actually part of the problem in solving the American health crisis rather than being a part of the solution. For more on that click on The War on American Agriculture and Ted Slanker's Food Inc. Review.
This is an excellent resource linking to extensive background information on many chronic diseases and other ailments.
For an in-depth review about Food Safety: The Agricultural Use of Antibiotics and its Implications for Human Health, check out this report from the US General Accounting Office.
Breeding Bulls
Click on BULLS for breeding great Grass-Fed Beef!
Contact Slanker's via e-mail at:
Copyright 2000-2012 © Ted E. Slanker, Jr., All rights reserved.