Grass-fed
Beef
Grass-fed
beef is naturally leaner than grain-fed beef due to the lack of hormones
and carbohydrates.
The key is in the fatty acid
composition of the meat as earlier discussed. Their balance is important
for homeostasis and normal development. Grass-fed
cattle have the recommended ratio of N6 to N3, which is closer to ratio
Grass-fed beef contains natural
minerals and vitamins and is also a good source of CLA (conjugated Linoleic
acid), a fat that reduces the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes and a number
of immune disorders. Thus grass-fed beef is considered a healthy source
of protein and good source of N3 EFA.
Unfortunately, grass-fed beef
is not readily available. Beef that is labeled "organic" does not contain
the same goodness as grass-fed beef although such cattle are not exposed
to antibiotics, growth hormones, and pesticide-tainted grains. It may
therefore appear to be a good source of beef. The best way is to find grass
fed beef is through a farmer whom you know and share a grass fed cattle
with some of your friends. One quarter of a cow is about 150 pounds and
generally takes about two freezer shelves.
Mad
Cow Disease
Mad cow disease, also known
as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), is a chronic, degenerative disease
affecting the central nervous system of cattle. It is a rare neurological
disorder. There is no test to detect the disease in a live animal. The incubation
period that ranges from 2 to 8 years. The affected cattle may display changes
in temperament, such as nervousness or aggression, incoordination, or decreased
milk production. Once clinical symptoms appear, the course of the disease
usually takes from 2 weeks to 6 months. There is no treatment, and affected
cattle eventually die. Microscopic examination of brain tissue is the primary
laboratory method used to confirm a diagnosis of BSE.
The first reports of BSE appeared
in England in 1986. It is linked to the practice of supplementing cattle
food with bone meal prepared from slaughtered sheep. This linkage is contemplated
because the symptoms are strikingly similar to that of the disease in sheep
known as scrapie. When the brains of these cattle were examined,
there was clear evidence of spongiform encephalopathy.
BSE is a kind of disease that
falls into a broader class of disease known as spongiform encephalopathy.
In cattle, an encephalopathic condition means that the brain is pathologically
damaged, and spongiform means that if one examines the diseased brain tissue,
the diseased tissue is spongy - porous - no longer intact. BSE belongs to
the family of diseases known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies
(TSE's). There are also several human diseases that fall into this category
of spongiform encephalopathies, and include: kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome of humans.
It is first postulated that some
unidentified infectious agent passes this disease from one species to another.
The most likely causative agent is a new kind of suspected infectious
agent called a prion - the term prion is an acronym coined several
years ago by the scientist, Stanley Prusiner. The acronym stands for: proteinaceous
infectious particle. Prusiner's research into the best-documented spongiform
encephalopathy, sheep scrapie, showed that the only identifiable
thing, which could transmit this disease from animal to animal, was a new
infectious agent never before identified. The disease appeared to be transmitted
by pure protein, alone. Stanley Prusner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine
for this work in 1997.
The BSE agent is much smaller
than most viral particles. It is also highly resistant to heat, ultraviolet
light, ionizing radiation, and common disinfectants that normally kills
viruses or bacteria. It causes no detectable immune or inflammatory
response in the host, and cannot be observed microscopically. There is no evidence that BSE spreads horizontally, i.e., by contact
between unrelated adult cattle of from cattle to other species.
Some evidence suggests that maternal transmission may occur at an extremely
low level.
While certain variants of viruses
have been known for a long, long time - every such agent contains a genome
that controls reproduction. No form of life on earth has ever been identified
which can propagate its own form and is devoid of either DNA or RNA. Only
viruses have RNA as a possible genome - all other known life forms have
only DNA as their central genetic information. No mechanism known to date
can explain how a protein alone can serve as a template for making many
copies of the same protein, or for a protein alone to cause infection.
It is clear is that prions
are clearly infectious. When brain tissue from infected animals is treated
to isolate the protein (prion) thought to cause scrapie, and the altered
form of the protein alone (prion - PrP-sc) is injected into healthy animals,
spongiform encephalopathy results. This transmission can be observed by
injecting prion preparations from diseased sheep into mice - and the subsequent
transmission of the disease from mouse to mouse by purification of prions
from a diseased mouse and subsequent injection of healthy mice with these
prion preparations.
In addition to these experimental
results, another human spongiform encephalopathy disease known as kuru has
long been recognized and was first diagnosed among certain human tribes
that are cannibals.
The link from BSE to human disease
is a form of human spongiform encephalopathy and is known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (CJD). Like BSE, CJD is a rare, sporadic, degenerative disease in
humans. It usually occurs during the middle decades of life. The course
usually ranging from 3 to 6 months in duration, and is manifested by dementia
accompanied by motor signs and blindness. CJD enters the human when another
person's flesh is eaten. There have been cases of acquisition of this disease
through organ transplantation (donor later found to have CJD), and receipt
of human blood products (donor later found to have CJD). These patients
have, just as the donor, the altered form of PrP within their brain tissue.
CJD appears to run in families. It is not known, however, whether there
is direct transmission of the disease (via an infectious agent) within the
family, or whether there is transmission of genetic susceptibility to the
disease.
The best thing to do to avoid
CJD is to avoid meat consumption.
Chicken
In
the past few decades, there has been a substantial increase in chicken consumption.
To a large extent, this is due to chicken being regarded as a healthy alternative
to beef. This is because chicken is perceived to be more nutritious, low
in fat, and white meat is healthier than red meat.
Although
it is true that some chicken cuts are more nutritious than beef, commercially
raised grain fed chicken is not as healthy as one may think. In fact, chicken
contains just as much fat and cholesterol as beef.
More importantly, chickens are often not allowed to run due to space-constrained
coops. They are further tainted with pesticides, antibiotics, hormones,
The
truth is, chickens we consume today (non-organic chicken farm raised) are
very different from chickens some 50 years ago (organic fed, free range
chicken) before the commercialization process began.
The
Chicken Run
The neatly prepared breasts,
thighs, and drumsticks on supermarket shelves are often derived from very
stressed and diseased animals raised in chicken farms.
These chickens are crammed into
close coops and have insufficient fresh air and exercise. Due to the shortage
of space and disease-spreading living conditions, these commercial chickens
are regularly fed antibiotics and other drugs to render them disease-free.
In fact, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized 2,000 chemicals,
together with drugs for use in chicken feed. These drugs are usually added
with "food" such as corn and soybeans and could even be cardboard, sawdust,
used newspapers and even recycled animal feces.
No medication and drugs could
protect the chickens from the harmful effects of poor diets and pathetic
living conditions. Many commercial chickens can suffer from several health
problems such as cancerous tumors, kidney damage, physical deformities,
and stunted growth, which remain undetected in their lifetime before being
passed to us.
Over 14,000
tons of poultry affected by cancerous tumors are killed yearly.
Farmers usually process the diseased poultry into animal feed which are
Plate
of Poison
To prevent the chickens from
falling ill, toxins such as pesticides and fungicides are used
extensively in the feed. These are eventually concentrated in
the meat and are passed to us when we consume the affected chicken parts.
These pesticides and herbicides are toxic to all human cells and bodily
systems. They could cause damage to the central nervous, cardiovascular,
endocrine and immune system. Over time, toxins
accumulate in our body as fatty tissues. They weaken our immune system.
With a weakened immune system, the aging process is increased.
Although these chickens have
met the U.S. Department of Agriculture criteria for human consumption, scientists
have linked contaminated poultry to high incidences of diseases including
an estimated four billion salmonella cases and Helicobacter pylori
infections that occur annually. This is according to a report by the consumer
watchdog group, Americans for Safe Food. Salmonella poisoning causes illnesses
such as fever, diarrhea and vomiting. H. Pylori causes gastritis.
Statistics have shown a connection between food-borne illness to about 9,000
deaths every year in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
in Atlanta.
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