I only buy 100% grass-fed beef.

Corn fed beef is slow poison. The beef is full of genetically modified hormones, and fed genetically modified corn for the last few months of their lives. The corn is laced with Round-up, which the WHO proved is a potent carcinogen, but they aren't going to be around long enough to worry about that because the feed lot precedes the slaughterhouse.

So when you eat that non-100% grass-fed beef, you ingest the carcinogens. Lab rats fed 100% grass fed beef lived 20% longer than the control group. That's enough for me.

65 countries have banned GMOs because they have nationalized medicine and don't want to pay the price of treating all the breast, prostate and other cancer patients.

I boycott all non 100% grass-fed beef, and I never-ever eat corn, soy, canola, cottonseed, zucchini, yellow squash and sugar (which I don't eat anyway) unless it is 100% non-GMO or organic.

Your health is your most important possession. It is more important to be healthy than it is to watch cable TV, go to the movies, buy new clothes, get a new cell phone, get your hair styled, buy a coffee at Starbucks, buy an upscale vehicle, or anything else. If you are in the hospital with cancer, it's too late to say, "I shouldn't have eaten that."

Just a few words of warning, do what you want to do. Some people smoke a pack a day and live to be 100. I suppose eating round-up could be the same. I don't want to take that gamble.

Bob

Do you have a link to the study showing this?

I only ask because this seems like an extra-ordinary claim. And it's important to know whether this matters. Stop paying for cable, Starbucks etc. is a fine suggestion. I guess you could throw internet in as a "luxury." Asking somebody to do without internet is pretty much asking them to withdraw entirely from society, though. Budgeting to afford grass-fed is fine for those who can do it. For some people--without real, substantial proof, avoiding any and all conventionally-raised meat, eggs, and dairy makes things prohibitively expensive. Fact.

Whoa!
Well do you eat 80/20 or 70/30?

So, if I go with the cheaper option I need to make use of the extra fat that will render.

There is usually a $1.50 to $2.00 difference per pound between the 70/30 and the 80/20. If it were just me it probably wouldn't be a big deal, but I have two children and a meat-lovin' husband.

I always like the results that I get from 80/20. I get the 85/15 or leaner when it is on sale but it always seems dry.

We usually do hamburgers or meatballs. I will have to try the coconut flour. I just saw some in Wal-Mart this week. I was wondering what you can do with it.

Read it in a magazine, along with references to the studies which I went to (at pubmed). But that was about a year ago and I don't have the information at hand. I recycle my magazines by giving them away when I'm done.

And it makes sense, grass fed has a much higher omega 3 to 6 ratio, it has higher CLA (good for weight loss), has a better nutritional profile and isn't laced with the toxins that 65 other countries have banned because they are unhealthy.

I'm not asking someone to give up anything, just suggesting that perhaps they should think about their own priorities. We're not talking huge differences in the prices - perhaps 10%? I'm not sure. For some people getting Dunkin Donuts coffee instead of Starbucks would make the difference. For others, driving with a light foot on the gas pedal and anticipating their braking would more than pay for it (I get 100 miles more per tank than the vehicle estimates doing that). Perhaps better food but a smaller portion - most of us here (myself included) could do with smaller portions of food.

If I were on a tight budget, in order to afford grass-fed beef, there are a lot of little things I could do; turn off the air conditioner or adjust the thermostat, drive with a light touch on the gas pedal and anticipate braking, eliminate Cable TV or just one premium channel, refrain from buying a new outfit, give up diet soda, and hundreds of other things.

I'm a self-employed musician in a dying industry. The days of 6 nights a week live music in every hotel bar are long since gone. DJs, Karaoke, Open Mic Nights and Sports Bars have invaded what used to be our territory. (They're only there by popular demand). My business started declining in the Reagan era, and has gone steadily downhill since. Now I know that many people are much worse off than I. I am not employed as much as I want, but others aren't at all.

I do my best to live below my means, and that means I don't get that new car until this one wears out, and when I do, I get a fuel efficient non-luxury model. I don't have CATV, I don't use Air Conditioning, I don't belong to the gym but walk 4 miles a day on the street, I hang all the laundry that can take it outdoors to save electricity, I have a flat rate unlimited talk/text/data cell phone ($50/month), I don't buy soft drinks (they're not good for me anyway), I mow my own lawn (there's $80/month in my pocket), I paint my own house, and so many other things.

But I have always fed myself good food. That's more important to me than watching a soccer game. YMMV. But I'm almost 70, I'm on zero prescription drugs, and I haven't called in sick to work since 1964. At my yearly checkup a new nurse came into the room, and left to check. She thought I was in my early 50s instead of late 60s and she was in the wrong room.

I will not eat corn fed beef, I will not eat any GMO foods, I will not eat US dairy unless it's GMO free, I will not eat at a fast-food joint (haven't since the 1970s and then it was rare), at least 90% of my diet is non-processed foods, and I'm healthier than almost every one else at my age.

That doesn't mean my way is the best way for everybody. But perhaps some people should assess their priorities.

We have one life that we know of. The priests/shamans/gurus or whatever may promise us an afterlife, and as much as we believe, it's not guaranteed. This life is the proverbial bird in the hand. So I want to live this life for as long and as healthfully as I can. I'll try to 'follow the rules' so that if there is a 'happy hunting ground', I'll go to the good place, but if not, I've given this one my best shot.

Over 65 countries banning GMO foods have a point. I'd hate to be in the hospital, dying of cancer, and think that if only I had taken more careful care of myself, perhaps I wouldn't be here. Again I know there are no guarantees, but I'm going to play the odds.

Do you really want that beef that 65 other countries consider to be poisonous? Do you really think the FDA is looking out for you when they say Monsanto knows more than the World Health Organization?

It's up to you. Just think about it, assess your priorities, and do what you want to do. It's your life, it's your health, it's your decision and what is OK for you is OK with me.

Bob

Well, I read somewhere that corn-fed beef was just fine. I forget where. So I guess I'll be okay.

Your body, your health, you could be right, you could be wrong. With so much conflicting information out there, who knows what is correct.

The FDA said Vioxx was safe, and in 5 years it killed more Americans than the entire Viet Nam war. When they did the trials, it was revealed that those taking Vioxx had a 500 times greater risk of heart attack than the control group. Merck and the FDA fudged the conclusion and committed mass murder for corporate profits.

I am going to err on the side of safety. Good luck, I like you and I hope I'm being over-cautious.

Bob

Lab rats fed goat lived 30% longer than those fed sheep. Or was it fed to sheep. I can never remember.

As far as extending ground beef, I recommend using ground turkey. Get the fattiest beef then add ground turkey. It'll balance out. I'm not crazy about ground turkey, but once you turn it into chili, crackslaw, or what have you, it tastes about the same as ground beef.

There is a problem with erring on the side of safety, though. You either know where safety lies... or you don't. The use of the term "prudent" to describe a diet low in saturated fat and red meat is an example of the dangers that lie in erring on the perceived side of safety. Cutting saturated fat was thought to be possibly beneficial, and unlikely to be harmful. But there are always consequences to be looked at.

If the choice is between grass-fed and grain-fed--then yes, I think it's unlikely that eating grass-fed vs. grain will be harmful. This is something where I think not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good comes into play. Sometimes, the best diet a person can afford might include some grain-fed meat.

Extraordinary claims demand proof. For me, the idea that grain-fed beef decreases rodent lifespan by 20 percent constitutes an extraordinary claim.

And, of course, I also hope I'm right. But I hope your plan works for you as well.

Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to start feeding lab rats to goats.

I have a problem with ground turkey. It's cheaper to produce so it's more profitable, and turkey tastes good, but it is very high in arachadonic acid. The AA bothers arthritis and bursitis.

I had hereditary bursitis in my hip so bad that I couldn't drive without a blue ice pack behind my hip - it hurt too much to press the gas pedal. I couldn't walk two blocks without sitting.

The doc said try the arthritis/bursitis diet before doing anything drastic. Foods high in AA, organ meat, and high glycemic foods had to go. Being low carb I already wasn't eating high glycemic foods.

But egg yolks and fowl are very high in AA. AA is an omega 6 fat, so grass-fed is better in that respect as well.

Now I can drive non-stop for 16 hours, I walk 4 miles a day, and the pain in the hip is just a memory. I quit taking MSM, SAMe, Emu oil and lots of other potions.

And teaser, there is enough evidence to show that grass-fed is better for you to make the err on the side of safety a good idea for this subject.

Science tells us Americans get much to much omega 6 and not enough omega 3. Well grass-fed has a much higher 3 to 6 ratio. Plus grass-fed has less saturated fat where the fatty acids reside. Only 100% grass-fed is a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) a fat that reduces the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a number of immune disorders. And so on.

Go to pubmed.gov and do some searching. This is the US Library of Science / National Institute of Health's depository of scientific research that has been published in respected scientific journals. It's where I found the test I referenced in my earlier post. Fortunately the magazine gave the URL in the references so I didn't have to search.

Or ignore it, ignore the fact that 65 countries have banned GMO corn fed beef due to overwhelming evidence that it's unhealthy, and eat what you want. It's OK with me.

I'm not here to tell you what to do, but since this is a heath-conscious website and since beef was brought up, I just want to help those who want to be helped.

Bob

This is our preference, too. Like the others, we keep the fat an use it to fry other things later. We are 5 people all eating the same way and it's all about stretching the meat budget!

Bob,

I've made the same decisions you have. I only eat grassfed meats and organic produce. I prioritize food quality. I find my savings else where. I don't have cable, don't eat in restaurants, drive my car as little as possible, often only 1 or 2 days a week etc. We each make our own choices based on our own circumstances and values.

Jean

We buy grassfed when we can which these days is never. We don't own a car, no cable, no restaurants, we have a very cheap house, walk to work instead of the bus, etc. Sometimes even when you make all the frugal decisions, the food budget still comes in high especially with kids running around. That was the #1 reason we had to give up grass-fed was my kids getting bigger and needing more food. Someday we'll be able to prioritize it again because I do think it's worth it if it can be afforded, though I don't think it matters as much as other dietary choices.

I only have to feed myself. My kids are adults and on their own. That makes things a whole lot easier. We each do the best we can.

Jean