Real Food (13 page)

Livestock and poultry that feed on grass are healthier for several reasons. Fresh air and ample room prevent infection and
disease. Instead of standing in their own manure, pastured animals move away from it, preventing the spread of manure-borne
diseases. Poultry that follow sheep and cattle eat fly larvae in manure before they hatch, reducing fly-borne illness. Pasture
contains many nutrients for animal health, including beta-carotene, selenium, and vitamin E.

In one study, 58 percent of feedlot cattle and only 2 percent of pastured cattle had campylobacter.
¹¹
The
Journal of Dairy Science
reported that 30 to 80 percent of conventional cattle carry
E. coli
in their stomachs, but when cattle were switched from a high-corn diet to hay,
E. coli
declined a thousandfold in only five days.
¹²
In other words, a mere five days of feeding grass and hay to beef cattle before slaughter will restore the stomach to its
normal acidity and kill
E. coli,
which would prevent many cases of contamination in the slaughterhouse. Unfortunately, this sensible, inexpensive practice
has not been widely adopted by feedlots.

GRAIN-FED BEEF AND
E. COLI

E. coli
is much feared and misunderstood. Large numbers of the bacteria dwell in the colons of healthy cows and humans, where they
are quite harmless. Contamination in the slaughterhouse (usually from fecal matter) is how
E. coli
finds its way into food. If we do eat
E. coli,
our stomach acid usually kills it. But a new, dangerous form,
E. coli 0157,
has evolved in the unnaturally acidic gut of grain-fed cattle. Highly resistant to acid, it can survive in our stomachs, so
it's more likely to make us sick.
E. coli 0157
is
not
found in grass-fed cattle.

Farmers, animals, and the environment all benefit from grass farming. What's in it for steak lovers? Grass-fed beef contains
less fat, more CLA, and more omega-3 fats than grain-fed beef. Like game, grass-fed meat has the right ratio of the omega-3
to omega6 fats (about 1:1), while grain-fed meat is too rich in omega-6 fats. Traditional beef contains more vitamin A and
E and more of the antioxidants lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-carotene. It contains alpha-lipoic acid, an antioxidant essential
for cell metabolism, which also lowers blood sugar and improves sensitivity to insulin. Other foods from pastured animals,
including bison, lamb, pork, poultry, eggs, and milk, also contain more omega-3 fats, vitamins, and antioxidants than their
industrial counterparts. (For more information, see www.eatwild.com.)

Let's take a closer look at the polyunsaturated omega-6 fat CLA mentioned in chapter 2. Though there is some CLA in pork and
poultry, this fat is all but unique to the fat— not the muscle— of ruminants raised on grass; that means beef fat and butter.
I've

touted grass-fed beef and milk for being rich in omega-3 fats and said that grain-fed beef has too many omega-6 fats. CLA
is an exceptional omega-6 fat, in that it tends to act like an omega-3 fat. CLA reduces triglyceride and atherosclerosis.
¹³
It also aids weight loss, reduces body fat, and increases lean muscle, apparently by its effects on lipase, the enzyme used
to digest fat.
¹⁴

Other omega-6 fats (mostly in polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as corn oil)
promote
tumors, but CLA, an antioxidant two hundred times more powerful than beta-carotene,
prevents
cancer.
¹⁵
CLA slows the growth of tumors of the skin, breast, prostate, and colon.
¹⁶
In 1991,
Cancer Research
reported that CLA is "more powerful than any other fatty acid in modulating tumor development."
¹⁷
In 2003, researchers who found a link between
cured
meat and cancer noted that grass-fed beef and butter were "almost the only sources" of CLA, the only natural fatty acid the
National Academy of Sciences regards as showing "consistent" antitumor effects.
¹⁸
Nutrition and Cancer
reported that "a diet composed of CLA-rich foods, particularly cheese, may protect against breast cancer."
¹⁹

THE GREAT AMERICAN BURGER IS GOOD FOR YOU

Made with grass-fed beef and raw milk cheddar, served on a whole wheat bun with ketchup and a traditional fermented dill pickle.

Beef

Alpha-lipoic acid, essential for metabolism; lowers blood sugar and improves insulin sensitivity

CLA, an omega-6 fat that fights cancer and builds lean muscle tissue

Omega-3 fats, which prevent obesity, diabetes, and heart disease

Stearic acid, a saturated fat that lowers LDL

Vitamins E and A

Bun

Fiber, folk acid, and B vitamins

Ketchup

Lycopene, an anticancer agent

Cheese

Omega-3 fats and vitamin A

Enzymes and beneficial bacteria

Pickle

Vitamins B and C and enzymes

Grass farming is nothing new, of course. Some thirty thousand years ago— before we settled down to farm— we were proto-shepherds,
corralling and herding flocks for meat and milk. The patron saint of modern grass farmers is Andre Voisin, a French dairy
farmer and biochemist who wrote the classic work
Grass
Productivity
in 1957. The sequel, So/7,
Grass and Cancer,
is a compelling treatise on grass and health. His chapter titles are all poetry, yet each one is also a scientific gem. "The
Soil Makes the Animal and the Man" sums up his philosophy of soil fertility, animal health, and good food, while "The Estrogens
of Grass" explains why spring grass boosts milk yields.

In a lament called "No Attention Is Paid to the Origin of Milk Used in Experiments," Voisin reminds us that many studies are
useless without knowing, say, how putting cows on quality clover affects the nutritional quality of the milk. His own research
showed that good Gruyere, a hard cheese made high in the Swiss Alps since 1100, depends on milk from grass-fed cows. Leave
it to the Cartesian French to define precisely what makes a great cheese.

The Virtues of Beef, Pork, and Poultry Fat

LET CHEFS AND FOOD CRITICS gush over the sensual pleasures of butter and cream; they are much more eloquent than I am. This
chapter is devoted to their unsung health benefits.

All natural fats— polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, saturated— perform important roles in the body. The popular fable, in
which saturated fats are the villain, is mistaken. We'll look at these taboo fats again later, but for now, these are the
headlines: saturated fats fight infections, aid digestion, and extend the use of the critically important omega-3 fats. Without
saturated fats, the body cannot absorb calcium or build cell walls.

You wouldn't learn any of this from reading government advice about what to eat. Lean meat and unsaturated oils are king and
queen of the official dietary kingdom. In 2005, the U.S. government revised its dietary guidelines, and among the key recommendations
were these: "Most meat and poultry choices should be lean or low-fat" and "most of the fats you eat should be polyunsaturated
or monounsaturated."

Fat is
verboten.
Indeed the word
fat
itself seldom appears in official advice, except in the terms
low fat
and
nonfat.
The section on fats and oils on the USDA dietary guideline Web site is now simply titled "Oils." The USDA's selective exclusions
of "fat" are not only misleading; they are a willful rewriting of dietary history. Of the "common" oils listed— canola, corn,
cottonseed, olive, safflower, soybean, sunflower— all but one (olive) is a modern oil with a brief history in the diet. These
oils have been "common" for perhaps one hundred years— if that long— while we've eaten animal fat for three million years.

"After several decades of vilifying fat and cholesterol, it is now realized that life is not so simple," writes Nichola Fletcher
in "Hunting for Fat, Searching for Lean," an essay for the 2002 Oxford Food Symposium, a prestigious gathering of food thinkers.
From the Stone Age until recently, fat was the measure of good eating. Fletcher quotes a wistful seventeenth-century peasant:
"If I were a king I would drink nothing but fat."

By the middle of the twentieth century, all that had changed, and fats were considered dangerous. Then something curious happened.
Just as we began to cast a suspicious eye on fat, we made farm animals— particularly beef cattle—
fatter
by feeding them grain. Moreover, by depriving cattle of the grass that gave their meat omega-3 fats and CLA, we changed the
kind
of fat attached to our steak. The result was beef with more fat, and more saturated fat— the very things medical wisdom now
considered killers.

The experts are right: fats are important to health. But we've pointed the finger at innocent fats and overlooked the culprits.
The industrial diet contains fewer omega-3 fats, less CLA, more refined vegetable oils, and (infinitely) more trans fats than
our ancestors ever ate— a perfect recipe for diabetes and heart disease. Fletcher concludes that the traditional fats in fish,
wild game, and grass-fed beef and dairy are best: "Old fat fine," she says simply. "New fat nasty."

In a moment we'll take a brief tour of the fats found in beef, pork, and poultry. Before we do, it's helpful to understand
two things. First, all fats are a blend of three fatty acids: polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and saturated. But for convenience
we describe the fats by the
predominant
fatty acid. Thus we call beef fat saturated, even though it also contains a good amount of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated
fats. Second, the more saturated the fat, the firmer it tends to be, and the better for cooking. Chemically, saturated fats
are more stable when heated than monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated oils are the least stable, and thus easily damaged.
This is important, because damaged fats are unhealthy. With those things in mind, here's a fresh look at the benefits of the
old-fashioned farmhouse fats.

Not long ago, fast-food restaurants made french fries in beef fat, because it's mostly saturated and monounsaturated and thus
stable when heated. For health, beef fat was better than the polyunsaturated vegetable oils they use now, which are easily
damaged by heat, becoming rancid and carcinogenic, especially when used repeatedly. A few food lovers remember the superior,
savory flavor of french fries made with beef fat.

Beef fat is typically 50 to 55 percent saturated and about 40 percent monounsaturated oleic acid, the same fatty acid found
in olive oil, which lowers LDL while leaving HDL level. Much of the saturated fat is stearic acid, which also lowers LDL.
As we've seen, the fat of grass-fed beef is a rare source of the anticancer omega-6 fat CLA, which also builds lean muscle.
Beef from cattle raised on grass also contains significantly more polyunsaturated omega-3 fats than industrial grain-fed beef.

We once regarded lard as an economical health food. Americans remember eating lard sandwiches with fried onions on homemade
bread during the Depression. In lean times, Asians ate a soup of lard (rich in vitamin D) and soy sauce (made of fermented
soybeans rich in B vitamins). Like all hardship dishes, it's
almost
nutritionally complete.

Lard is about 50 percent monounsaturated, 40 percent saturated, and 10 percent polyunsaturated, which makes it mostly (60
percent) wnsaturated. As with beef, the amounts vary with the diet of the pig, which is not a fussy eater. In the tropics,
for example, where pigs eat coconut, pork is a source of lauric acid, a powerfully antimicrobial saturated fat all but unique
to coconut oil. Lard contains about 44 percent monounsaturated oleic acid and 12 percent saturated stearic acid, which lowers
LDL.

One of the traditional American cooking fats, lard has a neutral flavor to suit any dish, sweet or savory. (Those who don't
eat pork tend to cook with beef and poultry fat.) Lard makes superb, flaky pie crust and biscuits. Because it's mostly unsaturated,
lard is relatively soft at room temperature, and it melts and mixes more easily than the more saturated beef fat. To make
it firmer and to extend its shelf life, most commercial lard is hydrogenated, the same process used to make solid margarine
from liquid vegetable oils. Like all hydrogenated fats, hydrogenated lard contains unhealthy trans fats.

HOMEMADE LARD IS EASY

Making lard is quick and easy, and it keeps for months in the refrigerator. First, find a farmer or butcher who sells "leaf
lard" (the abdominal fat that surrounds the kidneys), which has superior, finer texture for baking. Cut the lard in pieces
and run it through a food processor. In a heavy pan, melt it over low heat or bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit until the fat
has melted, about twenty minutes. Strain the fat into a glass jar and chill rapidly to keep it clear. The crispy bits are
delicious; Italians call them ciccioli and eat them with bread or polenta. If you don't fancy making your own, ask farmers
and butchers for unhydrogenated lard. Niman Ranch and some shops sell lardo, a Tuscan specialty of cured fat from the thickest
part of the fatback. Use it for sauteing and to flavor sauces.

Poultry fat is as diverse as poultry and the foods they eat. Mostly monounsaturated— and thus fairly heat-stable— poultry
fat is also suitable for cooking. Duck and goose fat are traditional in Jewish kitchens and justly honored by French cooks,
especially for roasted potatoes. Chicken fat—
schmaltz,
the Yiddish word for fat— is a staple in Jewish recipes, including chopped liver and crispy
gribenes
(chicken skin fried in chicken fat). I once met a man who grew up eating homemade
gribenes
at the movies. (Think of them as kosher pork rinds.)

Poultry fats also contain a few saturated and polyunsaturated fats; again, the diet of the bird affects the composition of
the fat. Pastured chickens and poultry fed fish oil or flaxseed oil have more polyunsaturated omega-3 fats, while tropical
chickens, like pigs, eat saturated fats in coconut oil. Typically, chicken fat is about 40 percent monounsaturated oleic acid,
which lowers LDL. Goose fat is mostly monounsaturated, too (56 percent), as is duck fat (46 percent). Turkey fat contains
38 percent oleic acid, 22 percent polyunsaturated fats, and 22 percent saturated palmitic acid, which lowers total cholesterol
and LDL.
²⁰