Grass-Fed Beef
Most of you probably know that the vast majority of beef in the US is corn-fed. Hell, they advertise it like it's a good thing: "We have corn-fed beef at $9.99 a pound!"
Well it's not a good thing.
Here's what I wrote about the subject in a previous article:
"Nowadays, most cattle spend an average of 60 to 120 days in feedlots where they're fattened up before being slaughtered. Obviously, most of us know that heavily marbled beef isn't exactly part of a healthy diet but there are other things going on that you need to know about. Feeding cattle corn instead of grass drastically upsets the balance of essential fatty acids found in their meat.
"The modern American diet is criminally short on Omega-3 fatty acids and these fatty acids, when consumed in optimal amounts, can potentially prevent coronary artery disease, hypertension, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and various inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. Conversely, the American diet is high in Omega-6 fatty acids. While Omega-6 fatty acids are important to health, too, bad things happen when the ratio of these fatty acids is altered; namely, the aforementioned maladies.
"Many scientists guess that man evolved eating an Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acid ratio of 1 to 1 from both meat and plant sources. An acceptable modern day ratio would be approximately 3 to 1. Trouble is, corn-fed cattle, in various studies, have exhibited ratios of 21 to 1, 11 to 1, and 20 to 1. Not good. Grass-fed cattle, on the other hand, exhibit ratios of 3 or 4 to 1.
"Similarly, the meat from grass-fed cattle contains significantly higher amounts of CLA, which supposedly lowers the risk of cancer."
I hope one part of that sunk in, the part about grass-fed cattle having a ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 of 3 or 4 to 1.
That makes grass-fed beef about as good a food as wild salmon. And we weight lifters shouldn't forget that grass-fed beef contains relatively large amounts of creatine. Maybe that's why we feel stronger when we eat it.
Lastly, grass-fed beef has a lot less saturated fat than corn-fed, and that in itself is noteworthy.