Tender Juicy Heart Healthy Meat

 “A heart-healthy diet containing up to 6 ounces of lean red meat lowered the risk of heart disease in the study participants, by positively impacting blood cholesterol levels.” says cardiologist, Dr. Michael H. Davidson, M.D., study.  “For those individuals at-risk for coronary heart disease, consuming lean red meat is not only acceptable – it encourages compliance to a heart-healthy diet,” states Dr. Davidson. Archives of Internal Medicine June 1999

Yes, red meat is healthy and essential for a healthy diet. When your doctor tells you to stop eating red meat, he is telling you to stop eating the polyunsaturated fat (omega 6, and omega 9) that is marbled into the meat. That is where the problem lies. With today’s grading system for meat and with most cattle coming out of feed lots where they are fed grain it is nearly impossible to find meat that does not have all this fat marbled into it.

Let’s examine the problem. Most cattle today are selectively bred for their ability to marble fat in the muscle tissue. Then they are sent off to feed lots where they are fed a diet of grain, along with being given growth hormones and lots of antibiotics to keep them from getting sick in this close environment. Grain feeding results in an excessive amount of omega 6 & 9 and very low amounts of omega 3. Omega 6 & 9 are not all bad, it is the imbalance between omega 6 & 9 and omega 3 that is the problem.  Belgian Blue cattle have a unique ability to create extra muscle (called “double muscling”) this same ability does not allow for fat buildup between the muscle tissues. Most of the fat (and there is very little) occurs on the outside of the meat where it can be trimmed off.  So we have lowered our intake of omega 6 & 9 but we still don’t have the omega 3 that we need. We can get this by adding fish to our diet (fish contain mercury and other contaminants) or we can eat grass finished beef. Yes grass finished beef as opposed to grain finished will produce the omega 3 in balance with the others that we need. Plus grass finished beef also is higher in beta carotene, vitamin E, folic acid, antioxidants, and coenzyme 10. Also there has never been a case of mad cow disease in grass finished beef.

Since the fat on a Belgian Blue beef is not marbled into the meat and is easily separable from the meat we have chosen to offer both grain finished (all natural grains, with no antibiotics or growth hormones) and grass finished beef. With grain finished you will have to be sure you are getting the proper amounts of omega 3 from other sources.

The following is a comparison of Belgian blue beef to other beef and chicken.

Based on a 4oz. Raw Serving	Certified Belgian Blue Ground Beef*	USDA Regular Ground Beef**	USDA Average Chicken Breast (w/skin)***
Fat (g)	7.0	30.0	10.5
Moisture (g)	71.7G/per 100g	63.34	79.18
Protein (g)	25	18.78	23.7
Cholesterol	64	96	72.1
*Warner Lab, USDA Cert 4786 Report 9/19/96 **USDA Handbook AH 8-13 (1985),NDB No. 13309,Pg. 339 ***USDA Handbook AH 8-5 (1978),NDB No. 05057,Pg. 83