Long before modern industrial methods of farming and commercial food production, people had to get their nutrition from the foods they ate. Sounds obvious, but as society has become more and more dependent on the convenience of vitamins-in-a-pill and processed foods, the old methods of obtaining maximum nutrition from foods as they grow naturally have been forgotten.
Well, not really. More and more, farmers are seeing the need to provide customers with truly healthful food grown in healthy soil. Quality foods as you would grow them on your own homestead are becoming available as demand increases.
TURNING GRASS INTO FOOD
Recently, I was given a stack of books to review for possible inclusion in Azure’s growing line of good books. One of those books was “The Nourishing Homestead” by Ben Hewitt (BK545). After I started looking at the book, I couldn’t put it down. It describes in such vivid detail the personal experience of what it takes to grow good food on a homestead, and explains what makes that food good — it was fun to read.
The book is filled with full-color pictures and stories of life on the homestead, but one point that really stuck with me was the emphasis that you need animals (particularly grass-eating ruminants) on the farm, and these animals need good grass to eat.
The idea is that ruminant animals (and other grass-eating critters such as ducks and certain breeds of chickens) can turn what is inedible to humans into highly nutritious food. These animals (and birds) are designed to turn highly fibrous plants that contain nutrients from deep in the ground into muscle and fat. The chapter titled “The Nourished Animal” was particularly poignant because it comes back to the basic principle — “you are what your animals eat.”
The book also points out that ruminant animals are excellent for the environment because the soil doesn’t need to be tilled in order to provide good food for them — grass. (So many other crops grown for cattle-feed such as soy, corn, wheat, etc. require tilling of the ground and are not ideal for the animals’ health either. They were meant to eat grass, not grain or soy.)
THE CASE FOR EATING BEEF
Also in the stack of books to review, I found this intriguing book: “Defending Beef” by Nicolette Hahn Niman (BK542), an environmental lawyer and vegetarian turned cattle rancher. Thoughtfully written to address each objection to eating beef (including water usage, pollution, and overgrazing as well as health and social issues), I found the book to be very encouraging of my own decision to eat beef.
Yes, it was a decision to eat meat. Most people make a decision NOT to eat meat, and when they learn that it is actually good for them, they don’t hesitate to dig in to eating meat once again.
But I grew up as a vegetarian, so it took some getting-used-to and baby-steps for me to become accustomed to eating meat. I can’t say I particularly enjoy eating meat, but I can say I enjoy the healthful benefits I’ve experienced since including it in my diet regularly.
But, as “Defending Beef” points out, it’s not about eating just any ol’ beef raised on GMO soy and grain in a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO). No. In order for beef to be good for you and good for the environment, it must be raised in the environment and on the feed it is designed to eat — grass.
Grass-fed animals produce more healthful meat, milk and (in the case of birds) eggs than do grain-fed animals.
Particularly the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids are not way-out-of-balance as they are in grain-fed critters.1 When the animals are grass-fed (and grass-finished), their fat actually becomes healthy for you.
The cream on the milk will be a deeper yellow (not pale yellow or almost white as you find in grain-fed animals), which indicates more of the health-promoting factors Weston A. Price described in his book, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” (BK522). Birds that are pasture-raised on grass, bugs, and worms produce eggs with healthy dark-orange yolks , and more nutrient-dense meat.
But, maybe you’ve chosen to be a vegetarian and don’t want to eat meat. I understand. As a child, I grew up on a vegetarian diet that included soy milk and soy/gluten/TVP meat analogs, margarine, and vegetable oils. Thankfully, we did eat eggs from our own chickens back then, and tried to eat a nutritious diet overall, but it was not an ideal diet.
Now I consider myself a “recovering vegetarian” — recovering from not only the damage done by the soy and highly-processed imitation meats but also recovering from the lack of adequate nutrition. (I made the transition to eating meat about 15 years ago and feel much better now.) Some nutrition is only found in adequate amounts in animal products. Vitamin B12 is just one example.
THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY FATS
More and more people are realizing and studies are showing how important fat is in the diet. And not just any fat. Turns out that saturated fats are actually good for you. On the homestead, good fats can be hard to come by if you don’t live in the tropics or sub-tropics with access to coconuts, olives and avocadoes OR if you choose not to eat the fat of the animals.
After the organ meats, the fat is one of the most prized parts of an animal. Why? Because other sources of fat are scarce on the homestead, and fat provides sustained energy to those who eat it.
Hard-working people on the homestead need sustained energy to make it from one meal to the next. It’s not reasonable to snack every few hours and literally “graze” all day on fruits and veggies when you’re trying to get heavy work done, and you don’t want a “sugar low” or hypoglycemic problem.
To counter this, a homestead breakfast and lunch should be high in fat, moderate in protein, low in sugars and starches. Then supper should be light and eaten early — maybe a bowl of soup made with bone broth. (This allows the digestive system to rest overnight and avoids any damaging reflux from overeating too late at night.) All the nutrients eaten during the day can be used to repair the body during sleep. (You might be interested in learning the principles behind a high-fat diet in the book “The Coconut Ketogenic Diet” by Bruce Fife. [BK372])
BEEF TALLOW, BUTTER & GHEE
I am very pleased that here at Azure we’ve been able to find a source for grass-fed beef tallow. Tallow is an excellent fat that can be obtained from animals on the homestead with a little work, but the folks at Fatworks have made it easy. They’ve rendered it and filtered it to a super-high quality. Yes, you can cook, fry, and bake with it and get beautifully tasty results. Just be aware that beef tallow is solid at room temperature and should never be put down the sink.
We also carry two brands of butter from pastured cows (Organic Valley DP124 and Sierra Nevada Graziers DP228) — butter and cream being some of the most readily available fat on the homestead. But, the milk solids in butter are not always desirable for frying, so clarifying the butter and turning it into ghee works well.
As an unexpected side-benefit of clarifying the butter (which removes unwanted milk solids and leaves only the butterfat), some folks who have an intolerance to milk proteins may be able to enjoy clarified butter/ghee.2 Pure Indian Foods provides us with a very thoughtfully produced organic and grass-fed ghee (OL189).
We no longer need to fear fat… but we do need to make sure it comes from grass-fed animals. The fat from grass-fed animals contains CLA and the right balance of Omega 3 and 6, yet lacks the toxins that are stored in the fat of CAFO-raised animals.
GRASS-FED MEAT
I wish I didn’t have to eat meat, but it’s what my body seems to need for optimum health. But, I’m also very picky about the meat I do choose to eat. It has to be the best. I personally follow the biblical dietary guidelines as outlined in Leviticus 11. And for the foods I don’t grow on my own homestead, I seek out only the highest quality products I can find — grass-fed in their natural environment and grown using sustainable organic farming methods.
If you’ve never eaten meat before and are looking for a way to begin, from my own experience I’d say something profound like, “take it one bite at a time.” Part of it is getting used to the taste and texture (mouth feel) and part of it is getting used to the idea (a brain thing).
Although animal meats are much easier to digest than the soy/gluten/TVP meat analogs, if you lack adequate stomach acid and/or you’re severely mineral deficient from a former diet high in mineral-blocking phytates (such as soy, grains, beans, and unsoaked nuts) you may need some digestive support.
Arthur Andrew Medical offers Aminolase TPA (Total Protein Assimilation) (NS0049) enzymes to help digest protein. If you don’t have a hydrochloric acid supplement (Betaine Hydrochloride), you might find Swedish Bitters (HS457) to be helpful.
Meat is high in zinc, which is particularly beneficial to those who have been on a vegetarian diet and may be zinc deficient and copper toxic.3 But, if stomach acid is not sufficient, zinc can make a person nauseated. Although I’ve never experienced this with the amount of zinc in meat, I did experience this with supplemental zinc capsules. Within minutes of taking the zinc supplement I would throw it back up — no kidding. But, with adequate stomach acid (naturally or through supplementation), it’s not a problem. Now with my homesteader’s diet, I no longer feel the need to supplement with zinc. (It feels good to get nourishment from real food, not pills.)
But, considering that low stomach acid is also a symptom of zinc deficiency, you can see how a vicious cycle can get started. Zinc and copper are two minerals which must be balanced in the body.4 Vegetarians risk a zinc deficiency because the foods highest in absorbable zinc are animal foods such as beef and lamb, and vegetarians eat many foods with phytates that have mineral-binding qualities that prevent absorption.
Eating grass-fed meat may not solve all of your problems, but it certainly can be a healthy addition to your diet as long as everything is kept in balance.
For me, food is the fuel that keeps me active and doing things I enjoy. Depending on what I eat (or don’t eat), my enjoyment of life and the ability to cope with life’s challenges is directly affected. I eat to live, rather than live to eat.
Sure, I enjoy eating tasty food, but I only want to eat what makes me healthy, strong, and emotionally stable. Learning exactly what those foods are has been an unfolding revelation for quite a few years. But, when I realized that the best food really can be had right on the homestead, it changed the way I determine what “good food” is.
REFERENCES
1“A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef”; www.nutritionj.com/content/9/1/10
2“Dairy Intolerance”; www.pureindianfoods.com/dairy-intolerance-a/259.htm
3“The Modern Day Zinc Deficiency Epidemic,” by Bill Sardi; knowledgeofhealth.com/modern-day-zinc-deficiency-epidemic/
4“Copper Toxicity,” by Julie Casper and Rick Malter; nutritionalbalancing.org/center/htma/science/articles/copper-toxicity.php
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