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Hello, and welcome back to Chasing Eden. I'm your host,
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Carolyn Thompson, and today we're diving into a topic that
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touches almost every household, how to buy the best chicken
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and beef. We all want to feed our families nourishing food,
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but the labels at the grocery store can feel like
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a foreign language. Words like grass fed, organic, cage free,
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free range, pasture raised, and heirloom.
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They sound good, but what do they really mean and
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are they worth paying extra for.
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In this episode, we'll talk about the real differences between
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conventional beef and chicken versus those raised on pasture. We'll
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also discuss how the animals are treated, what they're fed,
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how that changes the nutrition in the meat and eggs,
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and how to read labels without getting tricked by marketing.
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We'll also explore why supporting local farmers matters, and even
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how raising your own chickens could change your health in
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your life.
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So grab your.
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Cup of tea, coffee, whatever you like, and settle in
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and let's chase some truth together. So let's start with beef.
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Most beef in America is what we call feed lot beef.
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So here's the journey of you may be familiar with
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this too. We've seen a lot of stuff on this,
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We've seen documentaries and different social media posts about this,
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but I'm just going to discuss this briefly for those
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people who aren't so familiar. Cattle are often raised in
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crowded feed lots, standing shoulder to show on dirt lots,
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and I'm not trying to make you feel bad about it.
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I'm just stating the facts here. Nobody's trying to turn
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you into a vegetarian or a vegan, which I've done
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in the past myself. These typical cattle beef. They're primarily
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fed corn and soy crops that you know. They're cheap
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and designed to fatten them up quickly. Because cow's stomachs
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are designed they're actually designed for grass, not grains, this
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diet actually can make them sick, and oftentimes it does so.
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In order to compensate for this, they often give antibiotics
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to keep their infections under control. Growth hormones are sometimes
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used to speed up weight gain and well. The result
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is a fatty cut of beef that may taste perfectly fine,
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but it's nutritionally very different from a cow that lives
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on a pasture. So here's some of the differences. Hey,
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feed lot beef has higher levels of Omega six fatty acids.
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And this particular fatty.
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Acid is the kind link to inflammation when it's eaten
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in excess. It has fewer of the beneficial compounds like CLA,
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which you might know as conjugated linolaic acid, and omega
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three fatty acids, which grass fed beef contains in higher amounts.
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If you're familiar with the omega three fatty acids, they're
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actually known for being helpful in inflammation, So they're the
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opposite of the omega six as far as that's concerned.
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And you do need some omega six fatty acids, but
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the ratio typically in our food chain gives us more
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Omega six. It's just not a very very good balance there.
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The vitamin and mineral profile is also so it's weaker
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compared to the pasture raised beef in this conventional beef
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or the feed lot beef. So let's look at the
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other side, the grass fed beef. These cows live on
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a pasture eating the food their bodies were designed to digest,
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which is grass. They are usually healthier and they require
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fewer or no antibiotics. The beef they produce is leaner,
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richer in nutrients, and it carries a flavor that may
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describe as more robust and earthy. So as you probably suspect,
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there are more nutritional advantages to this type of beef.
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It has up.
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To five times more Omega three fatty acids than grain
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fed beef. It has a significantly higher CLA, which has
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been studied for its role in fighting cancer and reducing
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body fat. It has higher levels vitamins A and E
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plus antioxidants like glutathion. Now glutathion, that's an interesting antioxidant
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because you may or may not realize that. In the
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doctor Gerson cancer therapy, one of the things that he
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recommends are it's a type of coffee cleanse. I won't
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go into too much details, but it's a it's a
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coffee that is not fully roasted, and it's a type
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of cleanse and it helps the body produce glutathion.
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Just thought i'd throw.
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That little tippit in there. As far as the labels
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for the grass fed beef, you want to look for
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one hundred percent grass fed on the label because some
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packages they'll say grass fed and the animal was fed
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fed grass, but only part of the time, and then
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it's typically finished on grain. Grass finished ensures the animal
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eate only grass and forage its whole life. Pasture raised
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usually means the animal roamed outdoors instead of living in
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a feed lot. Okay, so those are important things to consider.
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So let's talk about chicken. And this is where labels
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get really confusing. And I have my favorite chicken that
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I like to purchase, so I'll tell you that after
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I go or the different types of chickens. But I
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have a little secret I'm going to tell you about chickens.
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It's a little kind of a hack I guess that
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I do when I buy chickens. So we'll talk about
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that in a minute. As far as conventional chicken is concerned,
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it's raised in large barns, often with tens of thousands
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of birds. And I'm sure you may or may not
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have seen this. Again, social media loves to show us
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these things, especially when you're looking at the case for
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vegan and vegetarians, and I'd say they when they show
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this kind of stuff, they make a pretty good case.
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They're given diet, a diet of grains and soy. Sometimes
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laced with antibiotics, and they rarely see the light of day,
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which is really sad. Now we have the label cage free,
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and that sounds good, doesn't it. But it doesn't mean
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that the chickens roam and open fields. It simply means
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they're not kept in small cages.
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They're still usually.
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Indoors and packed in barns. Okay, So now we come
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to another term. Free range.
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Chickens are given.
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Some access to the outdoors, but often that means a
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tiny door to a small outdoor lot, and many chickens
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never even make it outside.
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Okay. So now we're.
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Getting to the label you want to look for if
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you're looking for something healthier. Pasture raised keyword pasture. This
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is the gold stand. Chickens roam on an open pasture,
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pegging at bugs, grass, and seeds their natural diet. They
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also get supplemental feed, but their lives are far healthier
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and they're happier. They're happier and they're getting sunlight. Meat
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from pasture raised chickens is richer in flavor and nutrients.
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So that brings us to my favorite kind of chicken,
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and that is the heirloom chicken. Heirloom chickens are often
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considered synonymous with heritage chickens, referring to breeds that have
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been preserved over time, and they're not hybrids. These chickens
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typically have stable genetic traits, can reproduce naturally, and are
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valued for their historical significance and unique characteristics. They grow slower,
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live more naturally, and produce meat and as with deeper
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flavor and often better nutrition. Now, I know organic is
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a great thing to look for, and ideally you would
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want to look for an organic heirloom chicken. However, this
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is a time where I just don't care if it
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says heirloom chicken, I go for it.
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And one of the.
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Reasons why is what we just read that these chickens
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they have stable genetic traits, they reproduced naturally, and they
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have unique characteristics. They grow slower, they live a more
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natural life, and the meat is absolutely delicious. It's unlike
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any chicken you'll ever eat that you've ever had. Now,
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what I noticed was a while back, quite a while back,
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probably ten or eleven years ago, we went to Ireland
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and I had hadn't heard of a heirloom chicken ever,
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and I had never eaten an heirloom chicken, and we
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ordered some fo food when we were in one of
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the towns there. I can't remember which one, perhaps it
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was Dublin or it could have been Galway. But we
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sat down to eat and I ordered the chicken and
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I was blown away. I couldn't believe it.
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I was just wow, wow, you know.
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And one of the things I noticed about the chicken
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was the fat on the chicken wasn't like the fat
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we have on chicken in America as and like, for instance,
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if there was fat on there, I could easily scrape
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it away with my fork, and it was just not
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thick and rubbery and kind of this weird texture to
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it like we have here in the States. So fast
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forward to coming back to America, and I don't, honestly,
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I can't even tell you how I discovered the heirloom.
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I think maybe I just read the label.
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I was curious, I don't know, but I bought an
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heirloom chicken, and maybe I watched some video who knows,
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brought it home ate it and I couldn't believe it.
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I went, wait a second, this tastes like the chicken
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that I had when we were in Ireland. It's delicious,
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and it's got great flavor and it's moist.
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It was amazing.
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So if you've never had chicken that was overseas or
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somewhere where maybe they grow things more traditionally, you really
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don't have much to compare it to. But there was
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this young woman who did a video and it was
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pretty funny. And I can't remember what country she was from.
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I think she was from England. But she said, America,
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what is wrong because she's visiting America, what's wrong with
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your chicken? She goes, It's not chicken. This is not chicken.
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She goes, I don't know what this is, but it's
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not chicken. It doesn't taste like chicken. I don't get it.
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It cracked me up because I knew exactly what she
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was talking about. Once you have this particular chicken, you
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look at the other chicken. You know, you can tell
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the difference in the texture. It's just our chicken's kind
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of chewy. It's kind of rubbery, even at its are freshest.
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It's just not the same. So hopefully.
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Heirloom chicken doesn't start selling out or something, and I
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can still get a hold of it after this.
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But it's really fantastic.
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If you've never ever tasted it, it's definitely something you
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want to try at least once.
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They also have other cuts.
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Of heirloom chicken, like the chicken thighs and the chicken
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breast you can buy separate. You don't have to buy
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the whole chicken if you like making bone broth.
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I love to freeze the.
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Carcass of my heirlom chicken and make bone broth with
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it when if I run out, so I always have
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a couple of the heirloom chicken carcasses and my freezer
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ready to go. So here's a label tip for your chicken.
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Typically you want to look for certified humane, pasture raised
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or animal welfare approved. Those certifications actually mean something, okay.
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So let's move from the beef and the chicken to
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the eggs. Okay, So the egg labels can be really tricky.
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For instance, we have our conventional eggs, which are from
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hens in cages or barns. They're fed grains and soy.
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They have pale yellow yolks and lower nutrition. Then we
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have what they call cage free eggs. They have slightly
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better housing, but the diet it's the same. Then we
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have the free range eggs, which I bought for many
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years thinking that I was buying the best. They do
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have some outdoor access, but not always meaningful. Then we
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have the pasture raised eggs. Now these are the true winners.
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The hens live outdoors, they eat insects and greens, and
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you can see the difference in the yolks, dark orange,
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almost glowing. Now, keep in mind, they're not always going
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to be dark orange.
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Depending on the time of year.
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Winter time, you're probably gonna the yolks are gonna the faith,
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they're gonna fade depending on where you're coming they're coming from.
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So during the spring and the summer months, you're gonna
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get a darker yolk, and then naturally, with the color
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of the grass, they're gonna lighten up. So that being said,
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there are nutritional surprise, right, there's nutritional differences between pasture
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raised and conventional eggs. Okay, so the pasta raised eggs
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have twice as much vitamin E, three times more omega
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three fatty acids, seven times more beta caroteene, higher levels
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of vitamin D from sunlight exposure. As doctor Berg points
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out about this, he says, quote, if you want nutrient density.
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Pasture raised eggs are one of the best foods on
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the planet unquote. And this this really does matter. It
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matters because you're your beef and your eggs, whether grass
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fed or grain fed, whether they're pasture raised or free range,
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they don't have the same profile nutritional profile for you.
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This is basically, your food is information for your body.
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The real pasture raised, grass fed animal foods send signals
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of health, balance, and nourishment to the body. Industrial feed locked,
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grain fed, and synthetic versions can send your body signals
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of inflammation, imbalance, and disease. Now, Gary Breca he is
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a human biologist on social media, and he's really great
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at making things easy to understand. He reminds us of this.
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He says this quote, We aren't just eating food, We're
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eating what our food ate.
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If your cow ate.
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Corn, soy and antibiotics, that ends up in you. If
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your chicken scratch for bugs in the sunlight, those neutral
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and end up in you too. So here's another piece
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of the puzzle of where you might want to buy