Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Workout of the Day:
Take 15-18 minutes to find your new 1-RM Bench Press;
and then,
Five sets of:
Max Reps of Bench Press with 70% of today’s 1-RM
Rest 15 seconds
Max Reps Unbroken Pull-Ups
Rest 4 minutes
(If you don’t have more than 6-8 unbroken pull-ups, complete 12-15 pull-ups with as few breaks or as little assistance as possible.)

Richard is still working hard even while at sea. Keep up the good work buddy!

The USS Dubuque set up.

Feeding Your Family Healthier: Grass Fed Beef vs. Corn Fed Beef

Cows were not designed to eat corn or any other grain.  They are ruminants, which means they have multiple chambered stomachs for eating and digesting grass like no other species can do.  Unfortunately the majority of our beef cattle are being force-fed corn in feedlots instead of being allowed to graze on the pasture.  It’s cheaper, it fattens them up quickly, and it doesn’t require as much land or skill.  But all of this has significantly adverse affects on our family’s health.  Here are some of the major advantages of switching to grass fed beef:

1. The Fat Factor - Grass fed beef is much lower in total fat, especially saturated fat.  A four ounce serving of grass fed beef typically has 7-10 grams of total fat, compared to 14-16 grams in the same cut of corn fed beef.  Grass fed beef, besides being lower in saturated fat, also contains Omega 3’s.  The Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio for corn fed beef is 20:1 while grass fed is only 3:1.  This is virtually the same levels as fish and much more ideal for you and your family.

2. More Nutritious – Grass fed beef is not only a natural source of Omega-3 fatty acids, but also, unlike corn fed beef is high in CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid), beta carotene, and up to 400% higher in vitamins A and E.  In recent decades, red meat has received a lot of flack from nutritional scientists. The truth is that the real enemy is not red meat itself, but the factory farmed red meat.

3. More Humane – You don’t have to be a vegetarian or an animal rights activist (neither of which I am) to find the conditions of feed lot animals to be cruel and intolerable.  Hundreds of thousands of cows are crammed into cages barely larger than their own bodies standing knee deep in manure.  They are force fed corn which is unnatural and unhealthy for their digestive system.  They are injected with antibiotics and other drugs to prevent them from getting sick from the food and the horrible living conditions, only to be slaughtered at 14 months (grass fed cows take an average of 4-5 years to reach slaughter weight).

There are so many more reasons to purchase grass fed beef over corn fed that we don’t have the space to cover in this format: it’s better for the environment, it reduces the chance of getting e. coli, and you don’t have to worry if your ingesting antibiotics or hormones.  One or all of these reasons should be sufficient to make the choice to spend a few extra dollars on grass fed meat as it is an investment in your family’s long-term health.

But keep in mind a common mistake, grass-fed is not the same as organic.  Natural food stores often sell organic beef that is hormone and antibiotic free.  These still typically come from animals that spent their lives in feedlots where they were fed grain, even if the grain is raised organically.  You want to look for a meat label that specifically says it is both grass-fed and organic.  Here are a few places to look in the San Diego area:

Ground Beef – Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, ranging from $5.99-$7.99 lb.
Steaks – Whole foods and Homegrown Meats in La Jolla has a great selection.

There are also a number of online retailers that will ship you grass fed beef, like U.S. Wellness Meats.

If you didn’t used to care what your beef was eating, hopefully now you know the facts; grass fed beef is a much better choice for feeding your family healthier.