Fact

Research shows that a heart healthy diet and lifestyle that includes lean beef, even daily, can lower heart disease risk by reducing levels of total and LDL”bad” cholesterol. About half of the fatty acids found in beef are called monounsaturated fatty acids, the same kind found in olive oil.

A 3-ounce serving of beef provides more than 10 essential nutrients including protein, iron, zinc, and vitamin B12 and B6.  One serving of beef contains about half your daily value for protein in around 170 calories on average.  Beef is a nutritional powerhouse in a smaller package than other protein foods.  Apart from being a great protein source, it would take 8 ounces of cooked chicken breast to consume the same amount of iron in 3 ounces of beef, and it would take 7 times that amount of chicken to get the same serving of zinc!

Research also shows that iron, zinc, and vitamin B found in beef play a essential role in developing and maintaining cognitive ability in children and adults.  Protein may help cut the fat.  Research has shown exercise is more effective for weight management when paired with a higher-protein diet, and beef provides the amino acids necessary for building and replenishing muscles.  Many sources of plant protein do not contain all the amino acids your body needs.  Beef supplies more protein and nutrients in significantly fewer calories than plant proteins.

Fact

Contrary to popular belief, all cattle spend the majority of their lives eating grass on pastures.  Some may be grass finished, meaning the cattle spend their entire lives on a pasture, whereas other cattle are grain finished, moving from the pasture to a feedlot.

Nutritionally, extended grain feeding can increase the amount of monounsaturated fat, which has cholesterol lowering effects, and likewise, feeding grass longer can influence the amount of omega-3 fatty in beef.  However, research has shown both of these beef choices provide same primary nutritional benefits.    

All beef provides the same 10 essential nutrients and vitamins and meets the same safety standards.  Marketing one type of beef as safer or better for you than the other is misleading and damages the reputation of all beef and the people who raise it.  

There are price differences.  The beef most Americans consume comes from cattle that spend the majority of the time on grass, then mature in a feedlot prior to processing — a cycle of between 14-16 months. By contrast, the average life span of a grass finished animal is between 20-26 months. Therefore, price-wise, grass-finished beef tends to be more expensive due to the extra time needed to become market-ready and the additional land required to finish them on grass.

Vegetarian and animal rights group regularly make the false accusation that beef is “pumped full of hormones and antibiotics.”  They repeat the claim so often that some consumers begin to accept this as a fact.  

Fact

Growth promotants are required to go through a comprehensive, multi-step scientific review by the food and drug administration to ensure animal health and human food safety. Approved products are regularly evaluated and must be continually proven safe to remain on the market. Approval of a single growth promotant on average requires 75 studies to demonstrate human food safety, target animal safety and efficacy, environmental safety and user safety, in addition to a number of other requirements set by the FDA.  

The FDA has set tolerance on estrogen levels in beef from cattle receiving an estrogen-containing implant. The safe level is 21 billionths of a gram. On average a serving of beef actually has a fraction of that allowable level (.3 billionths of a gram) — nearly 57,000 times lower than what the FDA allows, and thousands of times lower than what our bodies naturally produce, not to mention what is present in many other foods such as soybean oil, cabbage, cereals, and grains.

How Much Estrogen Is in It?

Growth promotants generally work by discouraging protein depletion and encouraging protein synthesis in cattle so the can gain more lean muscle from less feed.  This typically improves lean muscle tissue 8 percent to 20 percent compared to non-treated cattle.

America’s cattle producers use growth promotants to safely produce more of the lean beef that consumers demand while using fewer resources like land, feed and water.