The little known compounds that might one day elevate our 100% pasture-fed beef to one of your 5-a-day
I was out wandering the fields the other day and found myself distracted by all the beautiful wildflowers. The colour and diversity in the pasture reminded me of a paper that I read recently (read it here: van Vliet 2021).
There are some health benefits of 100% grass-fed beef that are becoming more widely recognized, such as the improved fatty acid profile (I write about omega-3 here) and the higher levels of cancer-fighting conjugated linoleic acid (aka CLA - I’ve not written about this yet) compared to grain fattened beef.*
But, did you know that meat and dairy from animals grazing a diverse pasture contain compounds called phytonutrients?
These are the same anti-inflammatory, cancer-fighting, heart-healthy compounds that make vegetables so good for us.
We are more familiar with carbohydrate, fat and protein, minerals and vitamins - these are primary compounds. Phytonutrients are known as secondary compounds.
Scientists once thought these were just waste products of a plant’s metabolism and ignored them, but thanks input in part to the work of Fred Provenza, this is changing.
We know that animals and plants evolved together and as a result complex relationships developed between them. Phytonutrients have a really important role to play in facilitating and regulating these relationships.
For example, it might suit a plant to be eaten by a cow for seed dispersal. It makes sense then for the plant to make itself tasty to a cow.
If we take the case of a specific plant, say, birdsfoot trefoil, while I have no idea how it tastes (yet?!) I know that the cows enjoy eating it. And I know from reading around that birdsfoot trefoil contains pretty high levels of protein as well as phytonutrients called tannins (yup, like in wine) which help protect the cows from intestinal parasites.
So, the cow eats a plant that wants to be eaten and gains a benefit - in this case, help with parasite control.
BUT the plant doesn’t want to be overgrazed, because that will weaken it over time.
So, the relationship has developed such that a small amount of birdsfoot trefoil is appetizing to the cow, but after a certain amount is eaten it becomes unpalatable, signaling to the cow that she’s had enough.
Thus, both the plant and animal benefit: they both survive and thrive.
How clever is that!? #teamwork
This is just one example of one phytonutrient in one plant. These guys are legion and we know very little about them**.
🌼 Some colour and flavour fruits to encourage pollinators.
🌺 Some help build humus.
🌸 Some increase drought resistance and/or increase germination rate in plants.
It’s fascinating. 🤓💚🐮🌱🌞
This paper confirms that animals that eat healthy, vigourous, plants from diverse pastures and hedgerows will have more of these special nutrients in their meat and dairy than those grazing rye-grass monocultures and/or being finished on grain.
So, if vegetables are considered health foods, then maybe we will soon think of beef from a cow that’s only ever eaten plants from diverse pastures in the same way? 😉🙃
You might not hear too much about this, as who profits? 🤷🏻♀️ Not the big companies, for sure, but there is some exciting research out there if you know to look.
The paper is: van Vliet et al, 2021, ‘Health-Promoting Phytonutrients are Higher in Grass-Fed Meat and Milk’, Front. Sustain. Food System, 01 February 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.555426
If you are at all interested in human/animal nutrition then I highly recommend Fred Provenza’s book, ‘Nourishment: What Animals can Teach up About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom’.
*And that’s not to say that grain-fattened beef isn’t also healthy, it is a great source of protein and many essential nutrients, including zinc, iron, selenium, calcium and/or B12, but there are some additional nutritional benefits to 100% grass-fed beef.
**If you find this interesting then you’ll love The Infinite Monkey Cage episode on the Wood Wide Web. It’s about how trees (and other plants) communicate and was brilliant. 🌳🌼💚🌸🌱