Beef: The REAL Health Food

Update - Sten made me aware that the timing between the slides and the audio fails at the 31 minute mark. I am preparing a corrected version. I'll upload it as soon as I can, and re-post the link.

Update 2 - Corrected versions are posted to Vimeo and YouTube. 

I was invited to participate in the joint Maryland Cattle Industry Convention and Hay & Pasture Conference. My visit to Hagerstown was quite enjoyable. I met a number of folks and I learned a great deal.

I gave two presentations: “Optimizing Forage-Based Animal Nutrition” and “Beef: The REAL Health Food!” I meant to record both of them, but I forgot to turn on my Zoom H2 for the animal nutrition presentation. [slaps forehead]

I’ve produced a “video” of the Beef presentation. It’s a combination of an audio recording with the PowerPoint slide set.

 

Ruminant Reality

The video of my presentation at the Ancestral Health Symposium 2012 has bee posted on YouTube.

I titled the talk "The Reality of Ruminants and Liebeg's Barrel: Examining the New 'Conventional Wisdom.'" (links are to previous posts) They say that whenever you give a talk you actually give three: There's the talk you plan to give; there's the one you give; and there's the one you think you should have given. The talk I think I should have given isn't too different from the one captured by this video.

Make Believe?

Imagine you’ve got a group of men who’ve survived a heart attack. They agree to participate in a four-year-long experiment where they’re placed onto one of two diets: Diet One is a “Mediterranean Diet” high in fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, and poultry, along with cholesterol-rich read meat and full-fat dairy products; Diet Two is the “Prudent Diet” recommended by the American Heart Association (and, not coincidently, by most physicians), focusing on restricting saturated fat intake. What result might you expect?

Turns out that the men restricting their cholesterol and saturated fat intake had a greater than 50 percent higher rate of fatal heart attacks and 70 percent more cardiac events! And the total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL levels of both groups were almost identical.

Perhaps even more interesting is that despite the fact that this research was published in Circulation * (the American Heart Association journal, no less!) over a decade ago, we’re still being told to restrict our intake of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat!

* Michel de Lorgeril, et al., “Mediterranean Diet,Traditional Risk Factors, and the Rate of Cardiovascular Complications afterMyocardial Infarction: Final Report of the Lyon Diet Heart Study.”

Cattle "Emissions"

Ancestral Health Symposium 2012 is now history. The symposium took place at the Harvard Law School August 9^th-11^th. Not a bad gig for a forage agronomist! The title of my presentation was The Reality of Ruminants and Liebeg’s Barrel: Examining the New ‘Conventional Wisdom'. All of the presentations were video taped, and will be freely available.

My title slide. Cattle mob grazing a pasture under center pivot irrigation.
Photograph by Dawn Gerrish.

One of the themes of this year’s symposium was sustainability. I don’t see that term in the simplistic way many do, in part because I remember being told by leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement that “animals have no place in sustainable ag!”

The truth is that the production of animal products from perennial forages is the sustainable agricultural system. Many, however, are concerned about the carbon dioxide and methane “emissions” from livestock in general, and cattle in particular. Some folks don’t seem to understand that a cow grazing grass can only emit carbon that was originally in grass, and that the carbon in grass has to have come from the atmosphere. So it’s a cycle not an “enrichment.” But there’s more to it than that!

Under the following assumptions:

Carbon:Nitrogen ratio = 17 and 3.4% N, giving 57.8 % C
3% of body weight daily dry matter (DM) intake; 1,000 lb cow = 30 lb DM per day
70% utilization - 30 lb DM eaten / 0.70 = 42.8 lb DM offered
Equal above and below ground DM distribution
90% of C consumed is “emitted” 

We’d see:

42.8 lb DM above ground, 42.8 lb DM below ground – 85.6 lb DM total
57.8% C in DM – 49.5 lb C total
17.3 lb C consumed
15.6 lb C emitted

Thus, for every pound of carbon “emitted” by a cow on grass, 3.2 pounds of carbon are fixed in plant roots, uneaten plant debris, or the cow herself or her calf. Even if we say that 100% of carbon she ingested is emitted (a biological impossibility!), there’d be 2.9 pounds of carbon fixed for every pound emitted! Beef cattle are carbon negative!

Someone (perhaps Todd Becker?) asked me what happens to methane in the atmosphere. A good question, and one I wasn't completely sure about. So I went looking and found the following at this site:

"In the lower part of the atmosphere, below about 10-12 km (the troposphere), the key cycles are mediated above all by the presence of what are called OH radicals — colloquially known as the atmospheric detergent. All hydrocarbon chemical species that are emitted can be eventually broken down (or oxidized) by these radicals to CO₂ and H₂O, and methane is no exception. An average molecule of CH₄ lasts around eight to nine years before it gets oxidized. This is a long time compared to most atmospheric chemicals but is fast enough so that there can be significant year-to-year variability."

Ignore the Evidence

[This is another piece I wrote for my “Taking Out the Carbage” column in Kit Pharo’s “Pharo Cattle Company Update.”]


Hilda Bruch, a young German pediatrician, moved to America and settled in New York City. She was “startled” by the number of fat children she saw – “really fat ones, not only in clinics, but on the streets and subways, and in schools.”1 Indeed, fat children in New York “were so conspicuous that other European immigrants asked Bruch about it, assuming she would have an answer. What is the matter with American children? they would ask. Why are they so bloated and blown up? Many would say they’d never seen so many children in such a state.” 1


The public health “experts” usually point their fingers at fast food, computers, TV, and even prosperity as contributing causes. But Hilda Bruch moved to New York City in 1934, “two decades before the birth of fast food franchises and a half century before supersizing and high fructose corn syrup.”1 This was during the Great Depression, an era of soup kitchens, bread lines, and twenty five percent unemployment. Sixty percent of Americans were living in poverty. Twenty five percent of children in New York City were said to be malnourished.


The observation that obesity and under-nourishment occur simultaneously in very poor populations is not limited to Bruch’s experience. This phenomenon has been repeatedly documented throughout the world. Obesity is a form of malnutrition. So how do the experts reconcile these observations with their opinions? They ignore the evidence. They have to. The evidence disproves their hypotheses. 


Makes you wonder what else they’re ignoring …


1. Taubes, G. 2011. “Why We Get Fat, and What to Do About It.” Knopf. New York, NY.

Eating Right on the Road

Take-along Primal/Paleo food

My job requires frequent travel. Maintaining my way of eating while on the road has presented some challenges. I've attended conferences where the “free” meal wasn’t worth the price – breaded chicken, corn, mashed potatoes with starchy gravy, and sugary dessert. I’ve learned to “just say no.” Eating at restaurants on the road reminds me how good our local restaurants are. When asked what kind of restaurant I’d like to go to, my answer is “one that serves meat!” So far, I’ve been able to find choices that fit my needs. Nancy and I have learned several lessons about ordering when we eat out, and those apply on the road, too. Some restaurants, like the DeRico Brazilian Grill in Springfield, Missouri are wonderfully easy!
Air travel, and time spend in airports, presents the greatest challenge to finding appropriate food while away from home. It also provides some head-scratching moments. The complimentary “food” (“pretzels, peanuts, or cookies?”) service on a recent flight provided these:

Really?!? Who would have thought that a bag of roasted peanuts would have been produced in a facility that processes peanuts?!?!?

Where do I start with this messaging on the napkins they handed out? What’s “THE heart TRUTH”? It’s a registered trademark of the Department of Health and Human Services. Those same folks who help bring us the Dietary Guidelines. Nice to know that “Participation by Coca-Cola does not imply endorsement by HHS/NIH/NHLBI”! I’m sure Coca-Cola’s participation has no influence whatsoever …

Food choices at airports are generally expensive and typically not low carb/primal/paleo-friendly. The few options that might fit my requirements are mega-sized. So we’ve been looking for some take-along options.
Tanka Bars – These are a tasty combination of buffalo jerky and cranberries. The first time I tried one my thought was “meat candy!” The packages are easy to open, but there is the potential for mess. Another issue is that they’re low fat – a fact they promote in marketing their product (there’s SO much work to do …). So I’ve learned to combine them with a pre-packaged bag of raw almonds from Trader Joe’s. These 1.25 ounce packages help me with portion control, and they’re not much more expensive that Trader Joe’s raw almonds in larger packages.
Nick’s Sticks – Each package contains two sticks, or sausages. Together, they provide 10 grams of protein and 7.5 grams of fat in 1.7 oz (47g). Enough to be a very effective snack. These are easy to open, with a nice grind and texture, and they’re made of grass-fed beef with sea salt and no MSG. Nancy says “they’re delicious!” and I agree.
Disclosure: Nick’s father is a co-worker at Barenbrug USA. I have no commercial relationship with Nick or Wallace Farms, Inc. I have no relationship with any of the other products. I’ve received no consideration for my opinion.
In general, I’ve found airports to be poor grounds for hunting and gathering, but I was pleasantly surprised when I found Gary West - certified angus beef black pepper steak strips at Portland International Airport. This product is easy to open, and didn’t produce a mess. The quality of the ingredients is good.

A Complementary Carbfest

Most of the motels I stay in offer a complimentary breakfast buffet. For the most part these are carbohydrate-heavy affairs. But I can still find some acceptable choices. At location pictured above, I scored some scrambled eggs and sausage, melon, cream cheese to mix into the eggs, hard boiled eggs for later (it pays to carry plastic baggies!), and slivered almonds (the were next to the oatmeal).
I can be a challenge to maintain my way of eating while I'm on the road, it isn't impossible.

Radio Interview

On Thursday, July 5th, I had the pleasure of being interviewed live on News/Talk 1290 CJBK from London, Ontario. Andy Oudman and Pam Killeen made it a relaxed and enjoyable time. I'm looking forward to meeting Pam at Wise Traditions this November. A recording of the interview is posted here.