Pasture Raised Beef
Upgrade Your Meats To Pastured Raised & Grass-Fed
Studies show eating pasture raised & grass-fed beef can lead to:
- More lean body mass
- Improved cholesterol levels and cardiovascular function
- A better omega-3 to omega-6 ratio that promotes longevity and greater brainpower
- More vitamins & nutrients
- More bang for your buck: grain-fed beef isn't cheap either
- Lower toxins than grain-fed factory farmed meat
- Perfect fit for the Paleo Diet or its upgraded version, the Bulletproof Diet
On the Bulletproof Diet, which we’ve been on for more than 5 years now, we're careful to choose top quality sources of fat and protein. Grass-fed beef are our top choices. Most beef you find in the store have been fed grain to fatten them, produce weaker (tender) cells, and cause unhealthy fats to “marble” throughout the muscle. But all fats are not created equal. Grain, corn, and soy contain easy-to-oxidize polyunsaturated omega-6 fats, so it's not surprising that most of the fat in factory-fed meat is also polyunsaturated omega-6. The fat in grain-fed meat also contains the unhealthy hormones ranchers add to make the animal grow more quickly, along with a very harmful class of performance-killing toxins from poor quality animal-grade feed. The fat in grass-fed meat is almost entirely saturated and monounsaturated, which is the type of fats we're looking for. Meat from pasture raised and grass-fed cattle also has 2-4 times more brain-healthy omega-3s than grain-fed meat. That’s because omega-3s are produced in the chloroplasts of green leaves, including grass, and pasture raised cattle get to eat lots of them. A study tracking the omega-3 levels in grass-fed cattle that were switched to a grain-fed diet found that the omega-3 levels decreased every single day after the switch. Because of the awesome fat profile, grass-fed beef has actually been shown to lower problem cholesterol levels. High omega-3 to omega-6 ratios in the body can lead to inflammation and disease. Grain-fed meat has a dangerous ratio of 14 “bad” to 1 “good”. Inside the body, 4 to 1 is considered a healthy ratio. Grass-fed beef is an even better 2 to 1, making it equivalent to wild caught salmon. Grass-fed meat is also:
- 3-5 times higher than grain-fed in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which stunts cancer tumor growth, helps build lean body mass, and boosts the cardiovascular system. CLA is sold as an expensive weight loss supplement.
- 2-4 times higher in vitamins A and E. Grass-fed meat has been found to contain twice the vitamin E as grain-fed even though the grain-fed cows were given heavy doses of synthetic E.
Why We Like Alderspring Ranch
All of the beef available at Alderspring is certified organic, pasture raised, and grass-fed, using ecological sound farming techniques on their single-family owned ranch.
Alderspring Ranch is a rarity in the world of corporate agriculture: a family-owned and operated ranch. Glenn and Caryl Elzinga and their family are personally responsible for every aspect of the making of Alderspring Ranch Grass Fed Beef.
This husband and wife team has a lot of expertise and training between them. Glenn has a background in forestry and forest ecology. He began his forestry career in Maine. In the mid 1980s, he moved to Salmon, Idaho where he worked as District Forester for the Salmon BLM for over a decade.
Caryl is from a farming family, and finished a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in Plant Ecology. She has been a botanist and en ecological consultant, specializing in the measuring and monitoring plant populations for research and resource management.
As their family began to grow, Glenn transitioned his career from forestry, to ranching, and in 17 years has grown from 7 head of cattle to over 600 with a range of 48,000 acres. His cattle never eat any corn or any form of grain. They eat no animal, agricultural, or industrial by- products. They only eat grass and hay, the way cattle are meant to eat. This means that Alderspring beef has the full mineral, nutrient and omega-3 fatty acid profile typical of green pasture raised animals. The meat they ship has never had anti-biotics, is never irradiated, and shipped flash frozen. Their grass-fed beef is good for you!
Why We Focus on Beef
Provided they are grass-fed, beef are the healthiest (non-seafood) meat choices due to the natural fat profile of beef vs. other meats. That’s why they’re in the green zone on the Bulletproof Diet. Other meats like pork and chicken naturally contain more polyunsaturated fatty acids that oxidize easily when heated/cooked. While grass-fed beef has approximately 3% PUFA and can be eaten rare, pork is 12% PUFA and poultry can be as high as 20% and both require prolonged heating that most certainly oxidizes much of the PUFA. Grain-fed, factory farmed beef runs the same risks of high PUFA, and that's why we opt for grass-fed. In the end, no matter the meat you choose, top quality pasture raised and grass-fed products like those sold at Alderspring are a huge upgrade over conventional meats sold at your local grocery store.
The Fine Print
- Alderspring is flash frozen and then shipped to you.
- There is $125 order minimum.
- There is an additional shipping charge.
- EASTERNERS, note that we now will place a FREE as-needed upgrade to expedited shipping whenever you select UPS Ground shipping for any order size (no more high air shipping charges)!
- If you are a WESTERNER (west of MN, IA, MO, AR, *OK and TX), order over $200 of products in our web store and receive FREE Ground shipping (use code westover200* on the shopping cart page).