Grain-Fed Vs. Grass-Fed

Yesterday, we took the kids on a field trip as we continue to celebrate our ‘staying-at-home-this-year' spring break. We made the trek over to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the day to visit the Children’s Hands-On Museum. What a blast! The kids loved it!

After the museum, we stopped by a great little local brew pub for a bite to eat. It was a great spot – plenty of healthier options on the menu, as well as some excellent micro-brews for my husband and dad to sample!

I was thrilled to see that I had the choice of broccoli, asparagus or green beans for the kids’ side dishes, as well as the usual baby carrots. I’m a happy mom when I can get some quality greens into those little bodies at a restaurant!

The menu also did a great job of highlighting the “clean” meats they use in all their dishes: the chicken was promoted as being free-range, from a local Amish farm, raised without any antibiotics, hormones, steroids, etc. Nice! The beef was also from a local farm, from cattle raised without the usual chemical cocktail.

The one thing that caught my eye about the beef description (because it stuck out like a sore thumb!), was that they proudly announced that it was exclusively grain-fed. I thought, “Now why would you go to such lengths describing how ‘clean’ the meat is, then end up feeding it grains?” Cows need grass. That’s what they naturally eat. Not grains.

Cows only eat grains when farmers provide grains as their only source of food. It’s unnatural.

Grass-fed beef is far superior to grain-fed for many reasons. Think about why farmers started feeding cows grains in the first place… it was to fatten them up. Any guesses what happens to the people who eat the grain-fed beef? Grass-fed beef is leaner. Grass-fed beef is also high in omega-3 fatty acids. Grain-fed is absolutely not.

Anyhow, the choice is clear. It just seemed like such an odd contradiction on the menu. Unbeknownst to me, our daughter was listening intently as the grown-ups were discussing this inconsistency on the menu.

Later in the evening, she wanted to play “restaurant”. As she came to our table to present the ‘featured selections of the day’, she pointed out that one of our options was “cow’s meat tacos”! I asked her if it was ‘clean’ meat and she proudly declared, “Oh, yes! We take the meat and rinse it off in pure water, then lay it out in the sun to get it all heated up and burn off the toxins!” Hilarious!

Then she was quick to add, “Oh, and before they became meat, the cows ate what they were supposed to. They didn’t eat any grains at all. They ate only grass and all green vegetables. They’re really healthy cows – you’ll like them a lot!”

Funny, funny kid! I’m not sure if she was selling me a taco or a new pet!