Ep. 317: How Do I Weigh Quality and Budget in Meat Products?

In this episode, Stacy and Sarah talk about the quality of meat products. What do all these terms like grass-fed, pasture-raised, and free-range mean? How do I select for quality and budget? And what should I weigh when my budget can't handle all high quality meat?
 
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The Paleo View (TPV), Episode 317: How Do I Weigh Quality and Budget in Meat Products?
Intro (0:00)
News and Views (0:40)
Sarah is back from her camping! It was an eventful trip full of bears, poison ivy, and meeting park rangers!
We're talking meat quality, and have a deal for you from ButcherBox, the best subscription for high quality meats! Sarah has a subscription and loves it!
Offer for paleo view listeners: $15 off + Free Bacon with a subscription (ButcherBox Bacon is uncured, free of sugar and nitrates, non-GMO verified, hormone free, made from pasture raised heritage breed pigs AND its whole30 approved!)
Link to use: https://www.butcherbox.com/thepaleoview/
No coupon needed!
You can also get items a la carte like Stacy does!

Question from Deborah: "I have been trying to find a place to get pastured chicken but even those that claim to be grass fed still are fed grains. If I eat a chicken that's been raised on grains is that going to be bad for staying on AIP?"
First of all, there is no such thing as grass fed chicken! They are omnivores and don't eat grass!
Conventionally-raised meat refers to factory farming:
animals are raised indoors,
small pens with little to no room to move
fed fattening grain-based diets
dosed with antibiotics and hormones

Just like eating our natural diet makes us healthier, the same is true for animals.
Animals are healthiest when they are
raised outdoors with plenty of space to move around
improved living conditions
fed a natural diet for the species animal (pasture for sheep and cows, forage for pigs and chickens)

Benefits:
more humane (Stacy was a vegetarian for years because of this concern, it feeds vegan propaganda!)
little need for antibiotics
environmentally protective (lower carbon footprint, supports family-farms, does not support monocrop industrial farming)
improves the nutrient-content of the meat
meat does not contain antibiotics (meaning their gut microbiomes are healthy) or hormones

grass-fed comes from an herbivore (eg. beef, bison and lamb)
pasture-raised comes from an omnivore (eg. chicken, turkey and pork)
Check out Beyond Bacon about how much we love Pork!
Grass-fed vs Grass-finished (Some producers “grain-finish” their meat in order to increase the size of the cattle and can be somewhat cagey about this fact.)
It only takes a few week of "grain-finishing" to eliminate most of the benefits of grass feeding!
Some producers supplement with grain so the animals are “mostly grass-fed,”
Organic is not the same as grass-fed; although grass-fed meat may also be organic, organic meat is not usually grass-fed.
What is the benefits of grass fed?
Frequency of E. coli contamination of grass-fed meat is extremely low compared to conventional meat in spite of the fact that while antibiotic use is routine in factory farming, antibiotics are not used at all in grass-fed animals
Grass-fed is higher in micronutrients: vitamin A (10 times more than grain-fed), vitamin E (three times more than grain-fed), higher in B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
Grass-fed meat also tends to have a much lower water content and is much leaner than conventional meat, which means that it is higher in protein.
The fats in grass-fed meat are healthier: Amounts of saturated, monounsaturated and omega-6 fatty acids are similar, but grass-fed meat contains approximately four times more omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA)
richest known source of CLA (at least double conventional)
CLA is a wonder fat, a natural transfat that reduces cancer risk, reduces cardiovascular disease, helps with weight l