Meat
Meat - Choices for Health
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)
Most U.S. Beef cattle and pigs are raised in Feed Lots called CAFOs
80% of U.S. beef cows are raised in feed lots, where they have no choice but to
eat a grain-based diet (typically wheat, corn /maize, rice,
barley, and also soybean and cane sugar). Since their 4-chambered stomachs were
designed to process grass not grain, the cows are frequently sick and bloated,
and usually develop liver disease, which would eventually kill them if they were
not fattened in accelerated time.
CAFO cows are given antibiotics to promote growth in livestock
Dietary antibiotics can add 4-5% to bodyweight.
They are not just given for the obvious reason of preventing disease from their
being in a manure-laden environment.
In 2013 ,
14,788,555 kg (over 32,603,000 lbs)
FDA-approved antimicrobial drugs were sold for use in
food-producing animals in the U.S. and
62% of them were medically-important-to-us OTC
drugs.
FDA 2013
SUMMARY REPORT On Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for Use in Food-Producing
Animals .
After FDA guidelines designed to
limit AB use in livestock (effective 1/1/2017), numbers had reduced quite a bit:
. 10,933,367 kg (~24,104,000 lbs) antimicrobial drugs sold for use in food-producing animals in
the U.S. and ~50% of them medically important.
So we're headed in the right
direction .
FDA 2017 Summary Report On Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for
Use in Food-Producing Animals
Kudos to Purdue.
By
2014, Purdue was marketing their "Harvestland" Simply Smart and
Perfect Portions chicken as "antibiotic-free", having phased out the use of human
antibiotics and ionophores (a type of antiobiotic not used by humans) from its
feed. By 2015, about half of their chicken was antibiotic-free.
WIkipedia
In 1998, The E.U. banned the use of antibiotics important in human medicine from
use as growth promoters in livestock production.
Consuming antibiotic-laden beef having detrimental effects on health:
Antibiotic resistant
bacteria develop in cattle which can easily be transmitted to humans via consumption of meat or human
contact with living animals. A Harvard University study showed that
antibiotic-resistant genes found in bacteria infecting humans were identical to
some of the same bacteria infecting animals [O'Brien et.al., 1982]. Some strains
of salmonella are now resistant to commonly used antibiotics.
increased susceptibility to
intestinal infections. Consequential to reduced levels of
favorable intestinal bacteria.
The presence of antibiotics
likely changes the composition of the gut flora to favour growth.
Debate continues as to how that gut flora are changed
Eliminate bacteria
that "steal" essential nutrients required by the animal for growth
Reduce competition
allowing beneficial bacteria that produce essential nutrients required by the
animal for growth to multiply
Control growth of bacteria
that cause low-grade infections or produce toxins-both
of which result in thick intestines that do not absorb nutrients well.
Some antibiotics
may also enhance feed consumption and growth by stimulating metabolic processes
within the animal
cows
Hormone Growth Promotants (HGPs) are
carcinogenic
Although the U.S. have
approved the use of HGPs, many other countries have banned them. The E.U. has banned importation of American and Canadian beef raised with growth
hormones because studies indicate thatthey are carcinogenic. Hormones used
in beef cattle include the male hormone Testosterone(and its synthetic
equivalent trenbolone acetate), and the female hormone progesterone(and
3 of its synthetic derivatives).
Progesterone -Imitator
Presence linked to Cancer. Synthetic progesterone imitates other hormones in the body and is linked to
diseases such as cancer. An Ohio State
University study found that when breast cancer cells were exposed to Zeranol,
another progesterone-imitator, it increased cancer growth.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/20/eveningnews/main554857.shtml
HGPs affect ecology
Hormones are not only
present in the beef, but also end up in farm run-off and can flow into nearby
rivers and streams - ending up
in underground aquifers and so in our
drinking water
premature development in girls
Lemonick, MD, "Teens
before Their Time",TIME Magazine, Oct.30, 2000 and
lower sperm counts in men
CAFO Produced Beef is High in Omega-6 and Low in
Omega-3 FAT
The cows' grain diet yields a high proportion of
Omega-6
fat, as opposed to providing us a natural source of
Omega-3
from a grass diet.
Thus, eating grain fed beef contributes to an imbalance of the important
Omega-6 Omega-3 ratio.
