I can't tell you how many times I hear about people eating a "healthy" diet of fish and chicken because their doctor told them to stay away from red meat. Perhaps you've heard that red meat clogs your arteries and causes heart disease. I am here to tell you that none of those things are true. Saturated fat does not cause heart disease and in fact is good for you. Cholesterol is also good for you and doesn't cause heart disease. Heard of Omega 3 fatty acids? Many of you probably take fish oil everyday well did you know that you can get Omega 3 from red meat?
The science of nutrition is one of the most wildly misunderstood sciences. The reason for this is that not many people can agree on some common ground to build a philosophy. Anthropology helps us to do that by looking at the dietary habits of hominids(human ancestors) throughout our evolution. They do this by studying the fossil record which consists of fossilized bones (jaw, teeth, hips, legs, feet, skull, etc.), and ancient tools, even fossilized food particles of plants and anything else that we may have eaten. So when you ask the question "where did this paleo diet come from" remember that it comes from the fossil record. Anyway I can revisit that some more in a later blog.
Lets talk about red meat...one of my favorites. Why has red meat been demonized so much? It is because of the myth that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. I encourage everyone to read up on this subject at www.thincs.org The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics. Saturated fat is an ancient food. Hunter gatherer societies relied heavily on animal fat and protein as a food source along with what they could gather from local plant life. Plant life would have been seasonal and would have varied depending on where these people lived. Saturated fat is a denser fat that is why it's solid at room temperature versus unsaturated fat which is liquid at room temperature. Saturated fat contains stored vitamins such as vitamin D and vitamin A. These are called fat soluble vitamins. Healthy animals can be a great source of these vitamins. Saturated fat has a higher energy yield than vegetables or even unsaturated fat. Native Americans used to make an "energy" bar if you will called pemmican out of bits of meat and fat. It helps provide energy for longer periods of time. Nowadays sugar has become the staple energy source for most people, and I'm talking about grains. When you eat sugar your body's energy fluctuates a lot more. You get high peaks and low valleys and you get high spikes in insulin. This causes fat storage. Did you know that fat can't be stored directly as fat but sugar can? When you rely on a low sugar diet and high protein and fat your body can "switch" over to utilizing fat more for energy because our bodies become more efficient when we eat less sugar. Our insulin levels are lower and we will be leaner.
I still haven't really answered my own question about red meat. Grain-fed cattle are incredibly unhealthy. They live in unsanitary conditions which can spread to you. They are fed mostly corn and soy which causes high acidity in their gut. This leaves them susceptible to infection (this is why you always here about antibiotics). Anytime antibiotics are over used bacteria can develop resistance to them. Imagine that...over use of antibiotics in cows causing a problem in humans. Those unsanitary conditions and higher rate of bacterial growth leads to guess what? E. Coli which is what you hear about on the news when they do a recall. Ever heard of a recall from an organic farm? I never have. Those Grain-fed cattle spend their short lives pent up in close quarters which means no sunlight for them which means very low vitamin D and A. So kiss those fat soluble vitamins good bye. You're eating their sickness...can you imagine if a mother breastfed her child after drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, or even taking a prescription drug? She would be passing those toxins to her baby. Well it is similar when you eat a sick animal you take in their sickness. That causes inflammation and that is our problem.
Inflammation can be linked to many diseases. Inflammation means your body is attacking something. From a visual sense it means you are red and swollen. Over long periods of time this does a lot of damage to the body including contributing to heart disease. Did you know that many meat eating animals develop arterial hardening as well but don't have heart attacks? This has never been studied it would be an interesting study. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD discusses this in his book "Ignore the Awkward! How the Cholesterol Myths are Kept Alive".
Lets talk about the good stuff Grass-fed Beef. One of my favorite foods. I have a client who's cholesterol was at around 220 when he came to me. I told him to eat more fat and more red meat from Grass-fed animals. The result? In just a few weeks his cholesterol was down in the 180's. Eating healthy saturated fat actually makes you lose weight and drives down inflammation. Another anti-inflammatory is Omega 3 fatty acid which you also get from Grass-fed beef. Omega 3, 6, and 9 are meant to be present within a certain ratio in the human body. A high grain diet consists mostly of Omega 6 and 9 which is why you hear about supplementing with Omega 3's. What you don't hear is that Grass-fed beef has as much if not more Omega 3 than Salmon. What's even better is that Omega 3 to Omega 6 in grass-fed cows is almost 1:1 ratio...this is a healthy ratio! I have another client who wasn't fat necessarily but he had gained about 20 pounds from November up until January. He began an elimination diet consisting of only grass-fed beef and other game along with organic vegetables. Nothing else at all...He dropped 21 pounds in 6 weeks. Let me tell you he was shredded and didn't lose any of his strength. He was amazed at how great he felt!
Lastly, I'll touch on cholesterol. First off let me just note that LDL and HDL which mean "Low Density Lipoprotein" and "High Density Lipoprotein" are not cholesterol. They help to transport cholesterol and other fats in the blood. The commonly accepted idea is that high levels of LDL are bad for you. Why would the body make something that is bad for it? That's the obvious question before even looking at the function. Cholesterol has a wide range of uses in the body. It is very important in brain function and in hormone production. It is made in every cell in the body because it is necessary for proper cell membrane health. Cholesterol is vital in sex hormone production and some studies have shown it has anti-inflammatory abilities. It is an important precursor for synthesis of vitamin D. In the liver cholesterol is converted to bile which helps break down fats and in the absorption of those fat soluble vitamins I mentioned earlier (vitamin D, A, E, and K). About 20-25% of your cholesterol is produced in the liver. Dietary cholesterol does not affect the level of cholesterol in your body! If you eat a lot of it then your body makes less. If you don't eat a lot then your body makes more. Your body will make what it needs! So you see lowering cholesterol inhibits all of these functions which is why you see people that have taken statins for long periods of time losing their minds, losing muscle function, losing libido (enter viagra) and eliminating a powerful antioxidant that can help protect against heart disease! Anyway back to the red meat.
Eating Grass-fed beef, wild game, and free range organic chicken actually helps lower inflammation in the body. Eating the healthy fat helps you feel terrific because you are getting important vitamins and the fat that we need. So I say eat up on the Grass-fed red meat it tastes delicious and you'll feel better than you can imagine. Eating healthy doesn't mean you have to eat fish all of the time.
