Some Interesting Articles

WOW! I am sorry guys, I had not realized it had been five days since my last post. I am having one of those weeks. Please accept my appologies and enjoy these articles I found at www.eatwild.com



Free Range Eggs Nutritionally Superior
As it turns out, all those choices of eggs at your supermarket aren't providing you much of a choice at all.
Recent tests conducted by Mother Earth News magazine have shown once again that eggs from chickens that range freely on pasture provide clear nutritional benefits over eggs from confinement operations.
Mother Earth News collected samples from 14 pastured flocks across the country and had them tested at an accredited laboratory. The results were compared to official US Department of Agriculture data for commercial eggs. Results showed the pastured eggs contained an amazing:
1/3 less cholesterol than commercial eggs
1/4 less saturated fat
2/3 more vitamin A
2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
7 times more beta carotene
Full results of the tests are available in the October/November 2007 issue of Mother Earth News, or on their website at http://www.MotherEarthNews.com/eggs. Check Eatwild's Pastured Products Directory to find free-range eggs near you.

Hold the Heat. Get more Calcium.
You absorb more calcium when you eat raw milk yogurt, according to a new study in the Journal of American College of Nutrition.
Forty adult volunteers alternated between eating raw and pasteurized yogurt. The researchers reported that “circulating calcium markedly increased one hour after the fresh yogurt intake, while no changes were detected after the pasteurized [yogurt.]” This was true for people who had no difficulty digesting milk and those who were lactose intolerant.
To find a supplier of raw milk yogurt, enter the word “yogurt” in the Search Site in the left margin of this page.
Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 26, No.3, 288-294. 2007

Corn Prices Too High? Feed the Animals Candy Instead
The growing use of corn for fuel has doubled the price of corn for animal feed. Typically, corn comprises about 70 percent of the diet of animals raised in confinement. To offset the spiking cost of corn, many feedlot managers are replacing some of the corn with candy and other “junk food” that has been declared unfit for human consumption.
According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, this sugary, fatty fare includes banana chips, yogurt-covered raisin, cookies, licorice, cheese curls, frosted wheat cereal, Tater Tots, Kit Kat bars, uncooked French fries, pretzels and chocolate bars. One feedlot operator from Idaho confesses that he feeds his cattle a 100 percent “by-product” meal.
Grass, the native diet of grazing animals, is a rich source of protein, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids. Has anyone measured the nutritional value of meat from junk-food-fed cows? Candy may be cheap, but it’s cheating consumers out of meat’s natural nutrition. Consider grass-fed, instead.
“With Corn Prices Rising, Pigs Switch to Fatty Snacks” Lauren Etter, Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2007.

Pizza Dough and Tetracycline
In an interview with a former manager of a cattle feedlot, Eatwild has learned of an extreme example of raising cattle on junk food. In this particular feedlot, the cattle were fattened on stale pizza crust that the owners purchased from a wholesale bakery for only a penny a pound.
The pizza dough was then mixed with powdered tetracycline, an antibiotic that is not approved for use in cattle because it is important for human medicine. Adding low (subtherapeutic) levels of antibiotics make cattle eat more and gain weight more rapidly.
On this junk food and drug diet, the cattle put on as much as four pounds a day, a remarkable rate of growth. The end result was more money for the feedlot, more abuse of medications that are important for human medicine, and more meat of questionable quality for an unsuspecting public.
The degree to which American cattle are being fed junk food and off-label drugs is not known.
Farm Milk Linked with Lower Rate of Asthma and Allergies
A large European study of nearly 15,000 children revealed that drinking farm milk rather than commercial milk is linked with a lower risk of asthma and allergies.
Children who drank farm milk at any time of their lives had a 26% lower risk of asthma, 33% lower risk of pollen sensitivity, and a remarkable 57% lower risk of food allergies. This was true for children who lived on a farm and those who lived in the city and drank farm milk.
It was not clear from the study whether the reduction in risk was due to the fact that the milk was unpasteurized or the fact that the farm milk came from grazing cows. Milk from cows raised on pasture has more omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and other nutrients that may reduce the risk of allergies.
Clinical and Experimental Allergy. Volume 37, pages 661-670. 2006

Cheap Meat: An Accident Waiting to Happen
The latest fiasco in the U.S. livestock industry is that 20 million chickens, thousands of hogs, and an unknown number of farmed fish have been raised on feed contaminated with melamine, the chemical that made headline news when it got into pet food and sickened tens of thousands of cats and dogs. According to the USDA, meat from hogs and chickens fed melamine has already entered our food supply.
How did this happen? The story begins in China. Melamine is an inexpensive by-product of the coal industry. In a deceptive practice, Chinese producers have been mixing melamine with certain feed ingredients in order to inflate their protein content. (Melamine is not a protein and has no food value, but it mimics protein on standardized laboratory tests.) Melamine costs less than true sources of protein, so the manufacturers make more money.
The story continues in the United States. In order to lower the cost of production, U.S. pet food manufacturers have been importing cheap protein meal from China. Unbeknownst to the manufacturers, recent shipments have been spiked with melamine. As a result, thousands of pets became sick or died.
Now we get to the pigs, chickens, and fish. A common cost-cutting practice in the livestock industry is to supplement animal feed with floor sweepings and other remnants from pet food plants. The sweepings contain enough meal to offer some nutritional value. But recently, the sweepings have also been laced with melamine. In this serpentine fashion, a toxic chemical that was first added to pet food found its way to our very own tables.
The USDA does not foresee any health consequences from eating melamine-spiced pork, poultry, and fish. Hopefully, this will prove to be true. But as long as we feed our animals on a “least-cost” basis, we risk a host of problems, ranging from minor contamination with an industrial chemical to mad cow disease. The solution is to raise our livestock on their native diets or on quality ingredients that match their original diets as closely as possible. We are what our animals eat.

Federal Ruling To Allow Meatpackers to Test for Mad Cow Disease
A federal judge ruled on March 29, 2007 that the government must allow meatpackers to test their meat for Mad Cow Disease.
The ruling came in a case brought to the courts by Creekstone Farms, which raises cattle in Kentucky and has a processing plant in Kansas. Creekstone wanted to test all of its animals for the disease in order to open up sales in Japan and other strict markets, but was threatened with prosecution by the Agricultural Department if they did so.
The Agriculture Department currently regulates the tests, which it administers to about 1% of all slaughtered cows. Many large meat processors opposed the increase in testing because they feared that market pressure would force them to test all their cows as well.
The federal district court judge put the order on hold until June 1st when the ruling will take affect unless the government appeals.

Oops! Feed Mix-Ups Can Kill
Recently, nine feedlots in Canada ordered chicken feathers to feed their cattle and farm-raised deer. This is standard practice in many factory farms. Feather meal is cheap and high in protein and speeds the animals’ growth.
Due to a mix-up, however, the Saskatchewan feedlots received meat and bone meal instead—food that has been outlawed as ruminant feed because it has the potential to spread Mad Cow Disease. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency must now decide whether or not to slaughter all 8,000 animals.
When grazing animals are raised on their native diet of grass and green plants, there is no need to worry about deadly shipping errors. The animals eat what they are designed to eat, creating a safe supply of meat for consumers.