Grass Fed Cows Taste Good

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Last week was excellent. I celebrated my 51st birthday with my friends and family and lost weight, too!

Since I'm eating lots of protein (in other words meat!) on my weight loss plan, I do have some concerns about where and how the meat is produced. I don't take hormones for menopause and I sure don't want to take hormones from eating meat.

I'm lucky to have some perspective on where food comes from because my mom grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and we used to visit the farm on summer vacations.

One of my most vivid childhood memories of the farm is of my grandmother hacking the heads off of chickens and then watching them flapping around outside the chicken coup without any heads. Of course, this is where the expression "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off" comes from. Obviously, it made quite an impression on me.

My grandfather refused to eat chicken of any type. He said they were dirty animals. However, I spent plenty of time in the barn watching the cows get milked and I'm not sure you could get any filthier than a cow in from the field. Perhaps my grandfather's aversion was some kind of childhood farm trauma involving chickens. That wouldn't be hard to understand. The things we eat can be quite disconcerting when they are looking back at us instead of being safely encased in plastic wrap.

At any rate, we are fortunate here in Austin, Texas to have a number of options when it comes to buying "natural" and locally raised meat and eggs. For example Bastrop Cattle Company provides chemical, antibiotic and hormone free beef both to markets and restaurants in the Central Texas area. Beef from Bastrop Cattle Company is grass feed instead of grain fed.

According to a recent story on CNN.com, nearly 75 percent of the beef sold in the United States is grain fed, usually corn. Corn is not a natural food source for cows, so cows being fattened for the slaughterhouse on corn tend to feel sick and stressed (as if they didn't already have enough to worry about).

As a result of being sick, grain fed cows are routinely treated with antibiotics. They also receive growth hormones to increase their size and as a consequence their value, since beef is sold by weight.

On the other hand, grass fed and pasture raised cows develop healthy muscles, and as a consequence lean meat, because their digestive systems are made to eat grass and hay. Beef from grass fed cows is lower in saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories than grain fed cows.

I bought beef from Bastrop Cattle Company last week from the Bastrop Producers Market (my office is right by the Travis County - Bastrop County line). It had a great flavor and at $6 a pound for ground beef wasn't really any more than I would have paid for natural beef at the grocery store. The only difference is that meat sold at "farmer's markets" can only be sold as frozen (at least in Texas).

Natural grass fed ground beef produced without hormones or antibiotics is also available fresh in my local grocery store, as well as natural grass fed bison. Bison is a little chewier than beef, but I think it would make a really good chili and I enjoyed it as chopped steak.

Bastrop Producers Market also carries locally produced pork, lamb, chicken and fresh chicken and duck yard eggs as well as vegetables and gift items. I especially like the duck eggs. They are larger with big yolks and the whites are sturdier than chicken eggs. I like to fry my eggs in olive or coconut oil and the duck eggs are easy to turn over without breaking the yolks.

If you can find yard eggs in your area, I think they are well worth the effort to buy. Because uncaged chickens eat bugs and other natural food sources, yard eggs usually have a higher nutrient content than store-bought eggs and generally are free of pesticides and hormone residues. The yolks are yellower, the whites are sturdier and they just seem to taste better.

While I try not to eat eggs every day, I am eating a protein breakfast every morning along with a serving of MetaCleanse colon cleanse. The great thing about frying eggs is that they are quick and easy. Sometimes I fry the eggs in a little oil, put them on the plate and then throw some leftover brown rice in to warm in the same pan to go along with them.

Austin has a number of farmer's markets selling natural meats, eggs and produce, including the Austin Farmer's Market downtown, Sunset Valley Farmer's Market in south Austin and Boggy Creek Farm in East Austin.

If you are in an area besides Austin and want to find farmer's markets in your region, try checking out the Edible Communities publications website. Edible Communities produces free magazines focusing on local foods in different regions throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Eating all this natural protein and vegetables seems to be paying off. I lost a pound and a half this week, making my total weight loss in four weeks 7 pounds, which seems about right as far a safe and steady rate.

Today's weight is 255 pounds and my Body Mass Index is 43.8!