Sustainably raised beef are not pumped full of bovine growth hormones (rBGH). The FDA passed the hormone use in 1993 even as scientists questioned its link to breast cancer. Used in dairy cows, it causes overproduction of milk that leads to stress, malnutrition, calcium deficiency, weight loss and exhaustion. rBGH is banned in Canada, the European Union, Japan, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand.

Sustainably raised beef is not pumped full of antibiotics. A whopping 80% of the antibiotics sold in the US are used on livestock, which has led to the widespread development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Grass-fed cattle are raised on pastures with more space and better waste management, leading to healthier animals and no antibiotic use.

Sustainably raised beef is less likely to carry disease. Many foodborne diseases are spread through the poor processing and waste management of commercial producers. Mad cow disease is a group of viruses found in animals that practice cannibalism (including human). Public outbreaks have stopped the practice of feeding “cow-bits” to cows (which are herbivores). However, factory-cows are still fed animals that had been fed cows. No studies have confirmed that this practice could spread disease, but the virus DOES have an incubation period of up to four decades in humans.

Sustainably raised beef does NOT produce toxic waste. When raised on grass, cow shit becomes fertilizer for grass…. completing the circle of life. When cows are fed corn, the high concentration of artificial fertilizer in the grain passes through to the cow shit, which becomes toxic to the environment. In factory farms, the waste is often left untreated and dumped into a “lagoon.” Remnants of toxic manure have been found as far as 300 miles away from feedlots, and it accounts for OVER HALF of the pollutants found in freshwater systems. It can vastly change the ecosystem, creating algae blooms and killing off natural lakes. In addition, nitrates that leach into water supplies can cause nervous system impairments, cancer and methemoglobinemia.

Sustainably raised beef won’t drain our fresh water supply. 70% of the grains grown in the US are to feed livestock and nearly HALF of the fresh water consumed in the US is used for growing CORN AND OTHER GRAINS. Deforestization and over-cultivation for growing this enormous amount of grain has led to topsoil erosion and desertification, limiting the biodiversity of the ecosystem as well. In short, grains ARE killing us all.

The numbers for what defines disease these days are going lower and lower and lower. This has been going on since the late 1990s. A person who was diagnosed with Diabetes say in 1996 had a blood sugar level of equal too or greater than 140 after fasting. Now that same number is 124. This has also been done with the A1C levels as well. The same is true with this new marketing tool of “pre diseases”

The numbers get lower and lower, the doctor either gets to “scare you straight” and gets you as a compliant patient taking a list of meds, or can wash his hands of you and no longer treat you if you are seen as non compliant.

This is some of the main reason people no longer go for checkups, they know full well that even if they are 100% healthy they will leave with a laundry list of pills all making the pharma companies a ton of money. As they say in the industry, “Change a number, create a patient”

So while eating better, less stress, and more exercise are certainly good, just know that about 70% of diagnoses these days are nothing more than a fast track to get the patient on some kind of lifestyle medication, and are not based in science, but based in what the pharma companies want.

Me? I am retiring from this mess before I have to deal with Obamacare.