In an ever increasing fight to get red meat off the menu in the sake of “climate change,” it is more important than ever to truly understand beef as a food source. For over 10,000 years, humans have had access to one of the most sustainable, bioavailable, and delicious food sources nature has ever provided: beef.
Now, in a world where endless knowledge is literally at our fingertips, the world has forgotten how to think for themselves and research what we truly need. From diets, to fashion, to environmentalists and influencers, how and what society wants us to eat is constantly shoved in our faces. Often, we don’t even think about what our bodies actually need. It’s time to take a step back and look at the facts.
The search for a sustainable food source is a farce. We already have it. We know that beef is already the most sustainable food source possible. Cattle cancel out their own methane, plus help trap carbon dioxide in the ground. They do not add any new warming to the atmosphere. The best part? Grasses that are completely non-consumable for humans, cattle will turn into one of the most nutrient dense food sources easily digestible by humans.
Meat is also much more bioavailable than plants. “It doesn’t matter if you source your food from the finest soils if your body can’t break down the food and absorb or assimilate the nutrients." Fruits and vegetables may have important nutrients, but they’re hard on our digestive system, often leading to digestive problems and a lot of waste.
Beef, of course, is full of protein. Many of your top minerals are also found in a cut of beef in large amounts. All those vitamin Bs and Omegas you’re taking supplements for? All found in beef. It’s full of heme iron that our bodies can actually process, not to mention filled with phosphorus, Vitamin D, and so much more. Same thing with plant protein vs meat protein: it's not complete and we don't absorb as much. Here’s a quick list of just a few essential vitamins and minerals in our beef, why we need these nutrients, how our beef is truly an incredible source.
Vitamin Bs:
Vitamin Bs are not stored in your body so you must consume them every day. Beef is a major source of not just one but many of the Vitamin Bs and large amounts. They’re responsible for breaking down carbohydrates which give you energy, production and repair of DNA and RNA, required for healthy brain function, helps break down fatty acids, and helps with depression, just to name a few. Just one ribeye alone has Vitamin B1 (DV 25%), B2 (DV 23%), B3 (DV 119%), B5 (DV 30%), B6 (DV 100%), B9 (7%), and B12 (142%)!
Vitamin D:
Vitamin D is a huge help in absorbing calcium and maintaining healthy bones. Our bodies also convert it into a hormone that acts on the brain, bones, and liver. People who don’t get enough Vitamin D can suffer from depression. Remember that ribeye? Just one cut has a Vitamin D daily value of 70%!
Omega 3 Fatty Acids:
These are essential for proper cell functioning. They may improve eye health, brain health during pregnancy and early life, may improve risk factors for heart disease, Omega 3s can also help with depression, anxiety, and even reduce symptoms of ADHD. Omega 3s are pretty impressive, and this list doesn’t begin to cover everything they do. Back to that ribeye: one ribeye contains 64mg.
Vitamin K2:
Vitamin K2 it vital for a healthy heart and only found in animal foods and certain fermented foods. Vitamin K2 is vastly underrated, and many people are deficient in it. It increases exercise performance, and plays a huge role in bone health. Vitamin K2 prevents the accumulation of calcium in the arteries, or arterial calcification. It's also shown that those with higher amounts of K2 in the brain had 17-20% lower risk of developing dementia. In a study from 2022, it also showed K2 can significantly lower depression. Beef liver has DV 9-12%, ground beef has 6-8%
Choline:
Choline is necessary to produce acetylcholine, a major neurotransmitter for memory, mood, muscle control, and more. It also helps remove fat and cholesterol from the liver. Your ribeye contains 31% of your DV.
Zinc:
Zinc helps your immune system and metabolism function. It also helps wound healing, and enhance taste and smell. It’s vital to carry out chemical functions, create DNA, grow cells, and a healthy immune system. That ribeye contains 111% of your DV!
Selenium:
Selenium is a powerful antioxidant, protects against mental health, supports thyroid health, and boosts the immune system. That ribeye contains 131% of your selenium DV!
Phosphorous:
Phosphorous is responsible for forming bones and teeth, making protein, building blocks of DNA, RNA, and ATP. Your ribeye contains 42% of your DV!
Iron:
Iron is vital for healthy blood. It’s also important to note that beef is full of heme iron, which is much easier and readily available for our bodies to absorb. Only animal meat has heme iron, plants and other sources are non heme, which make digesting much harder on our bodies. You can only absorb 2-10% of the non heme iron you absorb, while absorbing 30% of the heme iron. That ribeye contains 28% of your DV.
Copper:
Copper is another essential mineral that helps keep our blood healthy. It’s an antioxidant, helps keep a regular heart rate and pressure, helps maintain nerve cells and immune system, helps in developing and maintaining bone and organs. Your ribeye contains 33% of your DV!
That list makes beef sound pretty miraculous, doesn’t it? Notice how mainstream studies will tell you too much beef is bad for your heart, but how many nutrients found in beef have the main purpose of keeping your heart healthy? Quite interesting.... And those same nutrients are vital in helping brain function and fighting mental health illnesses.
Meat intake also explains at least 50% of variance in life expectancy and mortality!. Unlike plant-based diets, studies on meat and life expectancy have thoroughly been made to include factors like lifestyle, urbanization, caloric intake, obesity, education, and more. America was raised on beef, and we have one of the highest life expectancies in the world. With all the nutrients that have multiple functions for a healthy body and mind, its an incredible food source! Isn’t that what a sustainable food source does? It sustains life! And not only to help life survive but to let humans thrive.
Beef is also crucial to our mental health. It's a powerhouse of nutrients that are crucial to brain function. We have more people than ever before being diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Our suicide rates are steadily climbing. In 2022 we lost almost 50,000 people to suicide. 1 in 6 adults have depression, 1 in 5 adults have anxiety. Sadly, suicide, depression, and anxiety are happening at younger and younger ages. The majority of studies agree: "those who avoided meat consumption had significantly higher rates or risk of depression, anxiety, and/or self-harm behaviors," and do "not support meat avoidance as a strategy to benefit psychological health."
Many people complain that meat is too expensive, but when you start looking at your food as health care, it doesn’t seem that expensive anymore. Also, did you know you can get one full pound of ground beef for $5.97 while most boxes of cereal are now well over $6? Beef is much more substantial and natural. Cereal has to be fortified with many ingredients, and often has a lot of sugar and other unecessary and unhealthy products.
Again, compare meat prices to health care prices and suddenly it’s not that expensive. Compare meat to the skin products you use on your face, the same thing happens. How much money do you spend on supplements like vitamins bs and omega 3s? Eliminate the cost and need of many of those by eating more beef. Beef will help us have a longer, happier life. What's more sustainable than that?
Another misconception is the level of hormones in beef. Everyone’s worried about hormones in cattle, but has anyone even looked at the hormones in plants? For the sake of time we won’t get into that too much but you can read our article on it here. Plants have far more hormones than cattle ever will, even when cattle are implanted with them.
Plants are also very limiting in what we can actually eat and in actual nutrients found in them. Now, none of this is to say we shouldn't be eating our fruits and vegetables. Of course we should make sure we are eating healthy and well balanced. A But when we're looking at completely decimating a food source we need to fully understand the full benefits and advantages beef has over plants. Cattle take grasses we cannot digest and turn them into nutrient dense meat that our bodies were made to consume. It’s the sustainable food source that everyone thinks we don’t have, when in reality, we’ve had it far longer than we can even truly trace.
Eat more beef and live a healthier, happier, fuller life.