Unfortunately, most cows today are not raised on their natural diet. Why Choose Grass Fed?īy nature, cows are supposed to eat grass. However, with trustworthy brands, it should mean that the animal had access to pasture during the entire year. Like with grass-fed, there is no legal requirement as to what this label means. You might see the term “pastured” on gelatin brands. But we can infer that unhealthy cows = less nutritious meat.įurther, a lot of people choose pastured products for moral reasons too because they don’t want to support terrible factory farms. Unfortunately, there isn’t any solid research (that I could find) on how lack of sunlight affects the nutrition of the meat we eat. The cows end up with health problems like rickets and poor immunity. As can be read here and here, this is apparently a big problem. Without access to the outdoors, animals can suffer vitamin D deficiency. Just like humans, cows produce vitamin D in response to sunlight. However, it is a commonly-held belief that pastured meat products will be healthier because, unlike animals which live in cramped feedlots, they won’t be as susceptible to disease from the crowded conditions. Pastured doesn’t really have any proven health benefits (the proven benefits are from eating grass, not from going outdoors). However, there was no definition of how many hours per day they needed to have access, nor any strict definition of “growing season.” Note that the old grass-fed requirements did state that the animal had to have access to pasture during the growing season. Grass-fed also is not the same as pastured. The label has nothing to do with organic because the grass could have been sprayed with pesticides. Grass-fed simply means that the animals have eaten grass and nothing but grass. Or, you have to dig deeper to make sure the company is actually using grass-fed cows for their gelatin. You basically have to trust the company is being truthful when they put the grass-fed label on their gelatin. This is really disappointing news for anyone who cares about food quality. That means the term “grass fed” on products has as much legal weight as terms like “natural” and “free range” – both of which are also not regulated. They said that it was impossible for them to check whether the animal had really been eating just grass its entire life, so they basically gave up on trying to enforce any labeling regulations! Unfortunately, the AMS withdrew this labeling standard in January 2016. The labeling standard also said that the animal must have had continuous access to pasture during the growing season. In order for a product to be labeled grass-fed, the animal must have only eaten grass and only grass for its entire life after it stopped drinking its mother’s milk. According to the Agricultural Marketing Service of the USDA, the term grass-fed is used with ruminant animals such as cows and sheep. You probably have seen the term grass-fed on meat packaging in the supermarket. This is why people seeking to improve their health choose grass-fed gelatin. It has comprehensive information about what gelatin is, its many benefits, and lots of recipes to help you consume more gelatin.īut, as is the case with any superfood, quality matters. Just in case you haven’t heard about how amazing gelatin is yet, you can get my eBook The Gelatin Secret. By now, you have probably heard of the many health benefits of gelatin which range from weight loss to to fighting wrinkles (and much more in between).
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