Grassfed Has A Far Better Story To Tell Than Organics CLA Researchers Says
The Stockman Grass Farmer - Special Sample Edition
Staff Report Page 28
Clay City, Indiana: Dr. Tilak Dhiman of Utah State University speaking at the American Grassfed Association’s convention said that American organic food sales have grown from $7.5 billion in 2001 to $18.4 billion in 2005 and are projected to reach $23 billion in 2007.
“Currently, the organic food section is the most profitable section in today’s supermarket. Even Wal-Mart is bringing out an organic food line,” he said. “And yet, this is happening without any conclusive research that organic food is healthier for you. We have a far stronger and better researched story in grassfed products.”
Some of grassfed’s benefits in comparison with the grainfed product are:
- 500% more CLA
- 400% more Vitamin A
- 300% more Vitamin E
- 75% more omega-3
- 78% more Beta-carotene
In animal studies, 11 out of 11 had found CLA decreases cancer. Four out of five have found a decrease in body fat. Two out of two have found a decrease in heart disease. Six out of six have found increased immunity to disease. Two out of two have found increased bone density. And three out of three have found a decrease in adult diabetes.
While artificial CLA is now available in a pill form, natural CLA from animal products is 600% more effective in fighting cancer. “This is a much more exciting story than organic food products have to tell.”
He said he was not denigrating organics as personally he would like his meat and milk to be both organic and grassfed. “An organic 100% grassfed product would be the ultimate in healthy eating.” He said these health findings should benefit grass-based farmers and ranchers the most.
“CLA in a ruminant product increases linearly with the increase in fresh pasture consumption,” he said. “In milk it takes 25 days on pasture to get to the maximum level but only five days for this level to collapse when the animal is removed from pasture.” This recovery time is much slower in meat products. Current research indicates that the CLA in an animal that is ever fed grain never fully equals one fed no grain at all. Animals that were fed small amounts of grain in their stocker stage and then finished on pasture alone had less than half the CLA of cattle completely grown from weaning to harvest on grass.
Dhiman said feeding an animal hay or wilted silage would decrease the CLA by one-third and green chop by 10%. He said what created CLA was the highly volatile fatty acids in the grass that are quickly lost due to wilting. Also fine chopping hay or silage decreases the CLA even further. Feeding a ruminant animal fat also decreases CLA content. He said the best way to increase the CLA content in meat and milk was to add a legume. “Clovers increase CLA content by 30% over straight grass pastures.”
Breeds have an influence as well. The Brown Swiss produces the most amount of CLA in Dhiman’s studies. This is some 40% more than the Holstein. He said the CLA is found within the animal’s fat. Breeds that produce high-fat content milk and fatten easily on pasture are the breeds needed for high CLA products.
Supplements can also increase the CLA in milk. Dhiman said fish oil has the greatest positive effect but plant oils such as soybean oil are also effective. He said to remember that the benefit is in the oil of the plant and not the meal. Full-fat, roasted soybeans and extruded soybean meal are far better than meals with the oils completely removed.
“It is far easier to increase the CLA content in milk than in beef. We have found no CLA benefit in feeding oils to beef cattle.” He said the reluctance of most dairy producers to go to 100% grass feeding was unfortunate because cheese and butter offered the fastest way to dramatically increase the CLA content of the consumer’s diet. He said a serving of 100% grassfed cheese contained 212 mgs of CLA versus only 70mg in a serving of 100% grassfed beef..
To make this health food story even better, he said recent research has discovered a new fatty acid called Trans-vaccinic Acid or TVA. Human digestion can convert about 20% of this TVA to CLA. This gives grassfed products an even further advantage because TVA has been found to increase linearly with the increase in pasture consumption just like CLA. “The more we research grassfed products the bigger the (health) advantages to grass feeding gets,” he said.
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