What They Are

Saying proteins are the worker molecules that make possible every activity in your body, is an understatement. Every function in a living cell depends on proteins. Proteins are polymers (clusters) of hundreds of thousands of combinations of 20 or so, smaller units called amino acids. Of the amino acids that the human body requires, 13 are called non-essential because the body can synthesize them. The remaining 9 are known as essential amino acids because they can only be obtained from food.

A protein that does not supply all the essential amino acids is called an incomplete protein. Some food proteins (from grains, fruits and vegetables) are either low or incomplete proteins and require the combination of another plant protein, eaten together (or within a reasonably short, 4 hour period of time,) to form a complete protein.

Proteins are incredibly complex, and the more we learn,the more we realize how vastly complicated they are. There is virtually an endless number of possible protein combinations. And there are endless volumes of books and studies on proteins for you to research if you are so inclined.

What They Do

A partial list of functions includes the growth of human beings from conception to adulthood; every aspect of healing; maintenance of all cells in the body, flesh, bone and hair; blood coagulation; the formation of immune compounds for disease prevention; the regulation of the amounts of fluids in the tissues; the water balance of the blood; the formation of enzymes for digestion; the formation of hormones; and the list could go on and on. And if that's not enough, every protein molecule in the body is continually changing and renewing its structure based on what the body requires.

Where We Get Them

Now that we know how important they are, lets talk about where we get this vital nutrient. Vegetarians can survive by combining various plant forms, but the majority of the population are meat eaters. Our proteins come from animals—cattle, poultry, sheep, goats and a plethora of wild game. Here's where the story gets interesting.

How beneficial is the meat we're eating?

Since the majority of our protein comes from the meat we eat, we naturally expect that meat to provide a healthy source of all the various fats, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients our bodies require, as well as the protein.

What's Happened To Them

Back in the mid-1980s scientists started discovering that grains, grain-based foods, and grain-fed livestock products are the root cause for most if not all of today's major chronic diseases (body failings): Cancer, depression, obesity, allergies, autoimmune diseases such as lupus and arthritis, diabetes, asthma, and more.

But the sad story began years earlier, and we need to go back in history to understand what has happened to our food supply.

Prior to the second World War, almost all American beef ate pasture grass for the duration of their lives. Seventy-five years ago, steers were 4 or 5 years old at slaughter. Following the war, in an effort to speed up bringing beef to the table, ranchers started to fatten cattle with corn. Today, cattle are fattened for slaughter in 14 to 16 months.

In 1973, Sec. of Agriculture Butz under Nixon, not only reversed the policy of paying farmers not to grow food in order to support prices, but began to subsidize production. Naturally, production soared, so new uses had to be found for the excess corn. Fattening cattle with corn accelerated.

What We're Doing Now

Today, the vast majority of cattle spend anywhere from 60-120 days in feedlots being fattened with grain before being slaughtered. You can't take a beef calf from a birth weight of 80 pounds to 1,200 pounds in a little more than a year on grass. It takes enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements and growth hormones.

Cows, sheep, and other grazing animals are endowed with the ability to convert grasses because they are ruminants, which is to say that they possess a rumen, a 45 or so gallon (in the case of cows) fermentation tank in which resident bacteria convert cellulose into protein and fats.

Switching a cow from grass to grain is so disturbing to the animal's digestive system that it can kill the animal if not done gradually and if the animal is not continually fed antibiotics. Designed to forage for their food, we now make them eat grain, primarily corn, in order to fatten them as quickly as possible.

What It's Doing To Us

Reared on corn-fed beef and other artificial substances in almost every food and beverage we ingest, current generations have seen an epidemic increase in diet-related disease; and the situation continues to worsen. The Center for Disease Control now predicts that current first-graders may stand a one in three chance of contracting Type II diabetes.

In "You Are What You Eat," we noted that for 99.5 percent of our time on earth mankind has lived on lean muscle meats, limited fatty organ meats, and wild fruits and vegetables--but, most significantly, not grains, legumes, dairy products, or the very high-fat, grain-fed carcasses of modern domesticated animals.
Studies in the field of "paleopathology" (investigation of health, disease, and death from archaeological study of skeletons) have found that with the start of the grain domestication and agriculture era at the end of the paleolithic period (about 9,000 B.C.,) by the end of the neolithic period in 3,000 B.C. males decreased in height roughly 4-6 inches from 5 feet 9.7 inches to 5 feet 3.5 inches and showed significant signs of disease.
The considerable decrease in stature at this time is thought to have resulted from restricted blood calcium and/or vitamin D, plus insufficient essential amino acid levels, the latter resulting from the reduced consumption of meat at this time (as determined by strontium/calcium ratios in human bone remains). While the diet was adequate in calories, it was barely or less than adequate in minerals from the depleting effects of phytate, (phytates in grains bind minerals and inhibit absorption) which led to a state of low general health.

Why Grains Adversely Affect Us

Phytic acid combines with key minerals, especially calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc and prevents their absorption in the intestinal tract.

When we eat corn-fed meat products, we are subjecting ourselves to the same sorts of negative side effects--phytic acid preventing absorption of key minerals in our systems. But it gets worse. We are ingesting all the antibiotics fed to the cattle to counteract the ill effects of the corn on them which in turn impacts our immune systems. It has been postulated that staph infections in hospitals that are resistant to antibiotics may be the result of such altered immune systems.

What We Need

In addition, the relationship of Omega 6 to Omega 3, both essential fatty acids, should be in the range of 1:1 to 3:1 for our bodies to function properly. Grass-fed beef provides this ideal relationship. Corn-fed beef provides 10 or more times the amount of Omega 6 than our bodies require, helping to create acidic blood, the precursor of almost every illness and disease.

The lack of these minerals. and fatty acids like Omega 3 and other nutrients in our diets, added to the pollutants that now infest our food supply, go a long way toward explaining the prevalence of the diseases and ill health that we all are subject to.

A cooperative project between California State University, Chico College of Agriculture and University of California has brought to light a number of reports that show grass-fed beef products contain elevated concentrations of B-carotene and a-tocopherol, increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a more desirable omega-3:omega-6 ratio, and increased levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), all substances reported to have favorable biological effects on human health. You can read a complete report at "http://www.csuchico.edu/agr/grassfedbeef/mission.html"

Summing It Up

It's not beef that's bad for us; it's corn-fed beef that's bad for us..
Grass-fed beef on the other hand is not only good for us, it provides the proper protein we all need and a number of vital nutrients that are critical to our health. The more grazing meats, including free range chickens (plus the eggs from them) that we can eat, the more our diets will improve and the healthier we will become.

Author's Bio: 

Dick, with an MA from the University of Florida, is a former business professional who now devotes his spare time to researching health issues. He comes from a metaphysical upbringing, and has always had an insatiable curiosity about alternative methods of healing--looking for what makes sense. He does extensive research into what works and why--often from anecdotal evidence, and not necessarily what's been peer reviewed or double-blind tested.