But What Did the Cow Have for Lunch?

[Moen Creek]

Title: But What Did the Cow Have for Lunch?

But What Did the Cow Have for Lunch?

                                                       By John O'Neil

                                                       Maybe the problem in the modern diet isn't the amount of meat we eat,
                                                       but the diet of the animals whose meat we're eating, according to two
                                                       studies based on research comparing current diets with those of
                                                       Paleolithic man.

                                                       Wild animals not only have less total fat than livestock fed on grain, but
                                                       more of their fat is of a kind (omega-3) thought to be good for cardiac
                                                       health, and less of a kind (omega-6) that promotes heart disease, said
                                                       the studies, published in the March issue of The European Journal of
                                                       Clinical Nutrition. Many of the same benefits were found in grass-fed
                                                       livestock, also known as free range.

                                                       The lead author of the studies, Dr. Loren Cordain of Colorado State
                                                       University, was part of a group of researchers who drew attention in 1985
                                                       by their suggestion that Americans could benefit from imitating the diets
                                                       of modern-day hunter-gatherer tribes. Then, they described that diet as
                                                       low in protein.

                                                       But in an interview, Dr. Cordain said that the group later discovered that
                                                       the dietary data had been compiled incorrectly and that about two-thirds
                                                       of hunter-gatherers' calories came from animals.

                                                       To try to reconcile this finding with the low rates of heart disease in such
                                                       societies, they compared the fat found in game animals to grass-fed and
                                                       grain-fed livestock. What they found, said Dr. Cordain, is that "we need to
                                                       get back to the character of wild meat."

                                                       "You can still eat meat and be healthful," said Dr. Cordain, if what you eat
                                                       fed itself the old-fashioned way.

                                                       New York Times February 19, 2002