Phytonutrients In Beef?

According to WebMD, plants “contain thousands of natural chemicals called “phytonutrients” or phytochemicals. “Phyto” refers to the Greek word for plant.” We are interested in these plant compounds because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in the plants, AND these effects when transferred to animals and humans, that consume plants. Studies show that phytochemicals provide benefits in preventing and managing human chronic diseases.

Many of the chronic issues our culture is currently experiencing come from inflammation within our bodies. The number one thing we recommend is that you reduce your exposure to environmental and diet-related inflammatory toxins. The agriculture policy of the USA for the past 100 years has focused on yield. This has resulted in food with lower vitamins, minerals, and phytochemical richness (nutritional attributes were sacrificed as we selected and managed for yield). In many cases, our food also carries toxic pesticide residue. After lowering your exposure to toxins, you must seek out phytonutrient rich food that can further improve metabolic health with anti-inflammatory effects.

How to determine nutritious food

Luckily we all carry a sensor, called a tongue, that can tell us if the food item we are consuming is nutritious, that is, if it is a “whole food” item. In nature, nutrition allows follows flavor. If it is a flavorful food, it is well balanced with vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. The phytochemicals in whole foods also help limit how much we can eat of a particular food item. If the so-called food item has been processed, especially if the item is shelf stable, don’t trust your tongue! Food manufacturers have exploited our natural abilities to discern food items by using artificial flavoring and eliminating any satiating effect of food. This is why you can’t stop eating until the bag of chips is gone!

So we should all eat more plants?

There are definite benefits of obtaining phytonutrients directly from consuming plants, but that does come with some risks. Plants also use these compounds to protect themselves from being eaten! As noted above, phytochemicals limit how much we can consume of a plant. Here is where herbivores, such as beef and lamb, can be of great help. Even herbivores can be regulated by how much of a specific plant they can consume, but overall, since they only consume plants, these animals “up-cycle” phytochemicals in their meat. Let the animals do the heavy lifting for us by doing the thing they are designed by God to do, eat plants!

If you are interested in the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits of plant phytonutrients, then what your beef ate, matters. Work completed by Dr. Stephan Van Vliet, Fred Provenza, and Scott Kronberg documents that phytochemical richness of beef is higher from cattle finished on diverse pastures compared to beef finished in a feedlot. Their work also found that cattle finished with access to higher plant diversity, >8 plant species, results in a better Omega 6:3 profile. This confirms the past 10 years of testing Omega 6:3 ratio of the pasture beef raised here at DS Family Farm. If you want to get the benefits of plant phytochemicals in your diet without the negative side effects of eating plants directly, eat beef raised by a farmer on diverse pastures. This is whole food that you can trust.

In the chart below we share the results for the “Terpenes” portion of the BioNutrient Institute Beef study that DS Family Farm participated with. The study includes 287 Grass-fed beef samples and 97 Grain-fed beef samples. The average for DS Family Farm is based on three ribeye steaks submitted for analysis. To explore the data for all beef samples, visit the Nutrient Density in Beef Data Dashboard at Edacious.

The table below lists some of the recognized or potential health benefits of Terpenes.