Grass pasture

By Ethan Whitfield

What Grass-Fed Beef Gives You

I get asked a fair question: is grass-fed beef really better, or is it just a nicer label?

Here is what I know, what the research says, and where I think people oversell it.

Start with what is the same

Protein is protein. A cut of grass-fed beef and the same cut of grain-fed beef carry about the same amount, roughly 23 grams per 100 grams of raw meat. Both are complete proteins, with every essential amino acid your body cannot make.

So if anyone tells you grass-fed beef has more protein, they are selling something.

Where it is different: the fat

What an animal eats shows up in its fat. A 2010 review in Nutrition Journal pulled together three decades of studies comparing the two. It found that grass-fed beef tends to have:

  • More omega-3 fatty acids
  • A lower ratio of omega-6 to omega-3
  • More conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)
  • More of the precursors to vitamins A and E

The same review points out that grass-fed beef is leaner and tastes different. Yellow-tinted fat on grass-finished beef is normal. That color comes from the carotenoids in the grass.

What beef brings no matter how it was raised

Beef is one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat. It is a natural source of iron in the form your body absorbs most easily, along with zinc and vitamin B12, which you will not find naturally in plants.

You can see some of that on our own labels. A BIVI bar provides 15 to 20 percent of your daily iron, from the beef itself. Nothing is added to get there.

Why I chose it anyway

If the protein is the same, why do I pay more for grass-fed, grass-finished beef from certified regenerative ranches?

Three reasons.

  1. The fat. A pemmican bar is beef and tallow. Fat is half the point, so the quality of the fat matters more here than in almost any other food.
  2. The animal. Cattle are built to eat grass. I would rather buy from ranchers who let them.
  3. The land. Well-managed grazing builds soil. I want my money going to ranches that leave the ground better than they found it.

The short version

Grass-fed beef is not magic, and it will not fix a bad diet. It is simply food raised the way it was meant to be, and the difference is real where it counts.

That is the beef in every BIVI bar. Read the labels and see for yourself.

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