The quality of the meat you eat directly affects your overall health, especially considering the fact that how the animals are raised, what they are fed, and medicine they receive influences their nutritional value. Meaning that if the meat you eat is filled with antibiotics, hormones and have been fed low quality food, you are going to end up with those chemicals and toxins in your system as a result.
Some of the ways to ensure you are receiving meat from a high quality meat supplier is to look that they offer products with the following labels and indicators:
Hormone Free
Hormones are given to animals in order to speed up their growth time so that they are able to be slaughtered sooner. The negative impact of this is that those same hormones end up in your bloodstream when you consume that meat, and of course, can affect your endocrine and hormonal systems. Not only do hormones in meat affect your health, but they actually can influence the taste of the meat. By speeding up the animal’s natural growth process, it in turn yields less tender meat.
Antibiotic Free
It is no shock that the increasing use of hormones in meat is causing humans to witness many cases of resistance to hormones themselves. When we continue to eat meat with low doses of antibiotics on a regular basis, this can eventually lead to antibiotic resistance. Choosing a cleaner source of protein, one raised without the use of antibiotics, is a sign of a higher quality product.
Certified Organic
Organic products are only able to receive this certification by not only refraining from the use of antibiotics, but the actual meat itself cannot contain animal by products, and the animals’ feed must be organic, meaning it cannot consist of genetically modified grains or grown using high levels of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. What is consumed by the animals has a strong correlation with the content of the meat you are eating. Look for meat suppliers that understand that high quality, organic animal feed translates to high quality meat.
Grass Fed Beef
Cattle were intended to eat grass, not corn and other feed kinds of fillers. Grass fed beef has a higher nutritional value than the leading corn fed brands. Shockingly, in corn fed cattle feeds, sawdust and chicken feather are commonly used a feed filler. Thus, it should come as no surprise that grass fed beef contains more balanced levels of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acid, which is needed for heart, skin and brain health. Looking for grass fed is a must when looking for a meat supplier that provides beef products.
Nitrite and Nitrate Free
When it comes to sausages and franks, nitrites and nitrates are a common preservative ingredient, though it does not mean that they are by any means healthy. These preservatives are cheap and low quality, and have actually been shown to increase the risk of heart disease. More premium meat suppliers should provide all natural, nitrite and nitrate free options for the overall health of the consumer.