6 a day is where I top out as well, but since it’s EVERY day, it’s why I try to keep it as high quality as I can. It’s the slow drip that gets you, haha
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This reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to ask you - are you still pretty strict this way about meat as well? I’ve seen you eat a lot of stuff like corned beef, beef cheek, beef shank, etc and those are pretty rare cuts to be found as grassfed.
Just wanted to edit to say it’s not a judgement thing - I try to be pretty strict about the grassfed beef as well, but I am getting some flavor fatigue due to the fact that there are usually only a few cuts available. Yes you can prep them differently of course, but even that runs low on options eventually.
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@BrandonCrawford very much appreciate the question, and not perceived as judgmental at all. In all cases it’s one of those “if I have the choice, I choose the best” sorta things, such that, if I DID have a choice to buy all those cuts in grassfed, it’s what I’d pick. But I try to document specifically if what I’m eating is grassfed (yeah, “grass finished” is what I mean, but we all get that), and if not noted, it’s most likely grain finished. So the shanks, the ribs, the corned beef, the cheek, etc.
The difference, for me, is that the chicken is monogastric, so when it’s fed a diet of corn and soy, so much of that gets passed onto me when I eat their fats. With the cows being ruminant, they’re better able to process that stuff and not pass as much of it through their fats. Grassfed would still be the superior choice, but I’m less concerned about them than I am the chickens.
Same reason I don’t eat too much pork, despite it being such a cheaper cost. Pigs can get fed some gnarly stuff. That said: we’re doing ham today, haha.
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I keep in mind the total calories and the saturated fats. Adding the egg whites gives me more volume of food with a low caloric investment.. I’ve also been buying eggs from a local meat store instead of the grocery store when I can. They run about $4.50 to $5 per dozen. I don’t get too caught up in how the chickens are raised because you can fudge that pretty bad. Cage free might still mean there are thousands of birds trapped in a barn. Free range means that barn might have one doggy door somewhere and the chickens could go outside but very few find the door. I’m more of an egg yolk color snob. I want that orange yolk. The yolks that match the color of your Homer Avatar don’t have anywhere near the same flavor.
I still haven’t crossed over to grass fed. Partly because of the price and partly because my dad is a huge influence on me and has said the ground beef doesn’t taste as good. I haven’t even sampled it for myself. I try to eat responsibly raised meats but I’d be lying if I said price wasn’t a big factor. I’m looking for sales and price per pound before I buy any beef at the store.
I try not to overdo it, but Dillons/Kroger will mark down their 1 lb marinated pork tenderloin and it’s delicious. You just throw it in the oven while it’s still in the bag and get juicy flavorful pork a few minutes later. I got my last two for $3 each.
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I have hit the jackpot. I have a work friend who sells her farm fresh eggs for $2 per dozen. In the summer I usually end up buying around 20 dozen at a time.
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Like all animals eating their natural diet, this is a “it depends” sorta thing. Like, if you hunt deer here, you can get some fatty deer with marbling in it because it’s been living off of sweet corn, or you could find some scraggly fella that’s been living purely off the land and, in turn, tastes “gamey”. There’s different types of grass cows can live off of and it gives them different flavors. Along with that, the higher concentration of omega 3s can impart a “fishy” flavor to some.
I get piedmontese grassfed beef here and it tastes wonderful and tender, but I’ve also gotten some walmart grassfed beef that tastes pretty bland. I’ve also gotten grassfed lamb from Costco that tastes practically vulgar (in the best way possible), while I got some from Aldi that just SMELLED gamey to the point that I actually carpet bombed it with seasonings before I cooked it to not smell up the house.
This is actually kinda like a peek into processed vs non-processed foods. A lot of kids on the autism spectrum live off processed foods because they’re “safe”. They ALWAYS taste the same with the same texture because they’re manufactured EXACTLY the same way. Cattle raised in a feedlot are in a similar way: a controlled and precise diet that produces a controlled outcome. Grassfed/finished are going to have more variability, similar to how you can eat 2 apples that are the same species but just taste different.
The big thing I like to emphasize is just how weird I am. I’m literally eating ONLY meat and eggs. When you do that, it’s important to be particular about it, because it’s ALL the food going in my body. When you have more of a mixed diet, it’s really not that big of a deal. “The poison is the dose”, and so if you’re eating pork a few times a week on top of a diet that’s rich in other foods, it’s not going to be a big deal, especially since your serving of pork is probably going to be just a few ounces anyway. But if you’re eating it for your ONLY food source, and in quantities of 1-3lbs a day, whatever gnarly stuff in there is going to be an issue.
I honestly think this is where I went “wrong” with plants as well. I was practically vegetarian with how little meat/animal products I was eating, and I was trying to fill the void of my guts with raw veggies and most likely took in a TON of plant toxins in the process. A normal human just eating A potato or a small salad next to a reasonable sized serving of meat could most likely eat that way for life and not run into any real concerns.
I have been a fascinating case study in the impact of extremes in that regard. Similar to finding out just how long one can train 2-3x a day with stupidly high intensities before breaking…or the impact of running 10 miles with no prep, haha.
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My concern with pork is what I saw in the Fed Up documentary where they were on top of each other and had infections/abscesses. That can’t be good for us. I also prefer my food to at least live a non-torcherous life prior to becoming my sustenance.
I feel like cattle check that box until they’re shipped to the feed lots. My dad just purchased half a beef from a local farmer who still uses the same feed, but the cows stay on his land until they’re butchered locally. I’ll probably buy part of that from him but he paid $5.50/lb hanging weight already and will have to pay half the processing, too. His half was is about 395 lbs so he’s already spent over $2k. We used to get everything from the same farmer for about $5-6/lb on the final product, not the hanging weight.
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Yeah, with pigs it’s especially heartbreaking because they’re such a smart animal. Chickens are pretty stupid, haha.
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We watched a documentary about meat processing and they showed a pig and a cow being slaughtered. My oldest hasn’t eaten meat since that day.
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