Clearing Up Food Myths
Is juice all that good for you? Does grass-fed beef taste better than conventionally raised beef? Is arugula all that special? The short answers: "No, no, and no." For further explanations to these questions and more head to New York Times blog Room for Debate where six people from different parts of the food community clear up common food myths. [via Kottke]
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13 Comments:
I found your article teaser to be very misleading regarding grass-fed beef. Mr Ozersky expresses distaste for grass-fed beef in vague, unsupported terms: "Most grass-fed beef tastes worse than its corn-fed rivals. It tends to be dry, chewy, flavorless and has no more marbling than a block of tofu." I'll pretend he threw in "in my experience", and fully expect that his experience is broader than mine. My own experience with Australian grass-fed beef is markedly different. He also offers the qualified statement that, because so much grass-fed beef is from South America, "Depending on where it comes from, [it] may not be better for the environment." I'd like to think we can most of us agree that rainforest beef is to be avoided. Serious eaters should be serious about the provenance of their food.
What Ozersky does not address, though, is whether grass-fed beef is better for the eater, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the higher proportion of omega-3 fatty acids and lower saturated fat content make it likely to be healthier food than the oddity that is corn-fed beef.
See Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food for more information.
fpccraig at 8:03PM on 03/25/09
and better for the cow.
spartana07 at 8:41PM on 03/25/09
Ditto. I was intrigued by the provocative statement regarding grass-fed beef, only to find the teaser completely misleading.
bialy at 8:58PM on 03/25/09
@everyone: I changed it to "taste" if that clears things up. By saying "better" though, I didn't mean for it to be taken as "healthier." I purposefully made it broad because Josh touches upon its taste, environmental impact, and general praise without really delving much into any one of those aspects. His answer...doesn't say much, really, besides that he prefers corn fed over grass.
The whole New York Times article, on that note, does not delve deeply into any subject (not that that was its aim, I guess) and any one of those "myths," especially the beef one, could use further research. Perhaps a better way to summarize it would've been: "Does Barry M. Popkin think juice all that good for you? Does Josh Ozersky think grass-fed beef tastes better than conventionally raised beef? Does David Kamp think arugula is all that special?"
roboppy at 11:29PM on 03/25/09
flavorless? Really Ozersky? I've dined on grass fed beef for quite some time and to me it packs way more beefy flavor than greasy mushy corn-fed beef.
Asado at 8:57AM on 03/26/09
Thanks for telling me what tastes good. I guess I misremember enjoying all those grass-fed burgers. And I guess all that hype about Kobe beef must be empty hype.
And I appreciate knowing that it's better for the environment to jam cows into barns and force-feed them unnatural foods so they can create unusable manure.
Oh, how complex the world is!
NickP at 10:32AM on 03/26/09
Seriously.
simon at 10:58AM on 03/26/09
@NickP - most Kobe beef is grain fed and given even less room to move than a standard grain fed cow. That's how they get all their marbling and become more tender.
Environmental issues aside, when it comes down to taste, it's a matter of opinion. If you like your beef fatty and tender, you prefer grain-fed. If you like your beef a little more "wild" and gamey tasting, leaner, and chewier (not necessarily a bad thing), then you probably prefer grass-fed. I like both at different times, depending on the preparation. I'm not much of a steak person - the one preparation where grain-fed beef's tenderness and fattiness really shines - so I more often than not prefer grass-fed.
Burgers are a great example of where using grass-fed beef is an advantage, because you can add back as much fat to it as you like - best of both worlds. Kobe beef burgers, on the other hand, are an odd concept. What's the point of having all that marbling and tenderness in the meat if you're exposing it to a process (grinding) that will render even the toughest cut of meat tender anyhow? I'm glad to see less and less Kobe burgers on menus - it was all just marketing based on the name.
Seeing as Mr. Ozersky is generally quite astute on such matters, I can only guess that he was misquoted or not fully quoted.
GoodEaterKenji at 11:08AM on 03/26/09
Cows are ruminants, that is, they are supposed to eat GRASS. Feeding animals corn, bone meal and the ground-up scraps (including brain and spinal cords) of other ruminants requires massive amounts of antibiotics and is the direct cause of bovine spongiform encephilitis (mad cow disease) infecting humans.
Taste aside, these creatures were not meant to eat anything but grass and forage. As a meat eater, I find it nonsensical that Josh Ozersky would damn grass-fed meat based on its lack of "marbling".
FeliciasMealTicket at 11:40AM on 03/26/09
Not to mention e.coli which is much more common, and a direct result of eating foods their digestive systems are not meant to handle. Of all the articles in that post, Mr Ozersky's is the most subjective, and frankly, as accomplished and distinguished an eater he is, I don't need him to tell me what I think is more delicious.
simon at 11:44AM on 03/26/09
Yeah that article has some conceptual flaws, probably not the fault of the authors. While I guess it's a "myth" if people believe that colored plants always have more vitamins, but the pigments do contain unique phytochemicals -- antioxidants and such that didn't achieve "vitamin" status during the micronutrient classification craze of the early 20th century. So it's still prudent to work some red cabbage into your diet and not just eat celery.
As usual the best advice is to eat a varied diet of minimally processed foods. The real myth is the nutritionist approach to the human diet as a finite collection of macro- and micronutrients that we can somehow isolate and enumerate (and ultimately market as products).
hsawtelle at 1:36PM on 03/26/09
I definitely think grass fed beef tastes much Earthier than conventional beef, in other words it tastes like ground and dirt. It might just be something to get used to but in all honesty, I didn't love the taste initially. But, I interviewed Bill Kurtis about his grass fed beef ranch and his dedication to the cause made me want to reconsider.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 3:47PM on 03/26/09
Grass fed beef will have a flavor influenced by forage. I have eaten grass fed beef from areas where the animals ate wild onions,and the meat tasted of onions. Tenderness and flavor depend on the grading of the meat, the vast majority of grass fed beef is ungraded. THis is due to the expense involved in grading, as well as the fact that most grass fed animals are not marbeled well enough to get a decent grading. If your only experience is USDA Choice or better, you have no clue of the realities of grass fed beef flavor and texture. By the way, the USDA does not allow animal tissue in cattle feed as it is a channel for developing BSE..
Meat guy at 8:19AM on 03/27/09