Where's the Beef?

There are some of you who are passionate about eating organic and more natural foods. Then there are others who do not see the benefits of eating organic when it costs so much more! I compeletly understand how hard it is to spend those extra dollars on your groceries when you already feel like you are spending alot.  Jarrod and I are shocked every month by how much we spend on groceries which is where the majority of our money goes. But we do have four people eating at home 3 meals a day, so weekly trips to the grocery store are a must for us.
When I first started my organic natural eating kick, I was excited! Then I started noticing again how much cheaper the "regular" stuff was. I started to think is it really worth it? (Even though in the back of my mind, I KNEW it was by all the research I have read) But really I was thinking do I really care or should I just save money?
I have heard the response from people, "Well I never ate organic and I turned out ok?" This stuck with me. Then I had my first experience with why our meat today is already hurting our children! My children!

Let's start with the meat. Cows are supposed to live off of grass and roam around outside. In the past, all beef was grass fed beef, but today what is commercially available in the United States is almost all feedlot corn fed beef. The reason? It's faster, and so more profitable. Seventy years ago, steers were 4 or 5 years old at time of slaughter. Today, they are only 14 or 16 months. You can't take a beef calf from a birth weight of 80 pounds to 1,200 pounds in a little more than a year on grass. It takes enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements, antibiotics and other drugs, including growth hormones. The end result, and this is what ends up on you plate, is corn fed beef full of growth hormones, protein supplements and antibiotics.
From the research that I have done there are so many reasons this is bad for us. But I am going to focus on one. The ANTIBIOTICS. Because these cows are filled with so many antibiotics it means that WE are eating and consuming all of these antibiotics. You may be thinking so what? Well this is why it is scary.
My daughter Lily, got a bacterial infection (a rash) a few months ago. We could not get rid of it so we took her to the doctor, the doctor gave her antibiotics and said that it should clear it right up. It didnt work at all, so we were back at the doctor. Our pediatrician was surprised the antibiotics didnt work. But she said, "you know i keep seeing this over and over with kids. The medicine that I was taught in school would cure things just isnt working in our kids anymore. We (doctors) are having to come up with new things and try different classes and strengths of antibiotics to try and get rid of things. What worked 20 years ago is just not working anymore."
Well I wonder if its because we are consuming so many antibiotics in our food and it is making our bodies immune to the medicine that worked on us 20 years ago.

Here is an article from preventdisease.com

The cattle's digestive systems are designed for grass, not grain. Corn fed beef fatten up quickly. A corn diet makes cattle sick, sometimes fatally. The animals must have antibiotics to stave off illness and infection until they weigh enough to be slaughtered, as well as hormones to promote quick growth. All this saves money for the growers and keeps the price of beef low.

Does that sound healthy to you? Well it's not and our country wants more, bigger, faster. But as always, it comes at a price. I truly believe that we are starting to pay that price now. I could write a 5 page paper on all the health problems that have risen in us in the past 20 years because we dont care about what we eat. We think if they sell it in the grocery store it must be ok right? No. There is alot of big business out there trying to come up with a way to make more money faster and that is their focus, not the quality of what we are eating. 
Bottom line America, spend the extra money and feed your family healthy, grass fed beef, poultry and lamb. You can spend the money on quality food and have a healthy family, or spend the money later in the doctors office, the choice is yours.

http://www.eatwild.com/

http://www.greensburymarket.com