This was an interview with David Getoff , Naturopath, Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Vice President of Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. To read more about David Getoff, click here:
This interview was done by Joan Grinzi, RN, President of Elite Alternatives, Inc.
Q. Some people selling Bison tout that it is low in fat. I thought we weren’t’ supposed to be concerned about low fat in beef but instead be concerned about the quality of fat?
A. I agree entirely. The reason people advertise that their animal products are lower in fat is because they are trying to sell the product to the majority of the population who still believes low fat is good. As far as I am concerned, if the animal is eating as close as possible to what mother nature wanted them to eat, the fats in it would have the correct ratio and in the correct quantity and that’s all that matters. So I don’t favor bison over cow.
Q. If an animal gets an antibiotic, isn’t it gone by the time they butchered?
A. It depends on when they last received the antibiotic, but to me the question is why did they receive antibiotics to begin with? Animals are treated with antibiotics because they are sick. If they were fed correctly they wouldn’t be getting sick. They also put antibiotics in their feed to prevent them from getting sick when they are treated with hormones to make them grow faster. Then the antibiotics end up in our bodies when we eat that beef.
Q. Is omega 6 fat bad for you?
A. The only fats that are bad for you are unnatural fats, so Trans fats and hydrogenated oils are all bad. Any naturally occurring fat that occurs in animal products isn’t bad. What matters is the ratio of the fats which determine our ability to utilize it. If we get way too much of one fat and way too little of another, the ratio that we are consuming is not a healthy ratio and can cause a health problem, but not because one of the fats is bad. When people say that HDL is the good cholesterol and LDL is the bad cholesterol, you can’t call LDL a bad cholesterol because if you didn’t have any you’d be dead! It is important to be concerned about the ratio of fats that are most healthy for us to consume.
Q. I heard that grain fattens beef up and changes their good fats to bad fats.
A. Again, it’s not that the fat is a good fat or bad fat, but it is in the altering of the ratio of the different fats that happens in grain fed beef that turn it into a less healthy fat.
Q. How does growth hormone in beef affect the human body?
A. When you bring hormones into the body, those hormones affect us. It is believed that large amounts of hormones from animals, plastics, pesticides, and herbicides appears to make children get to puberty much faster which interferes with the way they are supposed to grow. This can increase their chances of hormone related cancers.
