According to latest news reports, American beef may be widely contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria. Recent scientific research has pointed to evidence that almost half the meat samples tested, 47%, showed evidence of staph-infection-causing Staphylococcus aureus, and more than half were resistant to common antibiotics. Besides beef, the researchers tested chicken, pork and turkey, all purchased from grocery stores. Does this mean that grass-fed organic beef, along with other organic meat, which are not fed antibiotics, is safer?
Scientist responsible for the study hypothesized that this widespread contamination is most likely due to how the animals are raised. Healthy meat animals in the U.S. and Canada are most commonly fed antibiotics throughout their lives to prevent disease and promote growth. But, such practices have contributed to the rise of drug-resistant pathogens. Last year, the FDA urged the meat industry to cut back on the use of antibiotics in feed lots and stockyards where animals are held in huge numbers, sometimes for several months, to fatten them for market. Routinely using massive doses of antibiotics on meat animals makes the drugs less effective on the humans who consume the antibiotic-laced meat.
Since the meat industry does not appear ready to change anytime soon, the solution appears to be grass-fed, organic beef along with organic chicken, pork and turkey. These animals are never fed antibiotics. Studies in Denmark and Canada have shown that taking antibiotics out of animal feed vastly reduces the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria with no ill effects for either the animals or the ranchers. Organically is the safest and the healthiest way to raise meat.
About 11,000 people a year die from S. aureus according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. More than half those deaths come from the hospital "super-bug", methicillin-resistant S. aureus, the dreaded MRSA. MRSA has no known cure. It could well be that this pathogen comes from the meat supply. Eating only grass-fed, organic beef and other organic meats would solve this problem.
Public safety spokespeople are suggesting that consumers be extremely careful in the preparation of supermarket meat. Consumers who want to avoid staph infections must cook the meat thoroughly and wash off all other foods and surfaces with which it comes in contact. Using bleach or hydrogen peroxide on these surfaces is another good idea. Consumers might also wear gloves when handling raw meat. All these precautions are not necessary when preparing grass-fed organic beef which also tastes much better.
So far, the meat industry has responded by simply declaring that the meat supply is safe, but indications do point otherwise. The so-called cost-efficient practices of lacing animal feed with antibiotics in the absence of disease as well as herding vast numbers of animals from different ranches together on feedlots is actually very expensive. The cost in lives, hospital stays and the degenerating healthy of consumers seems too high a price to pay. Far better for consumers to purchase grass-fed organic beef at a slightly higher price. Not only does grass-fed organic beef taste much better, but it contains the same amounts of GLA found in wild salmon.
Diane Butler, a writer living in Southern California, is very concerned about the food supply, especially our contaminated meat supply which can so easily be corrected by changing how we raise our animals. Grass-fed is certainly the way to go. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Diane_Butler |
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