Recently I watched the movie “Food Inc.” which is a movie about food production in the United States and its impact on our health. I was enlightened to learn about how the meat industry feeds our animals. According to the movie, the way the meat industry feeds cattle has a direct effect on our health.
Today, let’s just talk about beef. Cattle naturally graze on grass. However, that is not what most of the cattle farms are feeding them. Instead they are eating corn. You may wonder, what is so bad about feeding our cattle corn? The answer according to is that corn can lead to eColi and food born illness. When cattle eat corn, an abundance of eColi builds up in their system.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from food borne illnesses.” This is not to say this is entirely due to corn fed cows but why risk it when there is the grass fed option?
The good news is when purchasing Beef for yourself, your children or your school you can look at the label and see if it says "corn fed" or "grass fed". I was very excited to know this information and had the direct experience of checking the easy to read labels at Fresh & Easy.
These are the recommendations for Safe Eating by the World Health Organization:
*Be Food Smart and follow CFI's six safe food practices:
1. Use safe water and food. Know the source of your food. Remember, when in doubt, throw it out! Your health is worth more than the cost of any food.
2. Clean. Wash your hands and clean food preparation surfaces between and after preparing raw foods. Use separate utensils for raw and prepared foods.
3. Separate. Keep raw foods separated from prepared foods to avoid cross contamination - at home and in the grocery store.
4. Cook. To kill pathogens, food must be cooked to the proper temperature. Be sure to use a meat thermometer!
5. Chill. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Don't let food stand for more than 2 hours at room temperature.
6. Report foodborne illness. If you are sickened, seek medical attention, get tested and report your illness to the appropriate public health agencies.