supplying them with the nutrients they need should be top
priority. Still, many will write off all meat as unhealthy, but
to this I say (quoting Carl Sagan): Extraordinary claims
require extraordinary evidence.” Meat and the nutrients it
contains were an essential part of the evolution of our
brains, with evidence of butchery by early humans dating
back more than three million years.^4 Today, we have the
luxury of getting to choose our meals based on ethics, but
our forebears had no such privilege; they would not have
passed up the opportunity for the life-sustaining nutrients
contained in fresh meat. The notion that properly raised
animals, providing a bevy of highly bioavailable nutrients,
are somehow bad for us would be an extraordinary claim,
with little good evidence to back it up.
While I’ll never know if my mom’s lifelong abstinence
from red meat had anything to do with her memory loss or
the bouts of depression she would occasionally suffer
during my childhood, it’s clear that it hadn’t protected her
either.
How to buy: Look for humanely raised 100 percent
grass-fed and grass-finished beef, ideally organic and from
local farms. Note that organic beef, unless it clearly states
“100 percent grass-fed,” is usually from cows fed organic
grain.
Pro tip: Ground grass-fed beef tends to be much more
economical than chops. If access to grass-fed beef is
difficult, mail-order subscription services are a great
alternative. You can find some recommendations at
http://maxl.ug/GFresources.
How to cook: While grass-fed beef has triple the vitamin