around for a while.
Q: Do you mean to tell me that the color of red meat
doesn’t come from blood?
Precisely that. The beef you buy in the supermarket contains
little to no blood, which is drained out immediately after
slaughter. Blood contains a pigment very similar to
oxymyoglobin, called hemoglobin. So, next time your friend
orders his beef “bloody rare,” you can correct him, saying,
“Don’t you mean rare enough that the myoglobin pigment
in the muscle has not yet had a chance to break down?”
Say that, then duck. People who eat bloody-red beef tend
to have anger management issues.
Labels: Natural, Grass-fed, and Organic
Labeling laws in the United States are confusing at the very
least and in many cases worthless. And bear in mind that it’s
not in the best interest of the vast majority of beef producers
to make the labeling any clearer—the less the consumer
knows about how meat gets on their table, the better. The
majority of cattle in this country are raised on pasture for
most of their lives, though when pastured, their diets are
supplemented with corn and other grains. They are almost
all finished for the last few months in high-density feedlots
where they are fed a grain-based (mostly corn and soy) diet
in order to promote the marbling and fattiness we find so
appealing. They are routinely treated with prophylactic
antibiotics, not just to stave off diseases, but also to promote
faster growth. Regular cattle are not particularly happy
animals for the last couple months of their lives.