Articles of Health

Is It Safe To Eat?     By Sandy Powers     Westland/Hallmark Meat Company, based in California, issued the largest recall in history: 143 million pounds of ground beef because of E. coli contamination.  Some of the beef was used in school lunch programs, according to the Department of Agriculture. The Kroger Company, an Ohio retailer, recalled “an undetermined amount of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli.”  According to the New York Times, there were 21 recalls of beef related to the deadly strain of E. coli in 2007, compared with eight recalls in 2006.  The year 2008 promises to be the worse year ever.  What is going on?   Today, the non-organic ground beef at the grocery store could come from any number of sources.  Imported beef from all over the world can be added to the American-raised beef that becomes ground beef, and the consumer has no idea where that beef came from or how it was raised.  Large American cattle ranchers send their cattle to feedlots to be fatten before sending to slaughterhouses.  Cattle standing in feedlots, hoof-deep in manure, are fatten with grain, which is an unnatural and unhealthy diet for cattle.  This diet requires the animal to produce extra stomach acids to break down the grain.  The E. coli bacteria become resistant to the extra stomach acids—the birth of the super E. coli bacteria.  When the grain-fed beef is slaughtered, the super E. coli bacteria in its stomach and intestines are often mixed in with the meat during processing.  Our stomach acids are unable to kill off these super E. coli.  The beef must be cooked to a high enough temperature or we risk becoming very ill or worse.   The healthy diet of natural American grass-fed cattle ensures that nature stays in check.  All beef can have E. coli but grass fed beef has less resistant strains of E. coli bacteria.  Organic beef is grass-fed and pasture-raised.  They are cleaner than non-organic beef because they have room to roam in pastures instead of standing in manure all day like feedlot, non-organic beef.   Is it safe to eat?  It is if it’s organic.  Organic beef is, quite simply, back to basics.  The need has never been greater. You can read also order biaxin online