A Cow Story

Quick, picture a cow in your mind…what do you see? If you’re like most people, you’ll picture a cow contentedly grazing in an endless expanse of green grass. 
Cows have eaten grass ever since the first cows walked the face of the Earth. This is because they are ruminants. Ruminants eat GRASS. Their digestive systems are designed specifically to digest GRASS.
What happens when you feed a ruminant grains? They gain weight really fast. That’s also what happens when you eat a lot of grains. The problem with a ruminant eating grains is that it makes them sick and quite bloated. So bloated in fact that a hose must be put down their esophagus to relieve the pressure or the cow will die. Of course this causes some amount of stress on the poor cow. The cow also becomes much more prone to disease. Stress and incorrect diet have a tendency to do that. So now we have a fat, miserable, sickly cow who is then given massive amounts of antibiotics just to keep it alive until it can get to the slaughterhouse. Millions of pounds of antibiotics are added to animal feed in the US every year. Animals get more antibiotics than people, and people get a LOT.
An interesting thing about these antibiotics is that they a) screw up the animals intestinal flora, and b) cause antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria to flourish. Even more interesting is that they do the same thing to YOU.
This here picture is of a typical feedlot. These animals are crowded together, fed corn and other far grosser stuff like chicken litter (feces, feathers and bedding) blood, ground up pigs and chickens and of course “downed” animals (just guess), supplemented with antibiotics, and possibly artificial growth hormones.
Corn also causes the rumen to become unnaturally acidic which causes all kinds of problems including diarrhea, bloat, ulcers, liver disease, and weakening of the immune system that leaves the cow vulnerable to other diseases. As the acids cause deterioration of the rumen wall, bacteria enter the bloodstream and collect in the liver causing abcesses.
A corn-fed cow also has a new, acidic environment in its digestive track, unlike the alkaline environment of the grass-fed cow (its natural diet, remember?) Guess what grows well in this acidic environment?
If you guessed:
Escherichia coli 0157 (thats the one that can make people really sick or even dead)
and who wouldn’t …. ? You guessed correctly!!! Oh and there are a few more problems with corn-fed cows::
Measurable amounts of estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengesterol acetate, all hormones, are found in meat!
These chemicals do not biodegrade, they simply stay around forever causing proven sexual abnormalities in animals and humans.
OK while we’re on a roll here let’s a look at fat. Specifically the fat from a corn-fed versus a grass-fed cow.
Grass-fed cows produce 300 to 400% more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a natural and very beneficial fatty acid which your body requires for many purposes, one of which is to fight inflammation. Corn-fed cows on the other hand have insignificant levels of CLA but high levels of omega-3 fat, which promotes heart disease.
Another consideration is the source of the corn, which is quite often GENETICALLY MODIFIED. I will be writing a post on this lovely worldwide experiment/disaster in the near future. It will be my adventure into the ‘horror” genre of writing and it won’t even be fiction! You might just want to switch over to organic and grass-fed now…
Do you know how much of your supermarket meat is treated with carbon monoxide? Probably not, they don’t exactly display this information prominently. Or at all. I think they forget to tell you about the irradiation too. This is to keep filthy meat from sickly cows nice and sort of sterile. Did I mention growth hormones?
All of this pertains to pigs, chickens, turkeys etc, and you can watch the following video (if you can stomach it) to give you some idea of not only the filth and poisons you are ingesting with your meat, but the cruelty involved in the promotion of feedlot animals.
OK, I am not trying to discourage anyone from eating meat, although most of us could cut down. Everybody must make their own personal choices here. I do eat some meat, lots of farm fresh eggs, and I drink only raw milk from grass-fed cows. The thing is, you want to get your meat, eggs, and dairy (milk, ice cream, cheese, etc) from FREE ROAMING GRASS-FED animals. Well in the case of poultry they do eat bugs and some seeds and grain. LETS BOYCOTT THE FILTH, CRUELTY AND TOXINS FROM FEEDLOT ANIMALS. Here are some good books to read:
Fish, Meat and Poultry: Dangers in our Food Supply
Here is where you can get meats from grass-fed animals: Bon Apetit!
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"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday,
and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow:
Our life is the creation of our mind." ~Buddha










June 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Thanks for posting the facts. Hopefully many will take the time to read it.
Jackies last blog post..Super Fruit - Avocado
June 24th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Great post. You have a lot of great information there and as Jackie said I hope others take a moment to read it and think about things.
I’m in Canada and I’m 99% sure that practice of regularly giving antibiotics to livestock is illegal. That’s not to say that the way livestock is fed or kept is perfect …
Overall I’m not much of a meat eater but when I do buy meat I try to buy grass/grain fed organic meats.
Tricias last blog post..Midnight and her smell fests
June 29th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Fabulous post.
We eat mainly vegetarian, but the occasional meat we do eat is local, hormone free and grass-fed.
Could I please have your permission to link to this post on my blog? You’ve done such a great job, I’d like my readers to read it!
Anitas last blog post..Coming back together…
June 29th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Sure you have my permission! Thanks for asking and also leaving a comment, I appreciate it!
June 29th, 2008 at 3:41 am
That was a very informative post. Kinda made me sick. Now I know I am going to lose weight, because I don’t want to eat!!!
June 29th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Awww Spicy Bug, there’s still lot’s of stuff to eat! it takes time and it’s really confusing to change the way you eat, but once you’re used to it it’s easy!
You need to be healthy and full of energy to take care of the little bugz!
June 30th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I am SO very glad you wrote about the hormones and other man-made’s they put into livestock. I try to tell people this and they think I’m “new-age” or “soft” or something. This is one reason - just one - that I prefer soymilk to cow milk. Yes there is organic cow milk but…organic soy is my preference these days. Thanks again for bringing this to attention!
PS. Wrote a personal thank-you for the bestowance of Arte Y Pico and thought you might like to see it.
Samsaras last blog post..Winning the Arte Y Pico Award - Four Times!
June 30th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Thanks for your comment! I would be careful with the soymilk though, I’ll be doing more research on this and writing a post, soy is high in estrogen, and soymilk is highly processed and refined, also contains phytates which inhibit the absorbtion of nutrients. It’s still better than regular milk. Organic cow milk is still pastuerized and homogenized which destroys any health benefits it has. The milk I get is from happy grass-eating cows, it’s raw and has all the lifegiving enzymes, good bacteria, beneficial fats, and nutrients that build healthy bodies. I especially need it cause I have only half my intestines (long story) and it is perfect nutrition. More on this subject in the future too!
Stay healthy!
June 30th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Oh gosh, I just went to your blog, THANKS so much!! Wow I can’t believe you wrote that whole long post, it was so nice. And of course i went to the other sites (I go to Susan’s anyway) and yeah I do know what you mean, people just look at me like I’m the crazy lady when I talk about this stuff…I guess that’s why I blog!! I can yap forever about all this stuff that I’m passionate about!
July 1st, 2008 at 2:51 am
[...] Attraction, The Secret, manifesting, and health issues as well. For example, did you know about the stuff they put into cows? I am glad she’s saying it. I seem to tell my relatives and friends and they don’t [...]