How does trimming affect grass-fed beef?
Trimming all separable fat from grass-fed beef drops the percentage of calories from fat to below 20 percent. After 97 days of feeding grain, this figure rises to 31%. (Cook, W., et al., CSU Experiment Station, Bulletin 5795, 1983; Leandere, et al., Journal of Animal Science, 1978, 46, 965-970) For USDA Choice beef it jumps to 47%. (USDA, Composition of Foods: Beef Products, 1986, 8-13) Properly trimmed, grass-fed beef contains less fat and cholesterol than whole chicken. It contains only slightly more fat, and about the same amount of cholesterol, as the white meat of chicken with the skin removed. Some fish is higher in fat (e.g. , halibut and salmon) and some contains as much or more cholesterol (e.g., catfish, pike, and salmon) as well-trimmed grass-fed beef. Three-and-one-half ounces of shrimp contains little fat, but more than twice the cholesterol, and one egg contains more than four times the cholesterol found in a 3.5-ounce serving of well-trimmed, grass-fed beef. USDA, Compos
