A lot of people don’t eat meat for all sorts of reasons. You know why: their health, the environment, they don’t want to eat animals, just doin’ the right thing for the planet. I’ve gone through times in my life where I didn’t eat meat. Now I do again. The more I learn about health care, the more certain I am that as I go forward eating meat and preparing it for my family, I can use science to guide me to do it in smarter ways.
Being smarter about how we eat meat makes sense. This includes not consuming nitrates (cancer risk) and preservatives when we don’t have to, but also choosing meat raised without unnecessary antibiotics. Smarter meat-eating involves creating a demand for meat that’s safer for us and the population. Antibiotics used to raise animals for meat production aren’t always in our best interest, health-wise.
Animal agriculture uses 4x the amount of antibiotics as human medicine, so buying meat not raised with antibiotics is without a doubt a way towards a safer world where antibiotics can be reserved for use in helping us. Antibiotics aren’t used when raising farm animals to make the meat on your kitchen counter safer — raw or undercooked meat is still a biohazard, even if raised with lots of antibiotics — you can still get an infection from meat raised with antibiotics. Antibiotics are often used to raise animals in crowded or less ideal conditions to help prevent them from getting infections. The more antibiotics we use anywhere, the the more we’ll see resistant bacteria everywhere. So reducing demand for meat/animals raised in conditions demanding more antibiotics is a good thing. Moving forward, I’m raising my hand to eat meat (whenever possible) not raised with unnecessary antibiotics.*
Over the weekend I was at a large whole-sale store and I bought this meat. I think this is the kind to buy. Help me make sure I did this right, leave me comments below.
Resources
- EWG’s Dirty Dozen Guide to Food Additives
- Seattle Mama Doc Blogs on Antimicrobial Stewardship
- CDC On Antibiotics
- HealthyChildren- Using Antibiotics
- HealthyChildren – Probiotics
*This sentence was edited on 11.16.17 for clarity to reflect my intention based on comments I’ve received. I am doing a deeper dive on manufacturing and antibiotic-free labeling practices.
hillary barbour says
Yes-Teton waters is the real deal. Thank you for your post-this issue is critical. If we can shift consumers to support ABF/hormone free producers that are committed to humane animal welfare and soil restoration, we can help agriculture be a solution for sustaining life in a rapidly warming planet.
Jackie Wilburn says
Hey Seattle Mama Doc! Are you sure about your advice regarding antibiotic-free meat? It’s my understanding that NO meat available for sale is allowed to have antibiotics in it (that “antibiotic-free” on a label is just a marketing term) and that antibiotics are used only therapeutically, not for growth, and of course we want sick animals to be treated. A better strategy to reduce the problem of antibiotic resistance through our diet might be to eat less meat in general.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Jackie, I like how you’re thinking. I think you’re right that eating less, and eating smarter as two approaches we can and should take. The use of antibiotics to treat disease in animals is not what contributes to the huge amount of antibiotics used in raising animals for meat, as I understand it. It’s the antibiotics that are used prophylactically when animals raised in certain ways, and for growth promotion, that we want to get rid of more and more over time in hopes that it doesn’t continue to allow for more and more bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics to populate our environment, etc.
Kristen Christy says
We buy our beef grass-finished, antibiotic-free, hormone-free from a local rancher, so I’m confident it is as says. Typically, out here in cattle country, pastured cattle are administered antibiotics periodically, and definitely before they’re shipped to the feedlots for fattening up on corn/grain, which many people believe improves the flavor of the meat. This keeps the cows from developing pneumonia and other diseases common to such crowded feeding areas. (Cows that haven’t been administered antibiotics prior face a high risk of disease and death. You’re not doing the animals or the planet any favors by eating antibiotic-free beef from a feedlot.)
So if you’re looking for antibiotic-free beef, make sure it’s also pasture-raised and grass-finished (it might say “grass-fed,” but technically this can mean grass-fed up until the feedlot). I’ve also read that New Zealand’s standards are much, much, higher than ours, and that beef (or organs, bone morrow, etc.) purchased from New Zealand is very healthy (and the imported stuff is most likely truly antibiotic-free).
Jackie Wilburn says
Thank you for your quick response! This topic is confusing to me. I thought that antibiotics could be used therapeutically and prophylactically but not for growth production. And what label terminology is reliable? For example, “antibotic-free” is misleading because it’s all antibiotic-free when it’s at the grocery store. The label above says they never give antibiotics to their cattle, but what happens when those cattle are sick?
Jackie Wilburn says
I meant to say growth promotion, not production.
Christina Riley says
I wonder if you could also touch on the social inequalities of access and availability of antibiotic free or hormone free meat. While I’m sure a lot (all?) parents would want to provide this alternative for their children, often cost and availability prohibit a caregiver’s ability to do so. When faced with little funds to feed your kids, parents often have to make the choice for what is less healthy vs. not feeding enough to their children. I like your idealism, but it also seems a bit of an elitist ideal. Perhaps in a future blog you can explore ways companies and communities can come together to increase access and affordability to hormone and antibiotic free meat to lower income and underserved communities.