🎉 Our bone broth tested negative for toxic heavy metals! READ MORE & SEE THE RESULTS.

Why meat from stressed animals tastes worse (and it’s also inhumane).

written by

Cameron Lantzy

posted on

August 9, 2024

Have you ever noticed that some meat tastes way different from a different farm's (or supermarket’s) meat... even when they boast the same farming practices? Why is that? Would it surprise you that the animals' welfare plays a vital role in the meat they produce?

For some of us, this is common knowledge. But many still don’t realize the extent of suffering some animals are put through at the farm where they are raised (if you can even call some of them farms). Let’s look at some common living conditions on conventional farms:

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Imagine the life of these animals... they're ultimately locked up with nowhere to go, fed with the cheapest feed their owner can source. It's pretty far from "natural". They live in a stressed environment every day, but...

The most stressful time for these animals is the slaughterhouse

There are a few reasons why:

  • Transport. Animals like consistency, not travel. The farther and longer they travel on a truck or train, the more stressed they become. Many conventional animals travel days to reach the processor.
  • Being in an unknown environment. When an animal is moved to a new environment, their fight or flight stress response kicks in.
  • Chaotic or rough handling: With beef cattle and pigs, they might be shoved by humans if they need to move to a new yard. With chickens, they might be thrown. And, they often need to shove their way to get food from a trough.
  • Long waiting time: When conventional animals are sent to the processor, they are often kept there for days (or even weeks). Studies show that the longer the animal remains at the processor, they produce lower quality stressed meat than animals quickly slaughtered after arriving.
  • Knowing what's going to happen: At some processors, animals can see other animals being killed. This causes massive stress spikes in the animals. 

Miller's does it all humanely.

At Miller’s Bio Farm, our animals for meat live happily and free on the pasture their whole life. Foraging fresh grass and plants in the summer. While getting dry feed in the colder months when the pasture isn’t flourishing. You can see pictures and read more about our farming practices here.

However, the reality is we still have to kill animals to produce meat. But we aim to keep it as quick and humane as we possibly can. 

Our animals are slaughtered the day they arrive, mitigating the high stress conventional beef or pork would have spending days in a slaughter house. Our processor makes the process low stress and humane by giving the animals room and privacy. Here's what slaughter is like:

  • Beef: Each beef is brought in individually to the slaughter room where they are shot with a bullet, quickly striking them down. 
  • Pork: Each pig is brought in individually. They are quickly stunned with an air gun, instantly rendering them unconscious. 
  • Chicken: They are hung in a cone, which calms them down. Then their throat is slit, instantly killing them.

So what's the science behind meat and stress?

When an animal gets stressed, their adrenaline and cortisol start to rise. Their body (like ours) uses glycogen, a stored energy to create this adrenaline. With low-stress slaughter, this glycogen isn’t depleted. Instead, it’s retained in the muscle meat post slaughter then converted into lactic acid. This is what helps keep the meat low in pH, tender, and more flavorful. 

However when under high stress, the glycogen is used up for hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, raising the pH of the meat and affecting the quality of the meat. When meat has high pH, oxygen cannot diffuse deep into the muscle. Making the meat coarse, retain more water that is lost when cooking, lessen shelf life, and still appear pink even when cooked thoroughly.

Stress affects everyone differently.

And this goes for animals as well. 

Stressed pigs typically makes pork more acidic, pale, and crumbly. This results in what is known in the industry as “pale, soft, exudative” (PSE). Meat that is practically unsellable. Conventional farms tackle this stressed unsellable meat by mixing it into ground meat. Why improve living and slaughtering conditions when you can improve your profits?

As for other meats like beef, high stress meat is usually tough, dry, and acidic. Just like PSE meat it has a much shorter shelf life also. This meat is known as “DFD” (dark, firm, dry). Again, this is a result of glycogen being depleted to fuel the stress state the animal is in. 

However, you can also still get PSE beef and DFD pork, too. An an example, here's what pork in each state looks like.

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You are what you eat.

You’ve probably heard this saying before. When it comes to stressed meat, it’s absolutely true. Studies have shown that the high levels of stress hormones in meat can have a negative effect on humans, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease, impaired immune function, and even cause various forms of cancer! This is the hidden cost of mass produced meat. 

What is most important about your meat? Does the welfare of animals stress you out?

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Sources

*Editing and visual content by Marie Reedell. 

More from the blog

Our bone broth tested negative for heavy metals 🥳 NATURAL AND CLEAN

Over the past few months a bunch of people asked us if we tested our bone broth for toxic heavy metals. When we get the same question a lot, we of course look into it. My first question was --- Is there an issue with toxic metals in bone broth? As it turns out, yes, there "can" be an issue! Heavy metals are naturally present in our environment. We need the "good" heavy metals to thrive: iron, zinc, magnesium, copper, etc. But, we can 100% do without the toxic heavy metals: arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, etc. Too many toxic heavy metals can lead to a host of pretty awful issues: nervous system damage, cardiovascular issues, cancer, endocrine disruption, kidney damage, and so on. Our body is designed to excrete heavy metals through urine (and a little bit through sweat, hair, and breastmilk too)... but only so much. There's a limit. If you're overloaded, your body will store those heavy metals in your bones, blood, tissues, and organs. Similarly, if an animal is exposed to heavy metals via food, water, air, dust, or soil, those heavy metals accumulate in the bones. Maybe the farm's soil or air is contaminated from a nearby factory. Maybe the pipes for the water has lead solder connecting them. Maybe the feed a farm is buying was grown on contaminated soil or processed on contaminated equipment.  And, of course, a main purpose of bone broth is drawing out as much as possible from the bones. If there are heavy metals in bones, they will make their way into the broth. This is especially true when you pre-soak with apple cider vinegar and simmer for 48 hours to make it thick and gelatinous (like our broth). And that led me to my second question --- Should I be concerned about every bone broth? Where is the fear coming from? Well... it seems it might be a little political. There was a study done in the UK in 2013 that scared a lot of people. It's titled "The Risk of Lead Contamination in Bone Broth Diets". This study found high levels of lead in organic chicken bone broth, which is quite concerning. And, in fact, this one study is still cited in articles written today! Let's dig a little deeper. Let's go farther than the short abstract. Here are the broths tested in the study and their test results for lead:  (9.5 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus skin and cartilage(7.01 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus bones(2.3 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus meat(0.89 parts per billion): Tap water alone cooked for the same amount of time as a control. But, they only used organic chicken from one farm. And, there's zero information about that farm, their practices, the feed, and the broth recipe. Did they use vinegar or wine in the broth? Was the chicken's water contaminated with lead? What was the quality of the feed and the soil? Were the chickens raised indoors or outdoors? So many unanswered questions! All we get is that it was one "organic chicken" that created a lead issue with broth. Another curious thing is that the broth with skin and cartilage contained more lead than the broth made with just bones. Bones are where lead is stored, so why wouldn't the broth made with bones only contain more lead? It's an odd result. Moreover, the abstract of the study specifically called out "bone broth diets" like GAPS and paleo. They even go so far as to write, "In view of the dangers of lead consumption to the human body, we recommend that doctors and nutritionists take the risk of lead contamination into consideration when advising patients about bone broth diets." That's quite curious. Why are they worried about these diets? Are the researchers anti healing through food? Who funded the research? Is it political? My opinion? This study is not comprehensive. It does not speak to all bone broths. But it does cover a potential issue if the water or animals are overloaded with heavy metals. What I glean from this study is that we need more research. We don't need fear to spread and people to stop drinking broth from this one study. Regardless of whether the fear was fabricated or legit, we tested our bone broth anyway. After all, it's always nice to validate that your food choices are as clean as you think. For Miller's, here were my concerns before testing: What if there's mercury in the fishmeal in our chicken feed?What if the soil that our animals live on is contaminated?What is the well water that the broth is made with is contaminated?What if the Celtic sea salt has lots of heavy metals? As it turns out, my fears were thankfully unfounded. Our bone broth tested NEGATIVE for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury 🥳 🥳 🥳 You can find the test results right here! You'll notice that, for every sample, the results are "<0.01 mg/kg" and "<0.02 mg/kg".  I asked the lab what the "<" means. They said that it indicates their limit of quantitation (LOQ), the lowest concentration that can be accurately tested using the test procedure in that sample type. So the results simply report that none of the metals tested were found in the sample above the specific reporting LOQs. Whether or not they were present below this LOQ is information that is not provided by the test. It's also important to note that a "mg/kg" is the same as a part per billion (ppb). It means that our broths contain less than 0.02 ppb of arsenic and lead and less than 0.01 ppb of cadmium and mercury. I don't think a lower LOQ is needed. I mean, I think we can say it's basically zero. What about you? For some reference, the EPA says that less than 15 ppb of lead is safe in drinking water. Not saying that I agree, but it's a good reference point.  FYI ---> We also tested our ground beef, and it was negative. Why test ground beef? Because if there was an issue with the broth, I wanted to identify right away if meat was an issue too. We of course do not want to give out food contaminated with toxic heavy metals! We'd take immediate action is that were the case. You know what this also means? Someone asked recently about the fishmeal in our chicken feed. Given that fish nowadays can have high mercury content, they were worried about mercury in our eggs and chicken. Since our fishmeal is made from sardines, a small fish that doesn't have time to accumulate mercury, I wasn't overly concerned.  But now with these results, I'm definitely not concerned about mercury in our chicken products! If it's not in the bones and the broth, then it's pretty safe to say that it's not in the eggs or the meat. Do you worry about toxic metals (or other junk) in your food? Where have your fears stemmed from? I'd love to hear from you. You can comment below (no account required) or contact us 😊 ----- Sources The risk of lead contamination in bone broth dietsBone Broth and Lead Toxicity: Should You Be Concerned?Bone Broth and Lead Contamination: A Very Flawed Study in Medical HypothesesBone Broth, Collagen, and Toxic Metals: A Research Review

If animals eat wheat, does the gluten transfer to the eggs and meat?

We've been getting this question a good amount lately --- If your chickens and pigs eat wheat, which contains gluten, then do your eggs, chicken, and pork contain gluten, too? Super interesting question. I mean, the saying "you are what you eat" holds true to some extent. But... digestion is the opposite of simple. The short answer is --- Gluten in animal feed does NOT transfer to eggs or meat. Eggs are meat are naturally gluten-free. You see, just like you, when an animal eats gluten, the gluten is broken down into amino acids during digestion. Then, those amino acids are reassembled into a variety of things that support life and growth - proteins, hormones, neurotransmitters, etc. We have anecdotal evidence, too. There are many Miller's customers with Celiac disease or gluten sensitivities that handle our eggs, chicken, and pork without any issues. In fact, some say that our eggs and meat are the only they can tolerate - wow! A little caveat --- cross contamination. Here are two scenarios: What if a butcher uses products on meat or surfaces that contain gluten? I mean the list of approved sanitizers is loooong. This isn't a worry with our foods. Our eggs and chicken only ever touch water. And our pork is washed in organic apple cider vinegar.Can gluten be added to foods like sausages or pies or lunchmeat? Yes. Some baking sodas and spice blends contain gluten. And some trace ingredients (that don't need to be on the label) like maltodextrin or modified food starch may contain gluten. This isn't a worry with our foods. We try to keep things as pure as possible. Intolerances and sensitivities can be complicated. Some people react to parts of gluten, not the whole molecule. During digestion, gluten is broken down into peptides in your intestinal tract. Then, those peptides are broken down into amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of life. They're reassembled (with other things like broken down vitamins and minerals) into important stuff that your body needs - proteins, tissue, enzymes, hormones. People with confusing (and sometimes inconsistent) reactions might be having a reaction to a specific peptide or part of a molecule. It might now be the whole molecule that's giving you trouble! That's why many people with gluten sensitivity do fine with sourdough and/or einkorn (in fact, we even have a customer with Celiac disease that loves our sourdough einkorn crackers). Sourdough partially digests the gluten for you and possibly changes the way your body breaks it down. And einkorn is a heritage grain that contains a completely different kind of gluten compared to conventional wheat - gluten AA. There's actually a certain test you can take to give you more info. It's called a Zoomer test. Instead of simply seeing if you're reacting to a whole protein, it sees how your body responds to individual peptides. Neat! Or maybe people aren't reacting to wheat itself. Rather, they're reacting to chemicals sprayed on wheat. Many people with gluten sensitivity go to Europe and eat all the bread. Why is this? Well, maybe it's because glyphosate is banned in Europe. But here in the US, we're still spraying it on conventional wheat to dry it out quickly and get it ready for harvest. It could be that some people are reacting to a chemical on wheat... not the wheat itself. I mean, glyphosate is known for disrupting the gut! This could explain why some people don't do well with some eggs and meat but do just fine with ours. After all, we have the highest natural standards and aim to give you the purest food possible, down to the nitty gritty. What have you experienced? Are you sensitive or allergic to gluten but can handle eggs and meat? How do our eggs and meat feel for you? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required - just start typing) or contact us 😊 ----- Sources Are Eggs From Grain-Fed Chickens Safe to Eat on a Gluten-Free Diet?Zoomers Food Sensitivity Testing 101: Your Path to Food Sensitivity AwarenessIs RoundUp Giving You a Pain in the Gut?