We are what we eat: Know what’s in your food

By Jesse Granger

Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017 | 2 a.m.

If you are what you eat, does the same go for what your food eats?

Many people believe so. They carefully check what the animals that provide their proteins have ingested and make their choices accordingly.

Studies have shown that both the way animals are fed, and the conditions in which they’re kept, can affect the health benefits for those who consume them.

In January, a semi driving through Wisconsin spilled hundreds of thousands of Skittles onto the roadway. The Skittles were missing the trademark “S” stamp and would have been discarded in a landfill, but were instead purchased by a farmer to feed his cattle.

When droughts led to surging corn prices, farmers looked for cheaper alternatives to get their cattle the starchy sugar content they need.

They’ve used Skittles, Fruit Loops, gummy worms, marshmallows, chocolate and orange peels.

Farmers save 10-50 percent on feed by using alternative, and it reduces the amount of waste. But many argue it’s unhealthy for the cattle and they pass that on to beef consumers.

And cattle aren’t the only livestock fed nontraditional diets. Here are some other foods the animals we eat are eating:

Beef cattle

Farm cattle normally eat “feedstuffs” consisting of roughage, grains, oilseeds and byproducts.

• Roughage, which is mostly just grass and hay, makes up the majority of the diet and provides cows with fiber.

• Grains are important to keep cows’ energy level high, and icnlude corn, barley and oats.

• Oilseeds are high in protein and consist mostly of soybeans and canola meal.

• Fillers in the diet can be made up of distillers’ grains, sweet corn cannery waste, bakery waste, grain screenings and apple pomace, which is the remains of fruit after it’s pressed for juice.

Grass-fed cattle are exactly what the name implies, but their diet isn’t the only reason they are viewed as a healthier option. The fact that the cattle roam the fields eating grass instead of being locked in stalls is also seen as a benefit.

Organically raised cows and other livestock aren’t fed antibiotics. Many farmers feed their animals antibiotics to fight bacteria, parasites and illnesses that can come from cramped, dirty conditions the animals are sometimes kept in.

According to the FDA, approximately 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are fed to farm animals.

Swine

Pigs eat feedstuffs that are similar to what’s fed to cattle. They include corn, wheat, barley, oats, rye, soybeans and peanut meal.

It’s common for pigs to be fed processed food waste from industrial and commercial practices. In Southern Nevada, one of the best examples was R.C. Farms Inc. in North Las Vegas, where for more than 50 years, Bob Combs fed his hungry hogs leftovers from Strip buffets.

Poultry

Chickens obviously have diets significantly different from larger livestock, and get everything they need from the following ingredients.

• Protein: Soybean meal, canola meal, cottonseed meal, meat meal, fish meal

• Energy: Corn, wheat, barley

• Vitamins: Fat soluble (A, D3, E, K), water soluble (B)

• Minerals: Calcium, phosphorus, copper, zinc, manganese, iron, iodine, selenium and sodium

Strange things livestock eat

• Pickles and jalapeños: Whenever a pickle falls to the floor at the pickling plant, it’s repurposed. Everything at the plant, including cucumbers, cabbages, sweet peppers and jalapeños, is reconstituted as food for cattle. And no, the peppers don’t make for spicy milk.

• Ice cream sprinkles: Similar to the Skittles example, a farmer in northern Indiana once used ice cream sprinkles as a sugar supplement for his cows. (source- Reuters)

• Marijuana: Pig farmer Jeremy Gross and Seattle butcher William von Schneidau began feeding marijuana to their pigs in 2013, only to sell their “pot pig” meat for a premium $17 per pound. The meat didn’t get the consumer high, and was only for a flavor infusion. (source- theblaze.com)

• Each other: Perhaps the most disturbing food consumed by livestock is other livestock of the same species. In 1997, the United States Department of Agriculture banned the practice of feeding dead cows to live ones because of mad cow disease. But some farms still feed cows the scrapings of feces, feathers and uneaten chicken feed off the floors of chicken cages. Chicken feed often contains ground-up beef meat and bone meal. In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration required chicken producers to leave bovine brains and spinal cords (which are the main culprits in causing mad cow disease) out of chicken feed, but many believe that’s not enough.

Also, because calves are usually separated from their mother almost immediately after birth so the mother’s milk can be harvested, they are fed a milk replacer made of spray-dried cattle blood.

Labels

• Grass-Fed: Look for a “grass-fed” sticker on beef, dairy and lamb products. It is also sometimes labeled “forage-fed.” Animals that graze on grass instead of grains generally have healthier fats in their meat as well as the milk they produce. It is generally more expensive because grass-fed animals grow slower. Grass-fed is not the same as “pasture-raised,” which only implies the animal spent time in a field.

• Organic: Look for a sticker that says “100% organic” or “USDA organic” when buying meats, fruits, vegetables and more. Unlike grass-fed, organic products are more for the benefit of the animals than the consumer. To meet the organic sticker requirements, animals must have been subject to minimum living requirements and fed no antibiotics. Plants are not allowed to be sprayed with synthetic fertilizers.

• Antibiotic-Free: Look for a sticker that says “Raised without antibiotics” on animal products. They are also sometimes labeled “No antibiotics administered.” Eating the meat from animals given antibiotics can cause people to build up a resistance to the antibiotics themselves. This label doesn’t tell you how the animals were treated — only that they weren’t raised on antibiotics.