So I hardly ever eat beef because of it's high omega 6 content, but I love it and when I do eat it I buy local free range grass fed beef, so I was happy to find out recently that when beef is grass raised it's actually high in Omega 3's, not 6's.
Factory farmed beef is high in Omega 6's because it's fed corn in concentrated animal feeding operations, instead of grazing on field grass and clover. Cows stomachs don't produce digestive enzymes like ours do, and almost all their digesting is done by bacteria in their stomachs (cow probiotics). Because cows do not digest corn well (because corn is not a part of their natural diet), feeding them corn leads to all sorts of health problems, so antibiotics are added to the feed (55% of all antibiotics used are in animal feed). Another reason antibiotics is added to the cow feed is for some reason it makes the animal grow slightly larger. Of course the antibiotics kill the cow's probiotics so more health problems ensue and so on. By the time the cow is butchered it is usually quite sickly because of it's unhealthy living conditions in the CAFO. Not only that, but the meat and milk from these animals may also contain traces of the antibiotics.
Biologic scientists can actually look at CAFO raised beef under a microscope and tell it was fed corn. I can't remember exactly how that works, but it's something about an extra (4th I think) molecule. People develop the same thing when they have a lot of corn in their diets. You would assume cultures which use a lot of corn, like Mexican, would show higher corn consumption but it's actually Americans and Canadians who consume a lot of processed foods containing HFCS as well as factory farmed beef who have the most corn content in their diets.
Corn is very high in omega 6. Corn fed beef is very high in Omega 6. You need both Omega 3 and 6 in your diet, but when the proportion to each other gets out of whack it can cause problems.
So I was excited when my friend who is studying healing through foods told me free range grass fed beef, the kind of beef I eat, is actually a very good source of Omega 3.
The same is true of biodynamically farmed non-medicated chicken, in other words, chickens that eat a lot of insects rather than corn.
I'm happy I can eat beef more than once a month as I have been previously, and I thought I'd share this information for people concerned about their Omega fats consumption.