Food for Thought

Hop in your time machines, folks, today we are going back to sixth grade and talking about hormones.

Hormone-free beef, to be specific. It is a claim that many small producers use in an attempt to gain an edge over their competition, and a phrase health-conscious consumers are seeking out. Unfortunately, advertising such a thing is incorrect; there is no such thing as hormone-free beef, or chicken, or pork, etc. Animals (I will focus on cattle, but this applies to all of them) produce hormones as they grow and develop. So do you and I. So do plants. A lot of them. Knowing this leads one to assume that when a store is advertising hormone-free anything, what they really mean to say is 'no ADDED growth hormones' (even we are guilty throwing around the hormone-free claim at the store, and we are scrambling to change it to 'no hormones added'). When you think about it, the reality makes you smack yourself on the head and think 'I should have known that,' but it is worth mentioning and it will be the focus of this writing.

What prevents us from becoming crazed steroid-jacked monsters when we eat beef (hormone implanted or not) is the fact that we, at any given time, are producing 35,000 times more hormones than could ever be present in the food we eat (this information is from the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program). Hormones are difficult to digest, so what finally makes it into our system after we enjoy that delicious grilled Porterhouse (with a huge baked potato and a salad containing every vegetable enhanced with mom's oil and vinegar dressing...) is a drop in the bucket compared to what is already coursing through our veins. Remember, this concerns non-implanted AND implanted beef (and chicken, and pork...).

Which brings me to my point. Everyone has heard from one source or another how bad the "extra" hormones in beef from implanted cattle are for people. And, as usual, I am here to say that the rumors have been blown completely out of proportion. The difference in hormone levels in a serving of non-treated beef (certified organic, for instance) and a serving of beef from an animal on the most rigorous hormone treatment differs by .6 nanograms (less than one billionth of a gram). So yes, there is a difference in the hormone levels, but I think one would have a difficult time arguing that this is a significant variation. Keep in mind that we do not digest all of the hormones in anything we eat, indicating that even with slightly higher hormone levels we will still absorb the same amount, and the difference becomes irrelevant.

I am not saying you should run to your nearest major grocery store and scarf down the first mass-produced sirloin that you see once you read this. I am not even saying that you should agree with animal hormone enhancements, or stop seeking out meats with no ADDED (keep that in mind) hormones. All I am saying is that you should not be terrified of food because of what you hear. American producers and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) know what they are doing and are constantly researching, testing, and promoting food that is not dangerous and will not poison their consumers. Stuff in the grocery store aisles is safe for your family, even if Paul McCartney says it is not.

So remember, do not turn on the food production industry when you hear from an outside source that they are terrible. Our agricultural system has provided us with plentiful, inexpensive food whenever we want it. We need to be grateful for what we have and work with FARMERS, not radical organizations, to shape the future of food production for generations to come. I think the results will be much brighter that way.