{"id":25,"date":"2018-07-17T22:18:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T03:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emilyfield.flywheelsites.com\/uplevel-your-animal-products\/"},"modified":"2021-06-02T17:10:47","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T22:10:47","slug":"uplevel-your-animal-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emilyfieldrd.com\/blog\/uplevel-your-animal-products\/","title":{"rendered":"Uplevel Your Animal Products"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As I\u2019ve gotten older, one of the things I\u2019m focusing on in my own nutrition habits is sourcing my food with a little more intention. Like many of you, when I was in my early twenties, my paycheck allowed for frozen bulk cuts of meat, canned chicken, and hot dogs. I was focused on stretching my food dollars about as far as they could go and I wasn\u2019t so concerned about what food my food ate. Corn fed, grass fed, pasture this or that – it just wasn\u2019t on my radar if it couldn\u2019t be bought in bulk and stay within my monthly budget.<\/p>

Thankfully, times have changed and I\u2019ve developed a few \u201crules of thumb\u201d as they pertain to purchasing animal products.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The higher the fat content, choose higher quality. The lower the fat content, get away with lower quality.<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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When buying meat and poultry that\u2019s higher in fat content, spend your money on the higher quality cuts or brands. Let\u2019s say you love chicken thighs more than breasts, or you\u2019d prefer the 85\/15 ground meat to 95\/5, or you\u2019re craving a marbleized steak. Consider spending more of your food dollars on the higher quality products that are labeled \u201cgrass-fed\u201d, \u201corganic\u201d, or \u201cpasture-raised\u201d.<\/p>

The opposite is also true: if you don\u2019t have a lot of money to spend or you are making some basic, run-of-the-mill meals this week, you can get away with buying the budget friendly cuts. Consider buying cuts of meat that are lower in fat, or have a higher percent lean.<\/p>

The reason is simple:<\/em> fat tissue is storage tissue. If the animal has a healthy diet, that means you get to reap benefits by getting rarer vitamins and minerals into your diet. If the animal has an unhealthy diet, that means you are exposed to a higher percent of environmental toxins and probably less of those vitamins and minerals.<\/p>

If you\u2019re in a position to \u201cuplevel\u201d in this area consider the following:<\/p>