Episode 25: BEEF- My Favorite Protein Source!

Okay… who told us beef was the bad guy?!

Because in this episode, we’re flipping that narrative on its head.

We’re talking all things beef — the science, the myths, the nutrients, and why your body might be out here begging for a steak while you’re forcing down another sad salad 😅

Inside this episode:
 🥩 Why beef is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet
 🥩 What actually happens in your body when you eat it (hello amino acids, hormones, and brain fuel)
 🥩 Why iron and B12 from beef can completely change your energy, focus, and mood
 🥩 How beef supports muscle growth, metabolism, and fat loss
 🥩 Why it keeps your blood sugar stable (aka no crash, no hanger)
 🥩 And how it somehow got blamed for problems it didn’t create

We’re also diving into:

•  The low-fat era and where things went wrong 
•  Why processed “health foods” aren’t holding a candle to real beef 
•  Who really needs to be eating more of it (hint: probably you 😏) 

This one is fun, a little fiery, and backed by real science.

Because beef isn’t just “protein.”
 It’s fuel. It’s structure. It’s information for your body.

And if you’ve been feeling tired, moody, under-fueled, or stuck…

It might not be that you’re eating too much beef.

It might be that you’re not eating enough. 🥩💥

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, I am back. It has been a while. We've we've had a lot going on, but I am really excited to talk to you guys today about an episode that I have been planning from the very, very beginning. And I think it's time to share it with you. Today we're gonna talk about my favorite protein source, which is beef. And not just because we are ranchers, however, that's a big part of this. I am very passionate about it, very passionate about beef. But I wanted to talk to you guys about why beef is so good for our bodies. And somehow along the way, somewhere in there, beef went from being a really good source of protein, known for being nutrient-dense, very traditional, a foundational food, to somehow the lies started that it was bad for your heart. It causes inflammation and it's something that you should limit. And I just respectfully disagree with that. And that's not just because I raise beef and I'm a ranch wife, but it's because if you really look at it and look at the nutrient density, the bioavailability, the role it plays in human physiology, beef is truly one of the most powerful foods that you can put into your body. So today we're gonna be talking about it, what beef actually does inside your body, why it's so effective for energy, hormones, and muscle, why it got demonized, and who especially benefits from it and who doesn't. So I'm gonna let you guys know why I think beef is an incredible protein source, and we're gonna dive into the science behind that. Let's get into it. Hey friends, and welcome to the Fit Nerd Podcast. This is the podcast where faith, fitness, and science all collide. I'm Abby, and I'm here to help you work with the body that God gave you so that you can feel stronger, you can feel healthier, and you can feel happier in your everyday life. Around here, we geek out on all the good stuff. I'm talking genetics, nutrition, training, hormones, biohacking, even the spiritual side of health. Because you are fearfully and wonderfully made, understanding how your body works is one of the best ways that we can honor that design. For me, this isn't just about looking good today. It's about feeling good as I age. I want to be fit when I'm old, and I want to enjoy life to the absolute fullest, which means feeling my best. And I want that for you too. So whether you're lifting, running, meal prepping, momming, or just listening on your drive, let's dig into the current fads in fitness, the truth in science, and the hope that we can find in faith so you can make the best choices for the amazing body that God gave you. This is the Fit Nerd Podcast. Let's get started. So we've had a lot of craziness going on, not just the typical. Right now we're in a season where we've we finished basketball, jumped, jumped right into track. This is the first season that we have that Briggs is running varsity track, Raleigh is running junior high track, Corey hates the track season because it always aligns with branding, makes it very difficult on everybody. And then also we have FFA thrown in there, which my kids are so passionate about. Briggs started on the journey of FFA. We told him he had to do a year of it because we just believe so wholeheartedly in the organization. And he's done really well. He's had he's had some good success with it. So we told Raleigh the same deal. She wasn't super excited about it. She felt like it was Briggs' deal, but now she loves it too, which I'm excited about. I think it's wonderful for them to meet people. I think it grows them as human beings. It teaches them great lessons. So, anyways, we're thick into all of that. But then we also have been hit with these insane allergies, which is crazy. This time of year, we haven't had any rain. We're so dry. I feel like we're in like the dust bolt era. And my husband got essentially like dust pneumonia, like his lungs have been a mess. So it's just, it's been a wild ride over here, a little wilder than than typical. So I took a little hiatus for a few weeks, but I I missed it, of course. So I'm excited today to get back into things with you guys. Just um a couple little checkups. Um, I'm still going hard and heavy with my New Year's resolutions, and I feel like I've made a lot of progress with some things. I have my group of girls that we check in with each other, and I think that's been so powerful for me. And I've been doing some projects on the house, which needed to be done a long time ago, but has definitely been put on the back burner for sure. And working hard on my health still, just trying really hard to lift heavier. I'm trying constantly to be lifting heavier and fueling my body correctly and trying some different things out there, and it's been fun. It's been good. On a on a spiritual side of things, I wanted to tell you guys kind of a cool story. So I feel like in my faith life, uh, God has a tendency to bring things to me in multiple different ways and multiple different times. And sometimes I feel like he does that because I must be very uh thick-headed or something. And so he has to present it to me in multiple ways for me to actually get it. But right after Charlie Kirk died, I made a decision to start reading in the New Testament. I wanted to read the start with the four gospels and just really dive in deep and kind of dissect them. And so, of course, started in Matthew. I took a long time with it, just really wanted to read it from beginning to end and just digest it slowly and as much as I could. I finished with it, loved it, of course, moved on to Mark. And I was not very far into Mark when I felt like God kept pulling me back to Matthew, back to Matthew. I don't I don't know why. I still don't know why, heads up, but it was interesting because, you know, we live about a little over an hour away from our little community church that we go to and that we love. And since we've had kits in, honestly, it can just be very difficult to get there. With our schedules, with Corey's schedule, with everything, it's it's difficult. And it's something as a family we have struggled with because we think it's important to show up at your church and have a church body, but it's just a kind of a wild season for us. So sometimes we stream Sagebrush church out of Albuquerque and love it. Well, as I had gotten into Mark, they started a new unit in at Sagebrush, and it was over Matthew. So then I got pulled back to Matthew. Well, a little bit later, my church in Moscaro started a women's Bible study. Guess what it was on? Matthew. So still staying in Matthew. Well, then uh I feel like every time something happens and something comes up, so it it always just keeps turning back to Matthew right now. And we had uh somebody come give their testimony at church a couple weeks ago in person. We went and he also spoke in Matthew with Easter that we really took the time to look at the four gospels and the account of of Christ's crucifixion. And it was just very, it was very interesting to compare the four. So I guess I'm telling you guys this because if you haven't before, I encourage you to go look at the differences and the similarities between the gospels accounts of the crucifixion. It's very powerful. It definitely has lit a little fire in me for this week, even more so than typical for Easter. Usually, Easter for me definitely brings me back to base, you know, brings me back to um recognizing, you know, the sacrifices that Jesus made for us. But it was just really even more so this Easter for us, just because I had dove so deep into Matthew that it just helped me to see those four gospel accounts. So, anyways, just wanted to touch on that for a second. If you guys haven't compared those before, I encourage you to. It's very interesting. So, yeah, that's definitely a big, a big part of my life right now is pushing, um, pushing farther into those gospels and fig trying to figure out where God is leading me to in Matthew. And I'll keep you guys updated on that. But let's jump into the meat of this today. I want to talk to you guys about my favorite source of protein, which is beef. And I do have to tell you, I have always been uh a fan of the beef industry, of agriculture, of course, you know, it's our livelihood and we're very passionate about it. But a lot of my listeners, a lot of you guys are are in agriculture, in ranching, but there's some of you who aren't. And if you guys are not closely involved with agriculture or involved in the beef industry and ranching in anything that that turns back to agriculture, I encourage you to either spend some time talking to some ranchers or spend some time doing some valid research because I will say it has been interesting for me. We have lived, you know, we get we live very remotely, but I used to work in Albuquerque and then also in Colorado, I worked in town too. And it's interesting to me how there is not a ton of knowledge for what actually occurs to grow beef. And of course, my side of things is I see my husband and multiple other cowboys, their families, their kids, everybody is a piece of growing a product for our country that they believe wholeheartedly in and pour their literal blood, sweat, and tears into and care very much about the animals and about producing the very best product for our country. And um, it gets a bad rap. And I encourage you to talk to a rancher. Go make a friend with a rancher. Call my husband if you want. He loves to talk about it. But if you have questions about it, be curious. And rather than judgmental, I think when I have dove into the fitness world, it becomes a thing that people really push more of the white proteins, chicken and fish. And I believe there needs to be a larger conversation for beef in there. And that's what I hope to get across today. I also remember studying in high school how the beef industry was hit really hard because of the book The Jungle, and how there have been a few different things during time. Oprah Winfrey is responsible for one of them, that the beef industry has taken a hit because of the processing of the animals. If you, if you ever wanted to go down that train, that rabbit hole of actually seeing what occurs on a kill floor. While in school at Texas Tech, I was able to take a class that was the selection and care and processing of meat, and you're able to see how animals turn from animals into a food source. And I know this can be kind of tricky for some people, so hopefully not stressing anybody out here. I felt like the process was incredibly humane. And I felt like the people involved were all very sensitive to the subject. Now we went to other plants too, large plants that also processed beef on a large scale. And it's not probably what everybody thinks. I I know from talking to clients, a lot of clients believe that these cattle are, you know, it's this terrible, awful process. And I do have to say, I feel like it is, it has become the most regulated industry in America because the beef industry has been hit harder than, you know, the poultry industry or the pork industry. It's been hit harder before. So it has more regulations, tighter regulations than some of the other industries. And so I also think that's important to recognize here because the other industries don't haven't been hit as hard. Yet there have been other issues with them too. And I'm not trying to knock those industries by any means, but I just encourage you to do so do some more research there because I do think there's a lot of negativity around the beef industry, and I'm not sure why, but I don't really know what what that is. But I do want to talk to you guys today about why I think beef is a nutrient powerhouse. So let's just start here. Beef is not just a protein source. Remember how I talked a couple episodes about uh protein powders and I listed the essential amino acids that you need to look for when it comes to protein powders. Well, beef is one of the only proteins that has a complete essential amino acid profile. So you don't, you wouldn't need anything extra. You wouldn't need any additives, you wouldn't need to be taking any extra essential amino acids if you are eating beef daily, because it contains, it contains all of them, especially that great one, leucine that we talked about. So it's also has highly bioavailable iron. So this is a huge thing because iron, you know, I've talked about this before. If you are deficient in iron and you take iron, your body doesn't always utilize it correctly. But if you are ingesting iron in its most bioavailable form, in the form of beef, in the form of beef organs, your body utilizes that better. So that's huge. That's a huge, huge pro of beef. It also has vitamin B12, which is critical for our brain and our nervous system. So once again, rather than having a supplement with beet, you could just eat some beef. It also has a ton of zinc in it. Zinc is great for your immune system and your hormone function. It has creatine, which is great for your muscles and your brain energy, like we've talked about. It has carnitine, which is really good for your fat metabolism. And it also has fat-soluble vitamins, especially in higher fat cuts. So the biggest kicker here is that these nutrients are in forms that your body absorbs really well. So rather than supplementing with these extra things, eating the whole food source is always going to be a better option for your body. Not all nutrients are equal, but having them from the natural source that God provided and put on this planet for us, our body loves that and our body utilizes it better than a supplement form. So it's not just what you eat, but it's more of what your body can use correctly. And absolutely, beef is going to be something that your body can use very, very well. Now, what we need to talk about is how this protein helps with your muscle and your metabolism. And when you're eating beef, you're getting that really high leucine content that we talked about, which triggers the MTOR. As we know, you don't get that unless you don't get that MTOR trigger unless you are actually consuming leucine. And beef has a very high content of that, which is gonna help your muscle muscle protein synthesis. It's gonna help your tissue repair, and it's gonna help your enzyme and hormone production. So we need that. This very much so matters for your muscle growth, for your fat loss, for blood sugar stability, and for aging well. So that means beef is gonna be especially good for women who are often under-eating protein, because that's common. Kids who have growing brains and bodies and need higher protein than we typically give them, and for athletes. So here's something I see all the time. People trying to hit protein goals are using bars or shakes or processed snacks. When you have something like beef that exists, it's real, it's whole, and it's bioavailable. So you don't need a lab to build muscle, you need amino acids. I follow this guy on TikTok who is he's a peptide guy, and he basically uses his body for lab experiments. So all of us can learn what these different peptides are doing to him. And uh, he's very impressive. He's very, very fit. Um, and he goes, he does these just crazy experiments with his body. But one of the things he did was so he tries to consume about 200 grams of protein a day, because you know, you're supposed to consume one gram for every um pound of your goal weight. So he consumes 200 grams and he did all of his protein for two weeks. He consumed 200 grams of ground beef before he even touched anything else every single day. Once he hit that limit, then he, of course, added in some fruits and vegetables and some carbohydrates in there too and some fats. But uh, but he said it was the best he had felt in his whole life. So obviously it worked very well for him in the gym. He saw some muscle growth with it, which is huge. And so, anyways, I thought that was a that was a great experiment. It's a good indicator that it's our muscles need protein, our muscles need beef. So let's talk about how beef affects your blood sugar. Right now, we're living in a country that our blood sugar issues are all over the place. We have people with glucose issues, insulin issues, it's all over the place. And beef is one of the most blood sugar stable foods that you can eat. Why? Well, because it doesn't spike your glucose levels. It doesn't spike your insulin aggressively, and it actually slows your digestion when you pair it with fat. So instead of a spike crash cravings, you get steady energy, satiety, and fewer cravings. So this is big for insulin resistance, hormone balance, kids with mood swings, or anyone dealing with cravings. Beef could actually help with that. Another piece is your iron, your B12, and your energy. So, you know, a lot of women have issues with their iron. And, you know, when you get your blood work done, usually you see two different levels of iron that they on a very standard test, it'll measure your stored iron and then your available iron. So the the iron that's working in your bloodstream versus your iron stores. Both have purposes and both are very different. So if you have low iron stores, but you have availability in your blood, that means that you might have just consumed some iron. But you need that number to be at a good level for both, both your storage and your available iron. So a lot of women struggle with being low in iron because a lot of women are not consuming enough bioavailable iron. And a lot of women are also low in B12. Those two things are both very common. Well, beef contains heme iron, which is absorbed way better than any sort of plant iron. And it also is very high in B12, that is only found in animal foods. So low levels are gonna look like fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, poor focus, hair thinning, and guess what's often recommended? Salad, right? So you're not gonna find it in a high enough dose from plants. You actually need iron from red meat. So you can't out-supplement a deficiency if you're not eating the source and just taking iron pills. That's not gonna be your best bet. In fact, iron pills can cause a whole other slew of issues. So you need to eat from the source. So beef also can have an effect on hormones. Healthy fats and cholesterol from beef are not the enemy, as I've talked about before. We need cholesterol, we need fat. They are building blocks for your hormones and they're critical for estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. And they're also necessary for cell membranes. So low-fat diets have done some real damage here when it comes to those three things. When it comes to our hormones, low-fat diets have wreaked a lot of havoc. So, especially in women, they end up with irregular cycles, low energy, and hormone imbalances. Your body needs cholesterol, it needs saturated fat in appropriate context, and it your hormones are built from what you eat. So, why beef was demonized? I know there are a lot of people who don't eat a lot of beef for multiple reasons. And it goes back to a few different things. Number one, there was a lot of poorly designed fat and heart studies back in the day. We've talked about this. A lot of people believed because of the fat content in beef, that that was bad for your heart. Well, we know now that was absolutely not true, not even at all. And so that definitely has kept a lot of people from eating red meat. There's also food industry influence, and there is also that low-fat movement that we talked about. So there is also the issue that people have with believing that beef are not taken care of well, which that cattle are not taken care of well, which I can very strongly attest to. Every rancher I know works their booty off to make sure that cattle are receiving the best life possible. So essentially, fat, cholesterol got blamed, beef got caught in the crossfire, the industry got hit hard a few times, very negatively by a few very unfortunate uh common. And things that had happened. Meanwhile, in our foods, the sugar increased, ultra-processed foods increased, metabolic disease skyrocketed. So the correlation does not mean causation. And now we're relearning that whole foods are what is best for us. Going back to the very beginning of things. And I fully believe that beef is one of the best forms of that. Who benefits the most from beef? It's going to be for kids, women, athletes, people with metabolic issues, and aging adults. Who doesn't benefit a lot from beef? Well, this is gonna be people that genetically struggle with the breakdown of having too much red meat. Even on my genetics, I am somebody who is not supposed to do carnivore. If you guys are on Nutrigenome, they recently just did kind of an update to the server where they are addressing specific dietary needs on the very first page. If you haven't checked your nutrition genome in a while, check it out. It's really, really neat. Of course, I did mine way too long ago, and so I don't get that benefit. They couldn't update mine that way, but for the rest of my family, I was able to see theirs. And essentially it says, you know, I'm somebody who genetically struggles with having too high of a protein diet. I need to absolutely have more of a balance. Um so for even my kids that are represented as hunter-gatherers, they're supposed to have um a limitation of protein throughout their day, and that their bodies struggle with breaking down too much protein in there, it can actually cause some issues. So that is who shouldn't eat that it's not just beef, it's just too much protein altogether. Um I still fully believe in the balance of fats to good quality carbohydrates and proteins, and your protein being from beef would be fantastic. So your protein being from whole real sources from beef, from chicken, from fish. Um of course I like beef better. I've never never been a fan of chicken after I learned about a lot of that in school. Won't get into that, but I am a huge beef fan. But one thing to also consider, which we have to talk about here, quality matters. So not all beef is equal. There are a lot of things to consider when consuming beef. I get very frustrated with some of the marketing that goes into beef. Very, very frustrated. Of course, this grass-fed, grain-fed movement is uh can be very frustrating for a lot of ranchers. Cattle are are raised on grass. So seeing a product in the store that says grass-fed, yeah, they all are. All of them. Most all of them are grass-fed for the majority of their life. And then it matters more how they're finished. I absolutely prefer a grain-finished beef. I think that they taste better and it's a it's a better product, in my opinion. The age of the animal matters, the kind of animal that it is. There's many different types of cattle out there. So it absolutely depends on what the animal is, what they were used for, how they were processed. And just so everybody is very much aware, an animal cannot test positive for any sort of antibiotics when they are processed. So I get very frustrated when I see, you know, antibiotic-free. Yeah, well, they all should be, every animal. Um, in fact, if it tests positive for any sort of antibiotic, as it goes through, it gets denied and the beef gets thrown away. Quality control is a huge thing in the beef industry, and I have a lot of trust in it. And I encourage you guys to do some research and to go check check it out because I think you'd be impressed by how regulated it is. But also I encourage you to to do your research. You know, obviously there's a difference in the beef patty at McDonald's versus if you go to your local butcher and pick up some ground beef and make your own patties at home. There's gonna be a big difference, and and a lot of it has to do with with the animal, where it came from, what the story is there. So quality absolutely matters. And of course, I encourage you to support your the beef industry, support ranchers. Our kids sell animals at their fairs every year, and anybody in the public can come buy them and have the animal processed. There's a lot of kids out there who are always looking for somebody to buy their animal that they have spent a lot of time working with and growing for the purpose of becoming food. And I think it's a very respectable thing for a kid to do and to understand that. So I hope you guys would if you haven't before, go support a kid, a 4-H kid, an FFA kid, or support local ranchers, support the truth is here beef is nutrient dense, beef is bioavailable, it is blood sugar stabilizing, it's hormone supporting, and it's muscle building. It is not a villain, it is absolutely a tool, a huge health tool in many ways, and it's one of the most efficient ways to nourish the human body. If you want to feel strong, think clearly, support your body the way that it was designed. You need to start with real food. If you guys have any questions, reach out about this. Reach out to somebody on the beef board for new for New Mexico or Texas or wherever you're at. If you have any questions of Colorado, love to talk about it more. So thank you guys for listening in. This was a fun episode. I'm very passionate about, and um I hope you guys liked it. Thanks for hanging out with me today on the Fit Nerd Podcast. I hope that you leave a little encouraged, a little smarter, and ready to honor the amazing body that God designed for you. If you love this episode, would you do me a quick favor? Hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And share this podcast with a friend who's on their own health journey. And remember, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, so stay curious, stay consistent, and keep nerding out on your fitness. Until next time, this is the Fit Nerd.