Confused about U.S. Wellness Meats Bacon

[StephKSwain]

I've read many places that the sugar-free bacon from U.S. Wellness Meats is Whole30 approved. However, I saw on their website that their pigs eat corn and soy (some of it GMO).

 

http://blog.grasslandbeef.com/bid/80117/US-Wellness-Pork

 

I thought corn- and soy-fed pork was off limits. I really want to buy some bacon from U.S. Wellness, but I just want to make sure that the Whole30 endorsement for their product is up-to-date.

 

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[Sharon Simpson Thumann]

To me that would be a personal call. Corn and soy fed animals are not off limits, just not optimal. I would still buy from US Wellness because their products are a lot better than most of what you can buy in a grocery store. At least they are being honest about what's going on and what the animals are fed.

 

No local farmers to buy meat from where I live so I have to depend on Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco and occasionally US Wellness to buy better quality that what most grocers offers.

[Jenny2014]

Pigs are  not grass-eaters (ruminants), like cows are.  So their bodies maybe more meant to eat grains.  (?) I don't know if that helps, but I assume that corn and soy might be more natural foods for a pig.  They are unnatural for a cow. I would still assume that the diet affects the quality of the fat of the animal, but I'm not sure.

 

Those are my mostly uninformed thoughts, at least.  So take with a grain of salt... 

[AllyB]

You are right, pigs are built more for grains.  They are actually omnivores.  They can eat plants and meat.  They don't have multiple stomachs like ruminants do (cows & sheep).  You can tell what an animal eats by the color of the meat.  Animals with red meat are plant/grass eaters.  White meat are omnivores (chicken & pigs).  The fat profiles of the meats are different.  A grassfed ruminant has dark red meat which contains lot of omega 3 fatty acids.  A corn fed ruminant has pinker meat and has more omega 6 fatty acids.  Pigs and chickens have white meat (although pasture raised pigs and chicken have pinker meat.)  In general, pork and chicken have more omega 6 fatty acids.  However, if you eat lean cuts, it has little fat.  This is why doctors recommend eating chicken and turkey over (supermarket cornfed) beef for a 'healthy' diet because cornfed beef has more omega 6 fatty acids. So it's best to go with lowfat chicken.  (Trying to connect the dots!  Hopefully that makes sense). 

 

However, (IMO), grassfed beef has more health benefits than chicken due to the higher amounts of omega 3 fatty acids (even though it's higher in fat, it's good fat.)  The bottom line is meat from the same type of animal (cow for example) can vary greatly in nutritional value based on what that animal ate (grass vs corn).

 

So back to what pigs eat....most pigs are fed soy and corn these days.  Unless you buy specifically 'pasture or woods raised' pork, I would assume the pig was fed some sort of corn/soy feed and chances are it was GMO corn and soy.