There is no such thing as hormone free beef. Conventionally produced beef with hormone (estrogen) implants contains about 1.9 nano-grams of estrogen per 3 oz serving of beef. Even organic ‘hormone free’ beef contains 1.6 nano-grams of estrogen per 3-oz serving.
This is just over a difference of ½ of a nano-gram. These amounts are enough to provide improved feed efficiency in beef production, but too little to have any response in the human body.
In contrast, a 3-oz serving of soybean oil contains 168,000,000 nano-grams of estrogen. The average human produces about 136,000 nano-grams of estrogen on a daily basis.
These claims are is just another example of a marketing strategy for ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ production.
It is also an example of food fears born out of politics and rhetoric vs. science.
SOURCES: Sources: Food and Drug Administration; Hoffman and Evers; Scanga et al.; FSIS-USDA; Dr. Harlan Ritchie, Michigan State University
1 comment:
Thanks for commenting on one of my pet peeves! This along with "vegetarian fed chicken" that implies it is somehow closer to nature, and the assumption that local = organic top my list. Good blog!
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