On Healthy Living

I’m sure everyone has heard by now about the second positive test of a cow having bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, commonly known as “Mad Cow Disease”). If you haven’t, you can read the USDA release here.

The cow was taken out of the food supply in late 2004, but it has taken this long to get a conclusive test on the animal’s tissue (there has been word that the tissue of this cow was actually combined with that of other cows, thus resulting in negative tests for BSE in the past).

The cow in question is called a downer cow because when cows get BSE they can no longer stand up. BSE is a nervous system disorder. Downer cows are removed from the food supply and are not used in feed, so it’s unlikely that any infected tissue made it into the food supply for humans. (For more than you’d ever want to know about BSE, check out this site.)

If you’re worried about the safety of beef, you can do several things.

1. Don’t eat beef. If you’re truly concerned about the minimal risk of BSE, you have a 100 percent chance of being safe if you don’t eat beef. (There are many other reasons not to eat beef from a health standpoint, of course.)

2. Eat organic beef. Organicly fed animals don’t eat the same feed as conventional animals and thus aren’t likely to be fed tissue from a questionable animal.

3. Go grain-fed. Likewise, animals fed only grain will not have the potential for contamination from eating the tissue of other animals.

The USDA is right to say that people shouldn’t be worried. A thousand animals are tested each day and animals with any signs of BSE are taken from the food supply. But you can never be too careful when your health is at stake, so it’s something to think about during grilling season. Pass the veggie burgers!

Sarah White wrote this on June 27th, 2005 and filed it under Healthy Living, Healthy Eating, Health Foods |