142: You Don't Need Expensive Meat to Eat Well
Most people hear "buy the best meat you can afford" and immediately picture the $30 pasture-raised ribeye at Whole Foods — and then conclude that eating well is simply out of reach. But that's not a fair test of what quality meat actually costs. Ribeye is the most expensive cut at the highest tier, and comparing it to cheap conventional ground beef is like comparing a BMW to a used Corolla and deciding all cars are unaffordable.
The more useful question is what "good enough" looks like across different categories of meat, because the answer isn't the same for beef as it is for pork or poultry.
In this episode, I lay out a tiered framework you can use when buying meat, explain why I draw a hard line at industrial pork and poultry (even though I'm more forgiving about conventional beef), and share my honest reaction to a specific product launch that put the whole question in sharp relief.
On the beef side, the tiers are fairly forgiving. Grass-fed, grass-finished ground beef from a local regenerative farm often runs around $10 a pound — and you can find it cheaper than that at Aldi or Walmart. That's not far from conventional at all, and it's where most families actually spend their beef budget anyway. The $30 ribeye is real, but it's also not the only option in the category.
Pork and poultry are a harder conversation. Roughly 93% of US pigs are raised in factory farms where pregnant sows spend most of their adult lives in gestation crates too narrow to turn around in, standing on concrete under artificial light. Beyond the animal welfare problem, pigs and chickens are monogastric animals — unlike cattle, they don't have the ruminant digestive system that buffers against poor feed inputs. Whatever is in their feed shows up directly in the meat and fat, including pesticide residues, soy isoflavones, and rendered animal byproducts that are still legally used in US monogastric feed. That's a problem conventional beef simply doesn't have to the same degree.
Carnivore Bar recently reached out to introduce me to a new lower-cost version of their product called the Everyday Bar, priced at around $5 versus their original $16 bar. The catch is that it uses grain-finished beef. My gut reaction was to say “no,” but after sitting with it for a few days, I settled on a more pragmatic: if the choice is between this and a conventional protein bar packed with lab-derived ingredients, the Everyday Bar wins.
Grain-finished beef is still significantly better than industrial pork, industrial poultry, or anything plant-based. But if you can afford the original, that's the one I'd buy.
Thank you to this episode's sponsor, Carnivore Bar!
Carnivore Bar makes some of the highest quality meat bars I've ever had — grass-fed, grass-finished beef, tallow, and salt. No fillers, no seed oils, no nonsense. I've been eating them for a while now, and the Apple Pie flavor is still my go-to when I need something portable and actually satiating.
If you're looking for a real food snack that travels well and doesn't compromise on ingredients, I encourage you to give Carnivore Bar a try.
To learn more about why I recommend them, check out my in-depth review: https://michaelkummer.com/health/carnivore-bar-review/
And use code MICHAELKUMMER to get 10% off your order: https://endlss.io/sl/the-carnivore-bar/kummer
In this episode:
00:00 Intro
01:16 What good meat means
01:38 Steak vs. ground beef
03:30 Three-tier framework
05:27 Why pork and poultry are worse
06:33 Factory farm reality check
08:08 Feed matters for monogastrics
09:50 Carnivore Bar dilemma
12:23 Pragmatic buying advice
16:59 Final thoughts
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[Medical Disclaimer]
The information shared on this video is for educational purposes only, is not a substitute for the advice of medical doctors or registered dietitians (which I am not) and should not be used to prevent, diagnose, or treat any condition. Consult with a physician before starting a fitness regimen, adding supplements to your diet, or making other changes that may affect your medications, treatment plan, or overall health.
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