February 4th, 2012 
FatCow I’m reading about major macromolecules like protein, lipids and carbohydrates and their functions. Since cows and other animals do not consume fat like humans, how come they gain huge weight/fat? Eating saturated fat is our major problem when it comes to weight control. I just don’t understand how we can eat as many greens as we want without getting fat like other species.
Chosen Answer:
As SLZimmer above says, dietary fat (especially saturated fat) has nothing to do with accumulating excess body fat. There is not enough space here but if you ask another question “What are the health benefits of saturated fats” I will give you lots more info.
Cows may be big, but they are not fat IF they eat their natural diet of grass. Grass is a low carbohydrate food & doesn’t produce excess fat stores.
Research “cattle feed lots” to learn how they DOUBLE cattle weight with fat stores in a few WEEKS by feeding them a high carbohydrate grain diet.
Cattle (or people) were never meant to eat a diet high in grain & they have to be pumped full of antibiotics to survive the few weeks til slaughter of this unnatural high carb grain diet. Without the antibiotics most would die (at the prime of their lives) due to this diet.
Grass fed animals are extremely healthy to eat. Grass is a low carb food. Corn/grain is a high carb food.
In the 1940′s farmers tried coconut oil to fatten their animals but discovered that it made them lean and active and increased their appetite. Then they tried an anti-thyroid drug. It made the livestock fat with less food but was found to be a carcinogen (cancer causing drug). In the late 1940′s, it was found that the same anti-thyroid effect could be achieved by simply feeding animals soybeans & corn.
Most grass-fed cattle are leaner than feedlot beef, lacking marbling, which lowers the fat content and caloric level of the meat. In typical commercial beef production, steers are fed a 90-100-percent grain diet for several WEEKS (to nearly double their weight) in feedlots prior to slaughter so that tender, tasty fat marbling is added to the muscle.
New research suggests feeding cattle diets less high in grain would solve much of the need for antibiotics, apparently carbs aren’t any healthier for cows than humans. According to Russell, cattle are healthiest when they eat grass, hay, and other high-fiber feeds. HALF of all the antibiotics produced in the US go to cattle. This is necessary so the majority of the cattle don’t acquire the consequences of eating the wrong foods, premature death. Cattle do even worse than humans with grains, but both species are best off with limited exposure to grains.
The fat from grass fed (low carb) beef is HIGHLY nutritious & full of health promoting benefits. The fat from corn fed (high carb) beef is not. The high carb diet totally changes the fatty acid profiles.
Grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in many different ways, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA & researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:
1. Lower in total fat
2. Higher in beta-carotene
3. Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
4. Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
5. Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
6. Higher in total omega-3s
7. A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
8. Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
9. Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
by: Cindy in Texas
on: 20th February 11
Posted in 
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Cows are big animals, because first off, they produce milk, and their insides are massive… and since a calf is a big animal they need to fit a whole calf i their womb!
So its just their insides that make them look big.
Herbivores are much, much more efficient at breaking down the energy found in plants (cellulose, for example) than humans are. Cows have four ‘stomachs’ devoted to extracting all of the energy they can (these stomachs are the reason they look so large, though they can also get “fat” in the same sense that humans can). Much of the energy in green plants is wasted on humans, because we can’t break down all of the starches like cows can.
DEY AINT FAT
DEY GOT BIG BOOOOWWNES
I don’t get it either…I wonder what those guys ate to get so big…
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Largestdinosaursbysuborder_scale.png
Dietary fat intake isn’t what makes you fat…in fact it’s one of the healthiest things you can eat in many cases, including saturated fats (but excluding man-mutated hydrogenated/trans fats, which is poison, as well as (to a much lesser degree) some highly over-processed, over-refined vegetable oils like cottonseed oil, soybean oil, etc, etc.).
Excessive sugar/carb intake is what causes the insulin blood sugar spikes in your body which causes the body to produce fat storage hormones and turn everything it can into fat storage. Those same spikes also are what cause higher fat/cholesterol levels in the blood, leading to heart disease.
It has nothing to do with healthy dietary fat intake. That is why I limit my daily carbs to a lot of veggies, some nuts/bean foods, and some more-limited daily whole grain type foods (brown rice mainly). I also limit my daily sugar intake as much as possible, with it usually only coming from what naturally occurs in dairy or some whole fruit here and there. I eat over 50% of my daily 2500-3000 calories in healthy fats and I still maintain a lean 9-10% body fat ratio at age 46 no less.
You also need to limit your sodium intake to about 1500mg daily, and try to stick to more natural foods that don’t contain things like nitrates and other unhealthy chemicals.
As SLZimmer above says, dietary fat (especially saturated fat) has nothing to do with accumulating excess body fat. There is not enough space here but if you ask another question “What are the health benefits of saturated fats” I will give you lots more info.
Cows may be big, but they are not fat IF they eat their natural diet of grass. Grass is a low carbohydrate food & doesn’t produce excess fat stores.
Research “cattle feed lots” to learn how they DOUBLE cattle weight with fat stores in a few WEEKS by feeding them a high carbohydrate grain diet.
Cattle (or people) were never meant to eat a diet high in grain & they have to be pumped full of antibiotics to survive the few weeks til slaughter of this unnatural high carb grain diet. Without the antibiotics most would die (at the prime of their lives) due to this diet.
Grass fed animals are extremely healthy to eat. Grass is a low carb food. Corn/grain is a high carb food.
In the 1940′s farmers tried coconut oil to fatten their animals but discovered that it made them lean and active and increased their appetite. Then they tried an anti-thyroid drug. It made the livestock fat with less food but was found to be a carcinogen (cancer causing drug). In the late 1940′s, it was found that the same anti-thyroid effect could be achieved by simply feeding animals soybeans & corn.
Most grass-fed cattle are leaner than feedlot beef, lacking marbling, which lowers the fat content and caloric level of the meat. In typical commercial beef production, steers are fed a 90-100-percent grain diet for several WEEKS (to nearly double their weight) in feedlots prior to slaughter so that tender, tasty fat marbling is added to the muscle.
New research suggests feeding cattle diets less high in grain would solve much of the need for antibiotics, apparently carbs aren’t any healthier for cows than humans. According to Russell, cattle are healthiest when they eat grass, hay, and other high-fiber feeds. HALF of all the antibiotics produced in the US go to cattle. This is necessary so the majority of the cattle don’t acquire the consequences of eating the wrong foods, premature death. Cattle do even worse than humans with grains, but both species are best off with limited exposure to grains.
The fat from grass fed (low carb) beef is HIGHLY nutritious & full of health promoting benefits. The fat from corn fed (high carb) beef is not. The high carb diet totally changes the fatty acid profiles.
Grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in many different ways, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA & researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:
1. Lower in total fat
2. Higher in beta-carotene
3. Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
4. Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
5. Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
6. Higher in total omega-3s
7. A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
8. Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
9. Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
Cows non-fat diets are high in carbohydrates (although we cannot digest grass), High carbohydrate diets are more to blame for obesity than high fat diets.