Eat All The Junk Food You Want As Long As You Cook It Yourself

I lived in Argentina for 2 years and Brazil for 1, where beef is king and all of it is grass fed. Hmmmm...how to put this best.

America is the land of corn fed. Corn fed processed foods, corn fed cows, and corn fed people. This results in corn fed asses, hence the expression "She's a corn fed farm girl", which usually doesn't imply lean. Read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilema" on the concequences for our health and environment of cheap corn dominating our food supply. Scary.

South America is the land of grain fed. The asses and health of people reflect that. And so do the beef.

When I lived in Buenos Aires, I ate steak at least 4 times a week. The steak is cooked slowly, over wood coals, and is redder, leaner, and tastes cleaner than grain fed beef. Even on "Lomo", which is filet, the meat is tender, juicy, and lean. I could eat 3x the amount of beef that I would eat back home (say 30 or 40 oz) and feel fine...go out and party or surf or do work.

When I returned home it was a kick in the gut. The first steak I had (a decent supermaket sirloin) was like eating beef soaked in water. It tasted bland and though the fat ribbon on the side was flavorful, the meat itself was tough. Even at great steakhouses, like G and Georgetti's in Chicago, I've yet to find something that equals what my cheap neighborhood place in Argentina could deliver.

Grass fed, all the way. Cows weren't born to eat corn any more than they were born to eat ground up dead cattle. Nature tates best the way it was designed.