Newbie questions - meat freshness & liver Qty's & food costs

[mommyrunmommy]

I read the sticky about the dangers of freezing meat. I am so glad for that, I didn't realize how much freezing damages meat. If I'm buying fresh, not previously frozen meat, and I don't want to freeze it, how long will it stay good in the refrigerator? 

My main goal right now is to raise my stores of iron, so I will eat almost excusively red meat, and beef liver daily. I've read online that it's not safe to eat too much liver due to the high levels of vitamin A found. I'm not sure how much this applies to me now that I'm not eating grains and such. How much liver do people who eat raw paleo normally, or safely eat daily?

The other thing that I'm curious about, how are people handling the high cost of grass fed beef? I know what's normally said in response to this is that it's much cheaper than buying the processed foods (true) and that you can't put a price on good health (true). I'm struggling with another issue - being broke. My husband is unemployed, we have 4 kids, and can barely afford $100 week for our whole family for food. Unfortunately, I just can't switch the whole family to Paleo (hubby not interested right now) and definately not raw unfortunately, so I am trying to keep my food costs as low as possible so I can still cook the healthiest meals I can for them (even though it's not paleo) and keep the processed stuff to a minimum. I can get grass fed beef liver for $3/lb, but I'm not sure how often I should eat it. I can get Organic ground beef at Costco (not grass fed) for $4.5/lb. I am just wondering, until I can truly afford only grass fed all the time, is there anyway to choose the best of the choices I have? What I mean is, if I cannot afford grass fed beef (other than liver), is eating the traditional beef but avoiding the fat (where the toxins are carried) better? Or should I just stick to the liver only since I can afford that?

Thanks!

[cherimoya_kid]

I would avoid the grain-fed beef, if you can.  You will probably be fine to eat up to 4 ounces of liver a day, or 8 ounces every other day.  If you start to have trouble digesting it, then reduce the amount you eat.   

[TylerDurden]

You have a number of different options:-

a) PM Lex Rooker

http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/profile/?u=28

He has found some ingenious methods to reduce the costs of raw, grassfed meats by ordering grassfed-meat which was "pet-food" grade, but still fine to eat by humans, according to Lex. This website might also prove useful:-

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/CarnivoreFeed-Supplier/

b) Buy raw wild game. This is usually much cheaper than raw, grassfed meats but is, ironically, much, much higher in quality than the latter. Gte it preferably from farmers, hunters or farmers' markets as shops selling wild game will add further retail-costs onto the price.

c) Eat raw, grainfed meats. Generally a bad idea, but  still "less worse" than eating cooked, grainfed meats. Organic means f*ck all, it would be far better to get hold of raw, nonorganic, grassfed meats instead.

d) Prefrozen grassfed meats are  a LOT better than nonfrozen grainfed meats.

e)  Practice Intermittent Fasting(IF). This involves eating one large meal every 24 hours, eaten within a 4 hour window of time. The meal should consist mostly of meat - the result will be that you will eat a bit less, overall. Also, the more raw animal fat you eat, the longer you will remain without hunger, whereas eating lots of carbs increases one's appetite, and therefore increases one's food-costs. Also don't drink water with your foods, as drinking such will encourage you to eat more than necessary.

*Be careful not to go raw, zero-carb until you're sure you can handle it. As for raw liver, there's no danger re toxicity. I once overindulged in raw liver, and my body just adapted and squirted it out the other end without absorbing it - thus, I learnt that raw liver was fine if I consumed no more than c. 0.5 kg a week/2 weeks. Others, though, can handle much higher amounts, it all depends on the individual.



f) Get hold of other raw organ-meats, such as raw tongue, raw suet, raw kidneys etc. Organ-meats are dirt-cheap by comparison to muscle-meats, as there is little demand for them.