Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat: Why Well-Raised Meat Is Good for You and Good for the Planet

There are few books– other than the annual “Jack Reacher” novel– that i’ve looked forward to more than Sacred Cow. I pre-ordered it and started reading within hours of getting it.

And i have not been able to put it down.

This is not just a “must read”, it’s a “must-own” and here’s why.

If you’re like me, you lament the extreme partisanship that’s taken over the nutrition world. Vegans and carnivores have become like red states and blue states, and discussion and exchange about these wildly emotionally charged issues (i.e. to eat or not eat meat, the care and feeding of the planet) is becoming more and more difficult.

You either take your team’s tribal talking points, or you go to “the other side”.

Robb and Diana have done neither. They present the reasonable, rational and often surprising truth about meat eating, NOT in an agenda-driven agitprop way, but as interested parties open-mindedly seeking to get as close to “the truth” as you can in a field so highly influenced (and understandably so) by emotion.

I happen to support that position. As a dyed-in-the-wool animal lover it pains me to say this but i believe that the human genus– which has been on the planet for between 2.4 and 2.6 million years– simply does better with some animal products in our diet.

But that is a hard case to make at the dinner table– even when you’re a published author and nutritionist– in the face of angry arguments about what meat does to the planet and how it causes cancer and heart disease.

Robb and Diana explore every one of those arguments and they do so fairly, cogently, thoroughly….and without raising their collective “voice”.

That’s why I say this is a “must own”. If you’re ever called upon to refute some of the arguments against eating meat– as I am constantly– you will want this book handy as a reference. I know I will!

Finally, one more bunch o’ kudos: Robb and Diana come to some conclusions that neither “side” of the meat debate are going to love. But they sincerely want to get to the facts about stuff– even when those facts may throw doubt on some of their own previous conclusions. That makes them remarkably reliable and trustworthy, at least to me.

I’m truly going to recommend this book to everyone.

Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS
author, “Living Low Carb”, “The Great Cholesterol Myth”

Our Dexter cows give #sacredcowbook
5 moos up!

In all seriousness. I have followed these amazing authors & the Paleo (aka real food) lifestyle for years so I am thrilled they are taking on the topic of healthy meat, regenerative agriculture & the quality of grassfed vs grain. Its not the cow, it’s the how.

This is one of our Mama’s that provide us milk daily & her son is our future meat for the freezer. Quality matters.

I have been waiting for the release of this book for a couple of years and could not be happier to have it in hand. This is an invaluable resource for those concerned about human health and understanding the nutrient density of meat. It is equally important for those concerned about the positive impact of regenerative agriculture on the earth, the positive impact of ruminant animals on soils and carbon sequestration. Concise, clear and easy to read, this is a volume you can pass along to skeptical friends and with its diligently cited references, this book provides a cornucopia of material for your references you can turn to time and again. I can’t recommend it more highly.

I am so glad this book has been written. Please read it! The authors are knowledgeable, experienced, and research- oriented, and they write with humor, perspective, and thoroughness. Any thoughts you’ve had about meat are acknowledged and addressed with compassion and thoughtfulness as well as just plain smarts. I’ve been eating Paleo, staying very healthy, and studying all these issues for years. I get so tired of the same old same old stuff about saturated fats and beef being bad for you, “just eat ‘healthy grains’ and industrial oils.” Good research has proven those old canards to be untrue, yet it is hard to fight the influence of all the moneyed interests that benefit from them. Just look into the origin of the title, “Sacred Cow” at the beginning of the book (it’s not about religion.) It’s a great comment on the whole issue. And go get yourself some real grass-fed beef and enjoy it!

This book is well researched, well and understandably presented and explains exactly how we can improve our health with REAL food, as well as heal the planet. It exposes the fallacy of correlative epidemiological research results vs experimental, potential causative research. Everyone who is concerned with the health of our planet (and everyone should be!) as well as our personal health, should be reading this whether vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, or carnivore. There is no doubt that current, industrial, mono-cropped, ranches and farms (not to mention fake meat!) are destructive and unsustainable. But to not raise or eat meat does not make our environment healthier, quite the contrary. As they say; its not the cow, its the how! I am lucky enough to be able to buy my beef and lamb from a local rancher who raises his animals free range, grass fed and organic.

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