Is grass-fed beef healthier?

The objection

“Grass-fed beef is a different product from feedlot beef. Cattle that graze, as they evolved to, give meat with more omega-3, more CLA and more antioxidants, and a better balance of fats. The studies that put people off red meat were mostly about processed meat and feedlot beef, so they tell you nothing about a grass-fed steak.”

The answer

Feeding cattle on grass does change their meat, and most of the changes favour grass-fed beef. Reviewing three decades of studies, Daley and colleagues (2010) found that grass-based diets raised the omega-3 fats and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in beef, along with its vitamin E and beta-carotene, and that grass-fed beef was usually leaner [1]. Across the studies in their review, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats averaged 1.53 in grass-fed beef and 7.65 in grain-fed [1]. A 2016 meta-analysis of 67 studies comparing organic with conventional meat, whose authors suggested that the grazing and forage-based diets of organic farming may be the main reason for the differences they found, is less clear-cut on beef (Średnicka-Tober et al., 2016) [2]. With all kinds of livestock pooled, organic meat had 47% more total omega-3 (95% CI 10 to 84%), but analysed species by species the difference was significant only in chicken, and the weighted analysis of all meat together found no significant difference in EPA, DPA, DHA or CLA [2]. An unweighted analysis, which could take in more studies, did find more of the very-long-chain omega-3 fats in organic beef [2]. Whether grass-fed beef is healthier to eat depends on how large the differences in the meat are, and on whether they touch the risks that come with red meat.

How much more omega-3 does grass-fed beef have?

Grass-fed beef has more of the long-chain omega-3 fats than grain-fed beef, but in two studies that measured them in 100 g of meat the extra came to 17 mg and 13 mg, while 100 g of Scottish farmed salmon held 1,360 mg of EPA and DHA in 2015. In one study tabled in Daley’s review, of Australian Angus steers (Ponnampalam et al., 2006), 100 g of muscle from grass-fed animals held 65 mg of EPA, DPA and DHA together, most of it DPA, against 48 mg from grain-fed steers [1]. A 2021 study whose authors included two of the Newcastle researchers who wrote a 2022 review of the subject found 41 mg of very-long-chain omega-3 in 100 g of certified pasture-fed steak and 28 mg in conventional steak, as that review reports (Davis et al., 2022) [4]. Measured as a share of the fat, the gap is wider: in five of the other six studies in Daley’s table, grass-fed beef had roughly two to six times as much of these fats as grain-fed beef, though none of them gave amounts per 100 g of meat [1]. Farmed salmon has lost some of its omega-3 as plant ingredients have replaced fish oil in its feed, and the EPA and DHA in Scottish farmed salmon fell from an average of 2.74 g per 100 g in 2006 to 1.36 g in 2015 (Sprague et al., 2016) [5].

The extra does show up in the blood. In a small four-week randomised trial, healthy adults who swapped their usual red meat for three portions a week of beef and lamb from grass-fed animals ended up with higher levels of long-chain omega-3 in their plasma and platelets than those given meat from animals fed concentrates (McAfee et al., 2011) [6]. Davis and colleagues argue that this could be highly relevant to people who don’t eat oily fish, for whom meat is the main source of omega-3 [4]. Daley’s review adds a caveat in the other direction: its comparisons are per gram of fat, and people who eat fattier cuts of grain-fed beef may take in similar amounts of omega-3 and CLA [1]. Vegans can get EPA and DHA from algae oil instead.

Is grass-fed beef better for your heart?

Grass-fed beef’s fat looks slightly better on paper, but that has not been shown to make any difference to the heart. Daley’s review found no consistent difference in the share of the fat that is saturated, but grass-fed beef had more stearic acid, which does not raise blood cholesterol, and in 60% of the studies less of the myristic and palmitic acids, which do [1]. Because grass-fed beef tends to be leaner, a portion can carry less saturated fat: in the 2006 study, 100 g of grass-fed beef had 900 mg of it against 1,568 mg in grain-fed [1]. The review also notes that little is known about how grass-finished beef affects blood cholesterol in people whose cholesterol is already high, compared with grain-fed beef [1]. In McAfee’s small trial, cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure did not differ between the grass-fed and concentrate-fed groups [6].

A 2026 trial of pasture-raised meat against a vegetarian diet found no harm to markers of heart and metabolic health over ten weeks. Its 78 healthy adults completed either a flexitarian diet that included pasture-raised red meat, about 3.3 servings a week by the end, or a vegetarian diet with plant-based meat alternatives, and their cardiometabolic markers did not change differently, while plasma DPA, an omega-3 fat, dipped in the vegetarian group over the first five weeks before recovering (Morton et al., 2026) [7]. The trial’s published protocol says it was funded by Meat Industry Association Innovation, a subsidiary of New Zealand’s Meat Industry Association, by Beef + Lamb New Zealand and by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and that the funders had no part in collecting, analysing or interpreting the data (Braakhuis et al., 2021) [8]. Because the trial measured blood markers over ten weeks, it says nothing directly about heart attacks or strokes. The NHS advises choosing the leanest meat, because some meats are high in saturated fat, which can raise blood cholesterol if you eat too much of it [9]. If you take a statin or any other medicine for your heart, don’t stop or change it without talking to your GP.

Is grass-fed beef less likely to cause cancer?

Nothing so far shows that grass-fed beef carries less cancer risk than other red meat. The World Health Organization defines red meat as all mammalian muscle meat, beef included, and classes it as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A), on limited evidence from observational studies linking it to bowel cancer and strong evidence of how it could cause cancer [10]. Neither the WHO nor Cancer Research UK makes any distinction by how the animal was fed [10][11]. Cancer Research UK points to the chemicals that form when red meat is cooked at high temperatures or over open flames, and to haem, an iron-containing compound found naturally in red meat, which once eaten leads to the formation of harmful N-nitroso compounds that can damage the cells lining the bowel [11]. Davis’s 2022 review, which favoured pasture-fed beef, noted that no cohort study had examined what eating organic or pasture-fed meat does to people’s health [4].

Grass-fed ruminants produce two to three times as much CLA as those kept on high-grain diets, and in animal experiments CLA reduced cancer, hardening of the arteries and the onset of diabetes [1]. Daley’s review calls the intakes needed in people rough estimates, mainly extrapolated from animal data, and says the changes in body fat reported in humans came only at doses so high that only synthetic supplements can supply them [1]. Grass-finished beef from 12 US producers averaged 610.6 micrograms of vitamin E and 32.2 micrograms of beta-carotene in 100 g (Bronkema et al., 2019) [12]. The beta-carotene is about 1% of the 3 mg a day suggested by the US Institute of Medicine, as Daley’s review reports [1], while the vitamin E is about 15% of the 4 mg a day the NHS says men need, or 20% of the 3 mg for women [13]. The NHS says you should be able to get all the vitamin E you need from your diet, and names plant oils, nuts and seeds, and wheatgerm as good sources [13]. Does red and processed meat cause cancer? sets out how strong the evidence on bowel cancer is, and how large the risk.

Does the red meat limit apply to grass-fed beef?

The NHS advice on red meat covers grass-fed beef like any other: anyone eating more than 90 g of red or processed meat a day, cooked weight, should cut down to 70 g [9]. Cancer Research UK suggests eating no more than three portions of red meat a week [11]. What the label means matters too, because the fat in the meat depends on how the animal was finished. Daley’s review says that switching cattle to cereal grains changes the fatty acids and antioxidants in their meat within 30 days, and that animals should be finished on 100% grass or pasture to be sure of the higher antioxidant content [1]. In the survey of grass-finished beef from 12 US producers, vitamin E and beta-carotene tended to be higher in beef finished only on fresh forage, and the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 ranged from 1.80 to 28.3 depending on the producer, with a median of 4.10, so some of it had a higher ratio than the 7.65 average for grain-fed beef in Daley’s review [12][1].

Grass feeding also needs more land and more cattle: Hayek and Garrett (2018) calculated that raising all US beef on grass would take a herd of 100 million cattle instead of 77 million, while existing pasture could support only 27% of current US beef [3]. Is grass-fed beef better for the environment? follows that through to land and emissions.