About 2 and a half years ago, I stopped eating meat. I had read some books and articles and watched several documentaries on how animals were mistreated at factory farms:

• how they were fed non-nutritive diets full of soy, corn and wheat to fatten them up as cheaply as possible
• how they were pumped full of hormones and antibiotics
• how they were kept in cages with very little “personal space”
• how some of them were even abused and tortured before they were killed

It was too much for me to take, and as an animal lover, I didn’t want to be a part of this mistreatment of animals, so I gave up eating meat altogether.

Now recently, I’ve been reading a lot on Mark’s Daily Apple, an excellent blog where Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint, talks a lot about the benefits of eating meat – not just any meat – but organic, pasture-raised (or cage-free), grass-fed meat.

Why Organic? Because that way you know that the animals weren’t treated with hormones or antibiotics

Why pasture-raised (or cage-free)? Because that way you can be sure that the animals lived in a natural environment

Why grass-fed? Because grass-fed animals produce the healthiest meat, not to mention that it is their natural diet

So, being a long-time vegetarian, I started to wonder if I had been missing out on some of the health benefits of eating meat (I should specify organic, pasture-raised, grass-fed meat)…

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow…

See more posts by Justin Carboneau

Latest posts in the Mission: Six-pack Abs series:

• Join me for The Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Eating Meat
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Good Calories, Bad Calories
• Mission: Six-pack Abs: My latest fitness acquisition
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – I’ve been slacking…
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 53 – Photo Update
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 46 – Making progress, slowly
• Shrink Yourself: A program that helped me finally break past my weight loss plateau
• Healthy Tanning vs. Unhealthy Tanning
• Why is it so hard to stop Emotional Eating?
• 7 Ways to Recognize If You Are an Emotional Eater
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 35 – More Weight Loss Secrets
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 32 – Refocusing My Efforts
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 31 – Starting back up again
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 23
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 22
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 21 – Photo Update
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 20
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 19 (Another benefit: a healthier back)
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 18
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 17
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 16
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 15
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 14
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 13
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 12
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 11
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 10
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 9
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 8
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 7
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 6
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 5
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 4
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 3
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 2
• Mission: Six-pack Abs – Day 1
• Mission Six-pack Abs: A Personal Experiment

Mission: Six-pack Abs