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How stressed is your steak?

Did you know that a mature banana is more relaxed than a younger one or that a farm animal living in a confined space will pass its stress to you...

Dr Joon Yun, a physician at Stanford Department of Radiology and Palo Alto think-tank founder, suggests in his book Low-Stress Food that the way food is processed, cultivated, shipped and stored is a source of chronic stress for those who eat it.

You are what you eat
According to Yun, the unnatural stress imparted on animals and plants through industrialised food infrastructure has come full circle. And at the end of the day "you really are what you eat".

Insight into the role of chronic stress embedded in the food represents the first step in recognising how food can improve our mental and physical wellness. The association between food and health has generated recent interest in organic foods, local foods, "slow foods", vegetarianism, raw foods, natural foods and free-range meats.

Low-Stress Food represents a broader philosophy that good relationships with nature and each other is the foundation to building a better world.

Stressed out steak
"That well-manicured slab of meat may conceal a tortured upbringing, such as an early castration without the use of local anaesthetic, or being fattened up with an unhealthy growth hormone before getting slaughtered. It has to influence the animal," argues Yun.

This stress is then embedded in humans who eat the product. Low-stress food also touches on issues of sustainability, animal rights and our treatment of the environment. The emphasis falls on outlawing GMO (genetically modified organism) in production methods and industrial farming, with the focus on biodiversity and seasonal produce. It also supports localism – cutting down on food miles and supporting the local argricultural infrastructure. Low-stress foods also rely heavily on creating stress-free environments for animals and appeal to the animal friendly practices of free-range and free-cage environments.

So how do you know, if the salmon on your plate had a happy life?

"If you look at wild salmon versus farmed salmon, the former is high in Omega3's and low in Omega6's and visa versa for the latter. A diet high in Omega6's increases heart attacks and all kinds of other afflictions," said Yun in an interview with Forbes magazine.

He concludes that fish (chickens, cattle etc) that live in crowded pens will be more stressed than wild fish, grass-fed beef and free range eggs.

And fruit?
Yun's theories are a bit harder to swallow on the fruit front. He argues that fruit starts stressing after its been picked about losing its nutrients. When picked it emits ethylene that promotes maturation and abscission.

Yun says that ethylene is the 'stress hormone of fruit' and the younger the fruit is picked the more ethylene it will emit. What it boils down to is that picking, mature fruit is happier, healthier and less stressed.

Food for thought at least!

meat vs veggies Reading about animal suffering is, almost enough to make me go back to being a vegetarian ;tried living on veggies 4 times; longest I managed was a year; I'm still not a big meat-eater; still feel guilty when buying meat; I only eat free-range eggs; I don't eat properly at the best of times and found not eating meat added to the stress of what to eat...death I can take but not suffering [of the innocent...] . - sheryl halstead   food stress I think it's better to avoid food that causes stress to us - Matsepang Nyareli   food stress We once visited friends on a farm and they slaughtered a lamb, and you cannot believe the difference in the taste, the explanation, was it was not stressed before being slaughtered. The adrenol grands excrete the stress hormones even if they are just transported. I have never forgotten the taste of that lamb meat, it is something to be experienced. Everything you say, even about vegetables makes sense and I have heard it before. - Phyllis   I'm a believer I agree, I get it but how do we sustain a practice of eating low-stress foods if we live in a city. Impossible to really know what you are buying! - Lilly   FOOD STRESS I believe this. We bought a farm slaughtered lamb over the weekend and it tasted so different to the supermarket version. The less stress the better... - Marijke   master I believe what's has been found is true - cecil bodibe   vir bella Interesting article - bella   I believe it Stressed meat is more hard-bitten than unstressed. - P.V Ngamane   Food Stress Maybe I am stupid but I have never taste the difference between the above mentioned article. - Tasteless   Food stress If I had to adhere to everything written about foods disadvantages I would probably starve to death. I had better destress myself so that when I die, I will not pass on my stress to the organisms that will eat my remains. - dene   food stress Why don't we just stop eating all together? - Abby   stress less living It makes perfect sense that we would absorb all the stress hormones (and growth hormones etc) from slaughered sentient beings; if your motivation is compassion it is easy to make the change to cruelty free eating. And while fruit/veg may manifest stress, they do not have the capacity for suffering, trauma, anxiety and agony that birds and animals do. Buy from reputable sources. - vivacious vegan   Food stress I think I'll stop eating altogether! Yesterday it was emulsifiers which are found in most food stuffs and now it's stress. Maybe we should think about what is it that we are not eating that we are supposed to eat and I suggest pap and stew or dumplings. - Nolu   Now I've heard it all! What utter nonsense! Stop eating and start fasting, the end of the world is near. I'm glad such prophets of doom will never influence me. God has blessed all of us with one very good trait. It's called "common sense". - Nikki   food stress! The yellow of an egg is good; no the yellow of an egg is bad; the next day it's good again, full of cholesterol. I am amazed at what people believe these days. We can be so naive! Nee man, lighten up...? - Tammy   RE Brilliant Article Having been unfortunate enough to visit an abbatoir and having seen pictures of what happens at battery farms, this article is excellent. Those who do not agree usually do so as it might mean a change in their thinking and their lifestyle and they choose to be complacent instead of compassionate and aware. As a vegetarian who is diligently working her way down the food chain and whose digestion and general health has improved due to those choices, I am so pleased to see these issues being discussed, not only by the so-called whacky fringe (who seem often to be getting it more right than not) but slowly but surely by various eminent scientists at outstanding universities. - Lejane       Name Email Subject Comment