Phytonutrients

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Several studies suggest that grass-based diets elevate precursors for Vitamin A and E, as well as cancer fighting antioxidants such as glutathione (GT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity as compared to grain-fed contemporaries.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2846864/

Emerging data indicate that when livestock are eating a diverse array of plants on pasture, additional health-promoting phytonutrients—terpenoids, phenols, carotenoids, and anti-oxidants—become concentrated in their meat and milk. Several phytochemicals found in grass-fed meat and milk are in quantities comparable to those found in plant foods known to have anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, and cardioprotective effects. As meat and milk are often not considered as sources of phytochemicals, their presence has remained largely underappreciated in discussions of nutritional differences between feedlot-fed (grain-fed) and pasture-finished (grass-fed) meat and dairy, which have predominantly centered around the ω-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid. Grazing livestock on plant-species diverse pastures concentrates a wider variety and higher amounts of phytochemicals in meat and milk compared to grazing monoculture pastures, while phytochemicals are further reduced or absent in meat and milk of grain-fed animals.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.555426/full

Studies have shown that phytonutrients may act as antioxidants and improve metabolism after being ingested, which help to regulate physiological processes and prevent metabolic disorders and diseases. However, their efficacy is limited by their low bioavailability. The gut microbiota is symbiotic with humans and its abundance and profile are related to most diseases. Interestingly, studies have shown that the gut microbiota is associated with the metabolism of phytonutrients by converting them into small molecules that can be absorbed by the body, thereby enhancing their bioavailability.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9424995/

The results indicate average consumers would receive more of the beneficial fatty acids for human health (especially the essential omega-3, alpha-linolenic acid) from pasture-fed beef, produced either organically or conventionally.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8909876/

Both striploin and tenderloin digests from pasture-raised beef released significantly (p < 0.05) higher total amounts of free long-chain n−3 PUFAs and lower amounts of many free saturated fatty acids, notably palmitic and myristic acids, than those from grain-finished animals.

https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10047994/

Hence, several phytochemicals, like polyphenols, alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids, etc., have been investigated to assess their efficiencies and safety in the prevention and treatment of obesity. These phytochemicals have anti-obesity effects, mediated via modulation of many pathways, such as decreased lipogenesis, lipid absorption, accelerated lipolysis, energy intake, expenditure, and preadipocyte differentiation and proliferation.

https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/19/3610

This review assessed the seven largest families of phytonutrients found in food and the diet [9] and demonstrated that each of them had significant therapeutic potential in the healthcare field. Moreover, this evaluation also enabled complementary effects of the different families of phytonutrients in the same area of health to be recognized. Nevertheless, there are many other phytonutrients that were not included in this review of the literature. Similarly, our analysis focused on healthcare, but it is clear that phytonutrients also play an important role in the prevention of serious chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, along with different types of cancer or degenerative diseases [21,78,83,140]. Thus, it would be worthwhile to further investigate the mechanisms of action of phytonutrients associated with these effects in chronic diseases.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9102588/

Using a remote-sensing method for quantifying the absence of A-horizon soils and the relationship between soil loss and topography, we find that A-horizon soil has been eroded from roughly one-third of the midwestern US Corn Belt, whereas prior estimates indicated none of the Corn Belt region has lost A-horizon soils.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1922375118