8 minute read
Wagyu nutrition appetiser
Naturally nutritious, exceptional eating
The “leaness” of meat has been a key foundational principle in Dr Anneline Padayachee’s career as a nutritionist and food scientist: the ethos has been - if you’re going to eat red meat, choose lean cuts with the visible chunks of white fat removed. Hence her reasoning behind having eaten Wagyu for the first time just a few weeks as part of her research before presenting to over 600 Wagyu industry delegates at WagyuEdge’23 in Sydney in April.
In doing her research in the lead up to the conference, when it comes to Wagyu, ”we are not just talking about beef in general, we are talking about a particular type of beef and its luxurious nature. Wagyu is more like the Rolls Royce of food, and do we really need the Rolls Royce?”Dr Padayachee considered.
Where does Australian Wagyu fit in?
Quality over quantity
Until 2008, the developed world held the majority of purchasing power parity contributing to the world GDP. However 2008 was a turning point where the developed world and emerging markets hit 50/50 contribution to the global purchasing power parity rates. Since then, the emerging markets have continued to contribute more to the global GDP based on purchasing power parity due to higher population numbers (as opposed to individual wealth).
Similarly while poverty is still widespread, we are seeing steady (albeit small) increases moving from less than USD2 per day to USD5 per day indicating a marginal improvement in financial status.
“What we know is that when anyone in the emerging world gets a little bit more money, the first thing that they spend it on is food. They know that food is life, if they can buy better food for themselves and their family then they have a better chance at living just a little bit longer.
The foods that they go for are those that they see in the western world, they want that diet because those people generally live longer and healthier lives. Meat is a giant sized component of that aspiration” said Dr Padayachee.
Consequently, protein consumption (particularly animalderived protein sources) has changed in emerging economies like China, Brazil, and India. In 1961, animal derived proteins in India was only 5g, in 2017 it was 15g – seems insignificant compared to Australia’s 71g, but a three-fold increase across 1.3 billion people is massive.
The increase is more marked in China, Nigera, Brazil and even Israel where consumers are moving towards incorporating more animal derived proteins (including dairy, red meat, fish and poultry) in their diets.
Australia doesn’t have a huge population, but it does have a huge land mass. Due to the arid nature of the Australian outback, it is not prime land for horticulture or developing cities in the outback. In these regions you literally can only raise cattle – they’re physiologically suited to consume nutritionally deplete grazeland, meaning beef producers including those who specialise in Wagyu, have a really important role to play.
Plant exclusivity - There’s so many vegans in Australia, they make so much noise, what do we do?
A misconception in society today is that Australians are eating too much meat but when we look at the research nothing has changed. In 1961, Australians were eating about 71g of animal derived proteins and in 2017, we were still at 71g. However, what has changed is dietary quality. Meat and 3 veg were a staple in many households across Australia in the 1960s. However the latest census data shows that while “protein” intake has not changed, Australians on the whole are eating less vegetables, fruit, cuts of meat/fish and dairy, and more processed foods including pizza, pies, pastries, etc. While it is possible to have these “occasional” foods as part of a healthy diet, they are not meant for the everyday or even weekly intake. The overall quality of the Australian diet has changed due to include a greater intake of fast and convenient foods rather than nutritionally dense wholefoods like vegetables, whole grains, and high quality animal proteins.
In Australia, plant exclusivity (those that only eat plant foods) is only 2%, it’s the same in the Ireland, UK and Canada, they are all under the 10% mark. We also know the below facts;
30% of Australians will have a nut-based milk 1/week, usually in a smoothie.
For those who undertake a plant-exclusive diet for health reasons, 84% will revert to an omnivore diet after 5 years because its very hard eat a nutritionally complete dietary intake without animal protein in your diet.
In Canada, 60% of plant exclusive consumers said they would return to an omnivore diet if they knew they animals were treated humanely.
Motivations for becoming plant exclusive:
Health: 70%
Environment: 41%
Curiosity: 45%
Ethical: 32%
We eat food NOT nutrients
Food is our source of nutrients, and hence our source of nutrition. It is important to realise that nutrition is the sum total of everything that we eat and drink over time, as opposed to the consumption of one particular food or supplement. A serve of birthday cake will not degrade the dietary quality, but cake every day is a totally different situation. Hence nutrition is a very new science around 220 years, and we are continuously working towards the next stage, what we don’t fully understand now and is the frontier of nutrition research is the mechanisms of actions, what and how much is being absorbed by the body.
Nutrient quantity is one thing, but now we are also understanding that other factors also affect quality. For example, when focusing on protein, proteins are not all the same and the quality of them is affected by four factors Quantity, Type, Digestibility and Absorption and Network.
Different foods provide you with different amounts of protein compared to the different amount of that particular food you eat. When standardised for total energy content (i.e. all serves provide 200kcal), 83 g of steak contains 20.9 g of protein, compared to Tofu where you would need to eat 241 g in order to get 24.1 g of protein. You literally need to eat 3 times the amount of tofu to consume similar amount of protein contained in steak.
Protein quantity
Grams per 200 kilocalaries (kcal) serve
Digestibility focuses on how well our digestive system is able to breakdown, metabolise, and absorb nutrients from different foods. In 2013 the Food and Agriculture Organisation proposed the Digestible Indispensible Amino Acid Score (DIAAS) as a method to assess protein quality. This methodology takes into consideration the amino acid content in the food prior to digestion, and how much is available for absorption after digestion.
It’s not enough to just know how much protein is in a particular food, we need to know how much is digestible. Without digestibility, there is no absorption. When it comes to protein, dairy protein is considered the gold standard due to it’s high digestibility. Any food that has a score over 100 is considered a high quality protein food. With a score of 111, beef is considered a high quality protein food.
Just because Wagyu moos like a cow, looks like a cow, and is part of the bovine family, Wagyu cattle produce a very unique beef that is not quite like other types of beef in terms of eating experience but also nutritional impact.
Wagyu producers need to realise that they are not just a “farmer” or a “grazier
They produce a highly nutritious, incredibly delicious product that is literally fool-proof for anyone from the budding home cook to Michelin-star chefs.
The uniqueness of Wagyu lies in it’s nutritional composition (which includes it’s protein content, but also a unique fat profile and a range of micronutrients), the satiety (i.e. feeling of fullness) properties of Wagyu, and the sensory experience that differentiates Wagyu beef from all other beef types.
You’re not “Just a Farmer ”
You are:
1. A geneticist
2. An environmental scientist
3. A vet and animal behaviourist
4. An animal nutritionist
5. A fertility specialist
You provide:
1. A naturally nutritious food
2. A nutritionally dense food
3. Nutritionally superior complete protein rich food that contains OTHER micronutrients too
4. An exceptional eating experience.
Your impact is:
1. A full belly
2. A sustainable food supply.
3. A healthy lifespan
4. Public health importance
