The majority of consumers long lived in the dark, hidden from the fact that much of the world’s agricultural produce is treated with pesticides, antibiotics and hormones. It wasn’t until organic farms and supermarkets first promoted “hormone-free” meats that many consumers even became aware of the fact that synthetic hormones had likely helped to put meat on their plates for years.
Hormones have been used for decades to help farmers improve the yield from livestock and the quality of the meat; allowing targeted tinkering with factors like marbling and taste.
So the question remains, are “hormone-free” meats necessarily better for us? Or are hormones a just a necessary farmers-aid in the global supply of good-quality, low-cost meat products? We have the facts but the choice is still left in your hands.
What hormones are used?
There are two types of hormones found in treated cattle: endogenous hormones (hormones naturally produced within the cattle themselves) and exogenous hormones (naturally occurring or synthetic versions of sex and growth hormones – often injected or implanted). Endogenous hormones are hard to tell apart from naturally-occurring exogenous hormones
What do the hormones do?
Cattle treatment with sex hormones like estradiol and testosterone can help to synchronise reproductive cycles for milk production, improve marbling of meat, accelerate maturation and growth and ultimately improve the final size of each animal. Synthetic (not naturally occurring) hormones like zeranol, diethylstilbestrol (no longer used) and trenbolone acetate can help farmers to achieve similar goals but are designed to be better metabolised by the cattle, leaving less in the tissues for later consumption.
But what are they doing to me?
Initial concerns arose over half a century ago in a time when almost all beef cattle were treated with a compound by the name of diethylstilbestrol (DES). DES was also used as a medicine for pregnant women, which aided in the prevention of certain forms of miscarriage. It was later discovered that this DES treatment increased the risk of vaginal cancer in the daughters of these pregnant women and both the human medicine and cattle injections were phased out by the mid-1970s. All use of hormones has since then has been finely scrutinised and controlled by numerous regulatory bodies.
Substantial scientific evidence has supported decisions made by the European Union (EU), World Trade Organisation (WTO) and America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to either ban or allow the hormones currently used in livestock management and growth promotion. These decisions are based on the hormones’ perceived dangers to human health and the amounts of these hormones that make it to the plates of consumers.
Some of the hormones currently used in livestock may even have the potential to improve the health of adults by bettering body composition, improving musculature, reducing fat accumulation and even restoring insulin sensitivity in diabetics. The synthetic steroid trenbolone acetate has been reported in numerous studies as a popular steroid in the professional bodybuilding scene with an off-label use similar to its original purpose: to improve muscle retention and lower fat content of cattle on the way to the slaughterhouse or, in this case, the stage.
So how much of these hormones am I eating?
Regardless of whether or not any of these hormones have potential therapeutic benefit or dangers for adults, hormone manipulation in growing children and maturing teenagers is more often than not a dangerous precursor to developmental issues.
For this reason and many others, the only hormones approved for use in livestock are those that are scientifically proven to be eradicated naturally before they’re packaged for human consumption. Although certain organic and “hormone-free” farms now provide the consumer with the added comfort of knowing that hormones were never added to the livestock in the first place, the evidence suggests that the only practical difference offered by hormone-free meats is in their ironically “jacked up” price.