What The Color Of Your Steak's Fat Says About The Cow's Diet

Everyone knows that you are what you eat, and this idiom is no different when it comes to cattle. When buying a cut of beef, you might have noticed that the fat-marbling throughout looks a little different than what you're used to. Turns out, the important fat in your steak works as a kind of mini mood ring to reflect the type of feed the cow got on the farm. We say "mini" because there are only two different colors you should be seeing in the fat of your steak: yellow and white.

When picturing a conventional cut of steak, you're probably envisioning a pristine, paper-white color to the fat — at least, that sounds a lot more appealing than seeing a yellow hue that might resemble stained smokers' teeth. But regardless of appearance, both colors indicate a healthy cut of meat. White fat means the cow had a grain-fed diet, while yellow fat means the cow was on a grass-fed diet. To get a good read on the fat color of your beef, look to the fat cap that's most prominent on the top or outside ring of your steak.

The reason grass-fed cows have yellowish fat is because they absorb a lot of beta-carotene, a naturally occurring pigment that gives plants like carrots, bell peppers, and, yes, grass their signature colors. A cow's fat absorbs the beta-carotene, which is what turns it yellow. Grains, on the other hand, only have trace amounts of beta-carotene, so there's not enough pigment to color the fat.

There's been a long-running debate about whether grass-fed beef is better for you than grain-fed beef. Grass-fed sounds more appealing to some considering the health benefits of ingesting beta-carotene, namely Vitamin A, which is not only good for you but good for the cows too. Cows that are fed in grain (specifically corn) tend to have more health problems and are often given antibiotics to combat liver abscesses. While eating beef that's been treated with antibiotics might sound scary, dosages are kept extremely low through strict regulation by the FDA and the USDA, meaning that you're not likely to ingest a meaningful amount.

Another reason people prefer grass-fed beef to grain-fed is that grass-feeding cattle is more humane. Once grain-fed cows are weened off of their mother's milk, they are often confined to feedlots, where they don't have as much (if any) freedom to wander the grassy, sun-soaked pastures. We already discussed the need for antibiotics for grain-fed cows, but the lack of access to the outdoors also contributes to higher levels of stress and other health issues. Grass-fed cows, on the other hand, are given more freedom and pasture access to eat at their leisure, which tends to make them healthier overall.

When it comes to taste, there are some slight differences between grass-fed and grain-fed cows. Grass-fed cows tend to be gamier, whereas grain-fed cows are said to taste more buttery and can even have a better flavor overall. And of course, there's the price consideration, grass-fed beef is on average more expensive than grain-fed due to the added costs of pasture-raising beef.