MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday 2 October, 2019
Heart Health in Men Unaffected by Eating 100% Grass-Fed Wagyu Beef, Study Finds.
The results are in. A study funded in part by First Light, the New Zealand premium meat company producing Wagyu that
Forbes recently called “the best beef in the world,” has found that middle-aged men can confidently consume their beef
three times each week without damaging their heart health.
The study was conducted by the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland as part of a High Value Nutrition (HVN)
National Science Challenge (NSC) project, led by AgResearch and co-funded by First Light. It took 50 middle-aged Kiwi
men between the ages of 35 and 55 who were considered high risk for cardiovascular disease, and put them through an
eight-week clinical trial. During the eight weeks, each participant was given a total of 500g of either grass-fed Wagyu
beef, regular beef, or soy protein, spread over three portions per week. Participants were told to avoid other red and
processed meats during the trial.
At the conclusion of the eight weeks, all three groups had improved their cholesterol. The group consuming the 100%
grass-fed Wagyu measured a cholesterol drop from an average of 7.0 to 5.5 mmol/L.
Study lead Professor David Cameron-Smith says the results will be presented at a science conference in Rotorua this
week, and he’s delighted to share them. “Our research was to identify whether eating New Zealand grass-fed Wagyu beef
for typical middle-aged males was detrimental to heart health,” he explains. “Wagyu is known equally for its tenderness
and high levels of fat, and our research focused on the specifics of how this fat might impact on heart health. However,
eating Wagyu three times each week for eight weeks had no negative impact on the risk factors of heart disease,
including cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Our research demonstrates that as part of a healthy lifestyle, enjoying
premium New Zealand grass-fed Wagyu beef is not detrimental to heart health in men.”
First Light co-founder Jason Ross, whose company provided the Wagyu beef for the study, says the premium meat producer
was keen to participate in the trial. “We had always known our 100% grass-fed Wagyu beef tastes delicious, and we’d also
learned that our Wagyu beef had higher levels of Omega-3 than other beef, which is great for brain health. We wanted to
see what we could find out about heart health, particularly around the common perception that red meat is damaging to
the heart,” says Jason.
“We had some idea of what the outcome might be, but of course what we didn’t anticipate was that if you put a group of
middle-aged Kiwi men in a study that is measuring their cholesterol at the beginning and at the end of the study, some
of them might begin to change or manage other risk factors in their lives too.”
Jason says while he imagines there may have been a few more brisk jogs going on within the test group, one thing is
clear. “Middle-aged men can feel confident that if they eat grass-fed Wagyu three times a week, at the very worst, their
cardiovascular health will be unaltered.”
“We think this is not only great news for First Light, but for the New Zealand beef industry,” Jason continues. “We’re
proud to have supported the study, and rapt there is now yet another reason for Kiwis to continue enjoying our delicious
100% grass-fed Wagyu beef.”
About First Light:
Established in 2003 by Gerard Hickey, Greg Evans and Jason Ross, First Light is New Zealand’s only commercial producer
of 100% grass-fed Wagyu beef, and also markets premium venison. The First Light team set out to create the world’s best
grass-fed meat that delivers on flavour and succulence without any shortcuts, unnatural substances or interventions of
industrialised production. To achieve that, First Light developed a unique value chain model to produce and deliver
grass-fed meats directly from the farm to the person who presents or consumes the steak.
ENDS