Lie #1: Grass-fed beef is better for you.

The truth: Cows raised entirely on grass pastures really do produce superior meat higher in heart-healthy beneficial fatty acids and vitamin E. But just don't trust a generic "grass-fed" claim on a beef product label. If you do, you could unknowingly be eating factory- farmed beef from cows raised on feedlots, desolate, grassless patches of land where thousands of cows are crammed and fed an unnatural diet of corn and soy. The end result? Meat higher in unhealthy saturated fats that could also be more likely to harbor the lethal strain of e. Coli 0157:H7. "All beef cattle in the U.S. are grass-fed at one point in their lives, before they are transported to the feedlots," explains Charlotte Vallaeys, director of farm and food policy at The Cornucopia Institute, a sustainable farming watchdog group. "So technically the majority of beef cattle are grass-fed but not grass-finished."

Eat this instead: For truly grass-fed beef, seek out the American Grassfed label from The American Grassfed Association. The organization prohibits any grain feeding.