Quality is not just a word. It has meaning. A quality car costs more money, because it is more reliable than other similar cars, more fuel-efficient, faster or better by some other measure, but somehow it is better. That is the very definition of quality. And so it is with other things, all things, in fact, including food.

Quality ingredients are better by some measure. It may be that they are healthier or tastier. Often it is both. I always advocate buying the highest-quality food ingredients, because they make for a healthier, better-tasting meal. In this case, the main ingredients are ground beef and buffalo. I advocate buying organic and/or grass-fed meats and animal products. This is because growth hormones and chemical pesticides in animal feed end up in the cells of the animal and affect the taste ”“ and not in a good way. Moreover, they are not healthy for us to consume even indirectly by eating the animal.

Further, in the natural world, cows would not eat grains, but rather just grasses. Grain bulks them up, increasing the price farmers can get for them, but grass-fed beef is more natural and healthier. Why, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Grains metabolize differently in our bodies and spike our blood sugar levels. This is true for the animals as well as us. This is not good. Over the long term, it can lead to diabetes ”“ an insidious disease that causes the direct and indirect death of millions of Americans. And again, eating the animal means eating the grains. Since most of us already have lots of grains in our diets, getting even more via the meat we eat is not a good thing, according to many health care professionals and the most up-to-date scientific studies.

By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with high fructose corn syrup, it is an incredibly unhealthy product that is being added to more and more food products under our noses. I can only speculate why this is happening, but I suspect it has something to do with the manufacturer saving money. Even Heinz ”“ the apple pie of ketchup companies ”“ contains it now. However, they have also labeled a product they call “Simply Heinz,” which does not include the ingredient. It seems to be the original recipe. That’s what we buy in my house. If you do some research online, I think you will find that thousands of health care professionals around the country are suggesting high fructose corn syrup plays a nefarious role in the epidemic of diabetes in our country. ‘Nuff said.

— By Bruce Hardina