Meat Facts.
One of nature's most balanced foods and is filled with the nutrients that your body needs to build and maintain muscle, gain strength and vitality!
A meat based high protein diet is good for you. Red meat and poultry are great sources of protein and nutrients and should be made part of a balanced diet, but always in moderation.
Interesting Meat Facts:
• Cows were first domesticated for beef in the regions of Greece and Turkey about 4,000 years ago.
• There are about 1.3 billion cattle in the world today, more than 200 million in India.
• Beef is one of the best sources of protein, B12, niacin, zinc, B2 and iron.
• A cow is more valuable for its milk, cheese, butter, yogurt than it is for its beef.
• The average lifespan of a cow is 7 years. The oldest cow ever recorded was Big Bertha. She reached 48 in 1993.
• Bacon is one of the oldest meats on history; the Chinese were preserving pork bellies around 1500 B.C.
• Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 mph and can run up to 20 mph, domesticated turkeys can't fly.
• In a turkey the active muscles such as the legs store a lot of oxygen and become dark, while less active muscles like the breast remain white.
• You can order your steak cooked in six different ways in restaurants: very rare, rare, medium rare, medium, well done and very well done.
• Japan produces the world's most expensive Kobe beef. Cattles are fed a diet of beer and soybeans and even given a daily massage.
Meat Storage and Serving Ideas:
• It is sensible to reduce the number of meals that include red meat and substitute the red meat with lean poultry and fish.
• However red meat is not always higher in fat than white meat. This depends on how you cook the meat, the cut of the meat and what you add to it - creamy sauces and butter. Chicken wings and pork belly are rather high in fat too.
• Always buy fresh and unprocessed meats and make your own meals, rather than low quality processed meats like sausages and burgers or ready meals like lasagna as they tend to be full of saturated fats or include very little meat.
• Cut off all visible fat before cooking and skin on poultry.
• Brown minced meat in a pan until the fat runs off, then tip it and continue with cooking.
• Do not fry meat, frying adds nothing more than fat and calories into your meal.
• Meats should be stored in the refrigerator for no more than three days in the original wrapper.
• Leftover cooked meat can be kept four to five days in the refrigerator. Never eat after five days!
• Fresh beef is cherry-red in color. The darker the beef the older the animal. Fat should be white, not yellow.
• Try and include the vegetarian substitutes of meat- tofu and quorn in your dishes as much as you can.
• Never eat raw meat of any kind. Cooking destroys many toxins.
How Much Fat in Meat?
Turkey contains around 1% fat. It is an excellent lean source of protein, zinc and vitamin B.
Skinless chicken and ham both contain 3% fat. Always go for lean ham to avoid eating saturated fats and eat it in moderation as ham is high in salt, just like bacon which contains 16% fat. Chicken skin is one of the fattiest foods you can find so always choose the skinless variety.
Beef has about 5% fat, so it is ok to include it in your diet from time to time. Please check the fat content of the (minced) meat you buy at the supermarket.
Duck- 11% fat and lamb- 8% fat are both fatty meats, skinless duck- source of iron and zinc and lamb may be eaten occasionally.
