Red Meat

The Shocking Truth About Red Meat!

There’s a lot of talk in the fitness world about the horrible things red meat has to offer. There’s a lot of talk about the great things red meat has to offer.

One of my favorite things to hear people say when they are totally against eating red meat is: “*gasp* You eat, *deep breath*, RED MEAT?! It heightens all the terrible levels in your body and causes so many issues! How could you do that to yourself?”

My response is, why yes, we eat red meat at the Johnson household, and we will forever eat read meat at our house.

Do you want to know why? Let me tell you after these two PSAs I have.

PSA About Nutritional Data Collection

A lot of data that we see concerning red meat says it leads to cancer, diabetes, and high cholesterol. Most of these studies were just observational. This means it was based on perception only.

More research is being conducted on beef, and it is coming to light that those studies are not as factual as we thought. There were other factors that were causing the cancer, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

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For example, one of the hypotheses was that red meat was causing colon cancer. The people being studied were on red meat diets and not eating fiber. The diet itself was causing the colon cancer because there was no fiber in it, not the red meat.

This is what makes nutrition such a hard topic, it’s not always black and white. There’s lots of grey areas in each direction.

So, make sure you are staying up to date with the latest research and don’t believe everything you read on the internet!

Libby Harrel

PSA About Chicken

Chicken is great, I love chicken. It’s high in protein, low in fat, great for weight loss. Ever heard of the chicken and rice diet? BUT, I want to let you know that the way chicken is raised affects you! They are typically corn-fed, which is not great.

What cows eat doesn’t really affect what you eat from the cow, but what chickens eat affects what you eat from the chicken.

Basically, what a chicken eats, you eat. If they are on an unhealthy diet and eat lots of antibiotics, you’re eating the same. Even when a brand says ‘free-range’ you should look into it, because it doesn’t mean it was free-range for its entire life.

I just wanted to throw this PSA out there, because I really didn’t know that. It changes your outlook on beef and chicken when it comes to your health. It’s always good to do your own research for what brand you want to use!

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Pros to Eating Red Meat

  • The protein content in red meat is a huge benefit! If you get a good cut of steak or beef, it will have more protein per gram in it than chicken will. That fact always feels like a mic drop when I say it. All my chicken-only people, you are missing out on some insane protein gains by not getting into some red meat!
  • Red meat is super rich in iron. This is a really great thing, especially for women because they have a menstrual cycle which causes many iron deficiencies. Men can overdo it with iron so it’s always good to keep an eye out for how many iron-rich foods you are consuming if you are a male.
    • Having too little or too much iron both causes health issues we want to avoid. All in all, men and women should eat a healthy serving of red meat to keep their iron at good levels.
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Grass-Fed versus Grain-Fed Red Meat

Grass-fed meat has 2-6 times the Omega-3 that’s in grain-fed red meat. The ratio for grain-fed Omega-6 and Omega-3 is 9:1. Omega-6 raises cholesterol and other bad health issues. Omega-3 is what you need, and grass-fed has lots more of it!

Grass-fed has more Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and antioxidants than grain-fed red meat as well.

There are also less calories and saturated fats in grass-fed red meat!

Surely you can tell by what I just said that grass-fed is healthier than grain-fed, but why exactly?

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Well, the farmers for grain-fed meat are trying to cut costs so they feed the animals antibiotics and growth hormones to fatten the animal. It’s having a shorter life span, so they need to get it fatter faster to meet the weight requirements for butchering. Corn is extremely fattening, so that is what is used most of the time.

Corn causes inflammation because of the increase in Omega-6 in our bodies. Inflammation is never fun lol.

Because of these facts, a lot of people say that red meat itself isn’t unhealthy, but the quality of it is. The cons you see with red meat is more associated with grain-fed red meat.

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Recommendations

The overall point is not for you to become a full-blown red-meat-only person or a complete carnivore. The point is to educate you so you can make the best decisions concerning your diet and health.

I recommend having a variety of meat in your diet. Fish, chicken, red meat, all of it. Each meat has different nutrients that you can’t find in the other, and they all bring great benefits to your health. So, why not eat them all and get all the benefits right?

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Vegetables also have great nutrients that we need in our diets, so make sure you are eating your veggies!

Overall, we have to quit being scared of meat. It’s time you go get yourself a nice sirloin and enjoy it, because now you know that red meat isn’t bad for you at all!

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