Friday Food Pharmacy: Red meat that's good for you: buffalo, elk, deer, maybe even beef

For quite a while now we've been warned to eat little or no red meat, but here is a surprise: there are red meats that are actually leaner than white-meat chicken! (Note: we're not talking about beef.)

According to the Yahoo food blog "Beauty Eats" by Real Age (in an article quoted below), buffalo is actually the leanest meat you can eat, followed closely by elk and deer.

I've written before about what I believe are the advantages of following an ancestral diet, and if you are of Native American or Northern European ancestry, your ancestral diet contained a lot of red meat. The staple meats in the Native American diet (depending on location) were buffalo or deer, and Anglo-Saxons (northern Europeans in general) ate elk and deer meat. According to archaeological evidence, those folks ate an abundance of red meat, and they didn't have the cholesterol problems we have today!

Why is that? Because the type of red meat we eat most often is not right for us. No wonder grain-fattened beef causes all sorts of health problems (not to mention the pharmaceutical additives given the cows which we absorb in record quantities). People whose ancestors were northern Europeans haven't evolved to eat beef…it's not in our ancestral diet. (However, if you do eat beef, make sure it's grass fed, not grain-fed! Grass-fed beef actually contains the Omega-3 fatty acids that are good for you! There is more info below on beef.)

Compare these charts on beef, deer, elk, and buffalo meat from the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

I compared the full charts (not shown here) and found that the minerals, vitamins, and amino acids were comparable for a serving of each of the four meats when roasted. The real story is in the "Proximates" as shown below.

Deer has 61% fewer calories (kcal) than a serving of roasted beef tenderloin (filet mignon), and elk and buffalo do even better. All the beef-alternatives are slightly higher in protein, too. A serving of beef eye of round is only slightly higher in calories than deer, elk, and buffalo.

Deer meat, the highest of the three (deer, elk, and buffalo) in Total lipid (fat) is only one-one-hundredth of a gram higher than white meat turkey. Filet Mignon (statistically comparable to beef chuck, and top sirloin) has over 475% more fat than the serving of deer meat! (12.98 g. compared to 2.71 g.) At best, the lowest amount of fat I was able to find in a serving of beef (eye of round) was still 50% to 100% higher than the amount of fat in the same size serving of deer, elk, and buffalo meats.

Note that there is no refuse with the game meats, either!

Cut of beef with the lowest fat content:

Beef, round, eye of round, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/8" fat, all grades, cooked, roasted

NDB No: 23598 (Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion)
Refuse: 9% (Bone and connective tissue, 1.21%, separable fat, 7.42%)

Nutrient	Units	Value per 85 grams	Number of Data Points
Proximates
Water	g	55.69	20
Energy	kcal	144	0
Energy	kj	603	0
Protein	g	25.27	20
Total lipid (fat)	g	4.00	20
Ash	g	0.98	20
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0.00	0
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.0	0
Sugars, total	g	0.00	0

Typical beef:

Beef, tenderloin, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/4" fat, prime, cooked, roasted

NDB No: 13260 (Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion)
Common Name: Beef Medallions, Filet Mignon
Refuse: 25% (3% connective tissue, 22% separable fat)

Nutrient	Units	1.00 X 3 oz ------- 85g
Proximates
Water	g	47.63
Energy	kcal	217
Energy	kj	907
Protein	g	23.41
Total lipid (fat)	g	12.98
Ash	g	0.99
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0.00
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.0
Sugars, total	g	0.00

Game Meats

Game meat, elk, cooked, roasted

NDB No: 17167 (Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion)
Refuse: 0%

Nutrient	Units	1.00 X 3 oz ------- 85g
Proximates
Water	g	56.34
Energy	kcal	124
Energy	kj	519
Protein	g	25.66
Total lipid (fat)	g	1.61
Ash	g	1.12
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0.00
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.0

Game meat, deer, cooked, roasted

NDB No: 17165 (Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion)
Refuse: 0%

Nutrient	Units	1.00 X 3 oz ------- 85g
Proximates
Water	g	55.45
Energy	kcal	134
Energy	kj	562
Protein	g	25.68
Total lipid (fat)	g	2.71
Ash	g	1.29
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0.00
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.0

Buffalo meat:

NDB No: 17157 (Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion)
Scientific Name: Bison

Common Name: buffalo
Refuse: 0%

Nutrient	Units	1.00 X 3 oz ------- 85g
Proximates
Water	g	56.56
Energy	kcal	122
Energy	kj	508
Protein	g	24.17
Total lipid (fat)	g	2.06
Ash	g	1.34
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0.00
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.0
Sugars, total	g	0.00

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BEEF

Here is a bit of info on beef explaining why it's not as bad as you've been told as long as the cow is allowed to get its natural diet of grass in the natural setting of a field.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_fed_beef

While grass-fed beef contains less total fat compared to grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef and dairy contain higher levels of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) and the Omega-3 fatty acids ALA, EPA, and DHA.^[1] While the research on CLA is unclear with regard to humans, it has shown many positive effects in animals in the areas of heart disease, cancer, and the immune system.

Grass-fed beef has a much different flavor and texture than grain-fed beef. A high-grain diet is responsible for intramuscular fat in beef, called marbling. As a consequence, grass-fed beef produces less "juicy" steaks than conventionally raised beef.

It is indeed possible to produce well marbled, juicy and tender beef with a 100% grass diet but it requires more resources and it can be difficult to produce consistent results. Specifically, grass-fed cattle need to be slaughtered at 24-30 months, as opposed to 18 months for typical feedlot beef. Also, after slaughter, the carcass ought to be "dry-aged" for 21 days, which was the common practice back when hanging beef was shipped via refrigerated rail car from, say, Kansas City to New York. Presently, feedlot cattle are taken to slaughter at 18 months and cut, boxed and shipped in a matter of minutes. ^{[citation needed]}

1. ^ http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_environment/greener-pastures.pdf, p. 58

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, here is the feature article on the red meats that are good and good for you, the article that prompted me to research deer, elk, and buffalo:

Red Meat that Makes You Skinny?

Beauty eats: Posted Mon, Oct 29, 2007

Lamb chops or pork chops, bison burgers or veal breast, round roast or Porterhouse steak? Sure, you know meat’s high in cholesterol and saturated fat and that it's less healthy than fish and poultry, but what if you really, really need to tear into some red meat now and then

Use this guide to find the slimmest, trimmest cuts and kinds. Now enjoy--not just the flavors, the health benefits: Most meat is rich in top-quality protein, iron, zinc, B12, and other nutrients that aren’t easy to get elsewhere.

What’s the leanest meat of all?

We hope you’re ready to expand your dinner horizons because bison (aka buffalo) is the big winner. (Deer and elk are right on its hooves, er, heels.) Believe it or not, bison has slightly less fat and fewer calories (2 grams and 122 calories per 3-ounce serving) than skinless light meat chicken (3g and 144 cals). Plus, it’s a terrific source of protein (24g) and iron. The taste? Similar to beef, though slightly sweeter and richer. Try your own burger recipe or this grilled buffalo steak dish.

Bonus: With bison (wild game, too), you aren't exposed to the cancer-linked growth hormones and antibiotics administered to farm-raised cows. [Emphasis added by Michelle]

Things that go “Mooo!”

Beef and veal are skinniest when they’re loin or round cuts, such as beef bottom sirloin (6g fat, 150 cals) and top round veal (3g, 128 cals). Avoid veal cutlets and breast meat.

If you prefer pork...

Choose leg cuts, such as ham, or loin, as in boneless sirloin pork chops or top loin chops (both have about 7g fat and 170 cals).

Lamb lovers

Try cuts from the shank half of the leg (if labels aren’t clear, ask the butcher). Well-trimmed shank-half cuts have 5-6 grams fat and about 155 calories per serving.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, when looking for something interesting for dinner, look beyond the "usual suspects"…you'll be glad you did!