By Joel Marion, CISSN
So I just finished skimming through yet another lame article in a popular fitness magazine full of misinformation.
A brief summary of the article:
Chicken is so much better and healthier than beef! It contains less calories per ounce, has way less fat, and doesn’t contain heart-disease-causing saturated fats!
Where they get these writers from, I don’t know. Now let me tell you why this article is completely WRONG.
First, there are many cuts of beef, like a juicy eye of the round roast for example, that are practically as lean as chicken. Even more, these cuts are actually LEANER than certain parts of a chicken, such as the legs or thighs. And if you’re eating the skin of the chicken, there’s no comparison!
So that point is irrelevant.
If you really want to go super lean and cut out all the fat (which there really is no reason to do… that point up next) then both chicken and beef give you options. Bottom line, there are lean and fatty versions of both depending on the part of the animal you’re eating and how it’s prepared.
Apart from that, as we all hopefully know by now, there’s NOTHING wrong with fat. Fat is simply another nutrient that our bodies NEED and just like carbs and protein, there are “good” fats and “bad” fats.
This particular writer attacked the fat in beef as being very, very bad. Sorry, but that’s just incorrect.
Their argument was that beef is loaded with saturated fats, which are bad bad bad! Well, first of all, more than HALF the fat in beef is unsaturated.
And here’s another fact beyond that—not all saturated fat is bad. The problem with most saturated fats is that they have been shown to be linked to heart disease when consumed in higher quantities. That said, the main saturate found in beef (especially organic grass fed beef) is stearic acid—a saturate whose consumption has been shown to decrease plasma and liver cholesterol by reducing intestinal cholesterol absorption.
That’s right, saturated fat that lowers cholesterol.
Also, stearic acid intake helps to prevent arterial clotting and the formation of fatty deposits within arteries to fight off heart disease. Hmmm, someone didn’t do their research.
Even more, grass-fed beef is also high in CLA, a unique fatty acid that has been shown to specifically target and burn belly fat.
So, while chicken is certainly a great, healthy, lean protein source, don’t forget the beef! There are plenty of lean options, and if you’re eating grass-fed beef, the fat is actually VERY good for you—full of an array of health-promoting and fat-burning benefits!
Enjoy that information? Then you’ll love what I just posted for you here:
When I was lean and mean (superfit) in my 20s the firm started with health testing etc. My cholestrol showed high and I was instructed to change to fish and chicken and get off red meat completely. Needless to say that when I stopped dancing 4 day a week and got married and only did gym I went from a size 36 to a size 40. I think people should really look at the type of cholestrol and not just give people advice when it is not necessary to change your diet… Thanx for posting the truth…
Hello Mariana,
Thank you for your feedback. You bring up a great point: always search for quality standards and cuts. The grass-fed, organic type of meat is fine, but the conventionally-raised cattle (as well as chicken) bring with them a whole host of health issues (i.e., type of feed, fatty acid profile, antibiotics, growth hormones, etc.). Quality will always be the center point.
Best Regards,
Team BioTrust
Sharp thinking! Thanks for the asnewr.
Hello Mariana,
Thanks so much for your post and your encouraging response. Oh, the ol’ cholesterol dilemma…
In a nutshell, I would say that we have been misinformed as consumers by the media and health experts alike when it comes to cholesterol. That’s not to say that their intentions aren’t good, not at all. However, research really tells us that high cholesterol and high-fat diets are really NOT the cause of heart disease.
As a matter of fact, well-respected nutritionist and health advocate Dr. Jonny Bowden recently named the following four factors as far greater causes of heart disease that he labeled “The Four Horsemen of Aging.” They are: Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, Sugar, and Stress. In addition, Dr. Bowden recently co-authored a book recently titled, “The Great Cholesterol Myth.” May be worth looking into.
Did you that the high-cholesterol/heart disease “connection” began more than 100 years ago when a German pathologist theorized that cholesterol led to the development of plaques in your arteries? Did you know that his theory was later supported by a Russian scientist who fed cholesterol to rabbits and determined that it led to atherosclerotic changes?
Unfortunately, not too many people questioned the fact that rabbits are herbivores and do not naturally consume cholesterol:) Anyway, that breakthrough information started the notion that eating cholesterol leads to plaque deposits in your arteries, and at that time, it was believed that all cholesterol in your blood was due to dietary sources. But…
Did you know that your liver actually produces about 75% of your body’s cholesterol? That is indeed correct, Mariana. So, even if you didn’t eat a single drop of cholesterol in your diet, you’d still have cholesterol in your body. And, that’s actually a good thing because cholesterol is needed by your cells to produce the cell membranes.
My intention is to help you realize how little of an impact that dietary cholesterol has on blood levels of cholesterol. There are, arguably, studies that do connect cholesterol levels to cardiovascular disease — although we could pick those apart.
It seems that there are several reasons why health professionals would want to look at cholesterol in such detail. One, it’s relative easy to measure and monitor. Two, the cholesterol-lowering drug industry is highly profitable. And, three, it’s been imbedded in our heads.
Going back then, what are the factors that really impact our cholesterol and how can we best manage our blood levels?
Nutrition and lifestyle factors are the biggest, controllable factors in the battle against cholesterol. Wait, didn’t I say that dietary cholesterol has very little impact on blood cholesterol? I did indeed. But, that doesn’t mean that other foods don’t have an impact.
Dietary fiber has significant cholesterol-lowering properties. Fiber can interfere with the amount of bile — which is necessary for the breakdown of dietary fats — that is reabsorbed in the intestines. To make up for this loss, the liver must produce new bile salts, which are composed of cholesterol. So, increasing your fiber intake through vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, etc., can have a cholesterol-lowering effect.
Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to both lower LDL cholesterol as well as blood triglycerides, so supplementing with a fish oil or algae oil can go a long way in lowering cholesterol levels.
Certain herbs and spices like garlic, cumin, and ginger can have a cholesterol-lowering effect by blocking cholesterol uptake in the gut. Further, dark chocolate that’s high in cocoa (70% or more) has been shown to lower LDL while increasing HDL cholesterol.
Exercise and lifestyle (i.e., stress management) also play a significant role in lowering cholesterol.
The last point I want to come back to is that the liver is the predominant producer of blood cholesterol and nutritional factors — outside of dietary cholesterol — play a huge role.
One of the most-overlooked factors is actually blood sugar management and insulin control. That’s right, the hormone insulin actually plays a significant role in the liver’s production of cholesterol — that’s one reason why we actually see BETTER cholesterol numbers in low-carbohydrate studies. It’s also why we see increased risk for heart disease in low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets. Shocker!
Insulin resistance is actually an underlying cause of heart disease and cholesterol manufacturing (especially of the LDL variety). Insulin resistance results, ironically, from a diet high in carbohydrates — especially processed carbohydrates, sugars, and fructose.
Ironically, I say, because most people are prescribed a low-fat diet when they are diagnosed with high cholesterol. When you can’t eat fat, you are told to eat more carbohydrates. More carbohydrates result in chronically high levels of both blood sugar and insulin, which result in insulin resistance and high cholesterol.
Hmmm, interesting. Here is one of many studies that implicate insulin sensitivity as governing factor over cholesterol production: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20436182.
Food for thought, Mariana =)
Tim Skwiat
BT Head Trainer
A million thakns for posting this information.
Thank you, Caelii. Let us know if there is anything that we can do for you.
Tim Skwiat
BT Head Trainer