Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Chicken or Beef - is one betterr than the other?

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-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.

A
lso, 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!



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