Fatty Chicken vs Lean Beef

Sylkwyrm
Sylkwyrm Posts: 75 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
My doctor recommended eating less red meat but when I compare ground beef to ground turkey extra lean ground beef has as much fat as turkey. I've been cooking with more chicken breasts accidentally picked up chicken thighs from the store which wore delicious but have a higher fat content. I'd like to cook with chicken thighs more but is that pretty much the same as cooking with lean beef? Is chicken always healthier than beef? Is beef always less healthy than chicken?

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Why did he recommend less red meat. IMO, there is nothing inherently unhealthy about red meat. Dietary fat isn't unhealthy, it's a required macro-nutrient.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited April 2019
    Sylkwyrm wrote: »
    My doctor recommended eating less red meat but when I compare ground beef to ground turkey extra lean ground beef has as much fat as turkey. I've been cooking with more chicken breasts accidentally picked up chicken thighs from the store which wore delicious but have a higher fat content. I'd like to cook with chicken thighs more but is that pretty much the same as cooking with lean beef? Is chicken always healthier than beef? Is beef always less healthy than chicken?

    Fat is one of those things that there is some disagreement right now.

    I've never looked at extra lean ground beef (and I doubt that's what your doctor was thinking of), but in general, the reason red meat is frowned upon (when it is) is the saturated fat specifically. I do believe it also has a bit of trans fat. Whether or not that's true of extra lean ground beef I don't know.

    Did your doctor make that recommendation based on a health concern?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,442 MFP Moderator
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Why did he recommend less red meat. IMO, there is nothing inherently unhealthy about red meat. Dietary fat isn't unhealthy, it's a required macro-nutrient.

    Agreed. And both can be incorporated into a healthy diet. Right now i am experimenting with reducing red meat in favor or more fish to see if there is an impact to LDL. Overall, fish (especially those high in omega 3s) is healthier than foods high in Saturated Fats.

    Overall, weight loss and exercise will have the best impact on metabolic health.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    Hard to give you a proper answer without knowing more about why your doctor told you to limit red meat. Did he give a reasoning?
  • Daisy_Girl2019
    Daisy_Girl2019 Posts: 209 Member
    There so many risk now starting to show in corelation with beef consumption. Gout is number 1 and now they are starting to see risk for chronic kidney failure related to over consumption of red meat.
    Anyways, I have been limiting my beef consumption. I only eat beef once or twice a month. Add me, I love sharing recipes of chicken and fish on my page.
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    I baked this chicken thighs a couple nights ago and the pan really help drain a lot of fat from the thighs.

  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited April 2019
    There is a lot of political pressure on red meat. It consumes resources that do gooders think might be re-allocated, it offends the animal welfare crowd, and it is the source of taurine, attributed for testosterone production, currently out of fashion.

    In that environment, the evils of red meat are largely exaggerated such that only red meat processed with nitrates is really suspect. Anything the WHO publishes is probably propaganda, and their objections to red meat are directed to processed red meat or casual relationships between red meat eating populations and bowel cancer.

    Note that as usual, the same population that eat red meat, get bowel exams at a rate of probably 100 times the populations that do not eat red meat. Or, as the Mumbai gastroenterologist is quoted as saying: "what is endoscopy prep?" They don't do it there. People die from something else first.

    So, you can avoid red meat but don't think it really matters from a health standpoint. It probably doesn't. If you don't drive in the rain you will extend your life by multiples of dietary restriction of red meat.

    Notwithstanding the foregoing, I almost always prefer fish choices to red meat choices.
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