Chicken over Beef

There's a lot of product out there boasting how it is better for you simply because it is made with turkey or chicken instead of beef (hot dogs, lunch meats, ground meats, sausages, bacon, etc). The best way to really put it is that there are some positives and some negatives to switching up the meats.

Let's start positive. Yes, chicken is lower in fat...usually. A boneless skinless chicken breast can be very lean but still contain a ton of protein like you want to have from meat. Same goes for turkey. With these new products that are mixing or switching the meat content, you are going to find a ton of salt, preservatives, and sometimes even fat. So, if you are to look at your labels and nutrition and ingredients on each food you want to buy, you can choose the best option. It can be a great step in finding ways to lower calories in your diet (from lower fat content, depending).

Now, here's what I'd like to say: it's not like you can just say, "oh I'm eating chicken now, so it must be better for me." Wrong. Depending on how you are eating the poultry, it could be worse for you than eating a steak or hamburger patty. The skin on poultry is always high in saturated fats and cholesterol. (remove it!) The legs, wings, and thighs of the poultry will have higher fat content than the rest of the bird. (limit this!) Something that makes me confused when thinking about this concept is turkey bacon...why? I can tell you it does not taste nearly as good and the price will certainly be higher. On top of that, it's still not a great option for you and your diet. It's still bacon! In all honesty, if you are really concerned about high fat, high calories, or high weight gain in your diet, anything with the word bacon in it probably should be removed. In my mind (and I'm not trying to lose or gain any weight here) I limit myself to one or two slices of normal, delicious, crispy bacon, or I try and treat it more like a dessert than a meat.

Remember this: you can find equally healthy (if not more healthy) cuts of pork tenderloins, pork roasts, flank steaks, and strip steaks. The red meats can provide things that the white meats cannot too such as a more biologically available iron source (heme iron). What's nice about red meats is you can usually see how much fat is in the meat. Just look at how much white is intertwined in the meat. Of course this can take away from the tenderness, but there are methods you can find to still cook your meat very tender.

So vary it up! Get chicken, beef, pork, turkey, ostrich, duck, buffalo, blah, blah, blah, you're still reading this? Go eat!