Why meat is healthy?

Why is meat healthy?

What is meat?

Meat is an animal flesh which humans cook to eat like food. In the US and many other countries worldwide, it mainly refers to mammals

and birds' muscle tissue.

It is a long debate and highly controversial that whether one should prefer meat or vegetables. On the one hand, meat is included in many diets as a protein source and important nutrients.

On the other hand, some people believe eating it is unhealthy, unethical, and unnecessary.

Vegetable eaters are simply called vegetarians, while meat-eaters are called meatatarian. Non-meat eaters experience vitamin deficiencies and suffer decreased brain volume and fatigue.

This blog will help us a detailed look at the health benefits of consuming meat.

Different types of meat

1.Red meat

This comes from mammals and contains more myoglobin in its tissue than white meat.

Examples include:

beef (cattle)

pork (pigs and hogs)

lamb

veal (calves)

goat

bison, elk, and venison (deer)

>. Beef Nutrients

A 3.5-ounce (100-gram) serving of cooked chicken breast contains about 31 grams of protein. The same serving of lean beef contains about 27 grams.

A 100-gram portion of lean beef provides,

Calories: 205

Protein: About 27 grams

Riboflavin: 15% of the Daily Value (DV)

Niacin: 24% of the DV

Vitamin B6: 19% of the DV

Vitamin B12: 158% of the DV

Niacin: 24% of the DV

Phosphorus: 19% of the DV

Zinc: 68% of the DV

Selenium: 36% of the DV

2.White meat

This is type is lighter in color than red meat and comes from birds.

>. The main source of meat today?

Today, most meat worldwide comes from domesticated animals raised on farms, mainly on industrial-scale that often houses thousands of animals at a time.

 

>. Health Benefits

In the last 10,000 years we’ve gotten smaller in stature and brain size. With a heavy grain- and sugar-based diet, we are suffering increased rates of obesity, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis. We’re also experiencing an alarming incidence of skin problems, heart disease, and inflammation.

Human teeth are naturally designed to eat meat, Incisors for tearing meat, and molars for grinding it. If we compare ourselves with cows (cows eat plants only), they have 4 stomachs, and humans have one. This also supports the meat-eating nature of humans.

Following are the health benefits of consuming meat.

1.Protein

We take protein-rich supplements, but naturally, the best source of protein is meat. Meat also contains vitamins and minerals that help in muscle growth, like zinc, which assists in muscle repair and iron, which boosts energy levels and overcomes fatigue.

 

2. Iron

Meat, fish and poultry contains iron, which helps to prevent anemia because the body absorbs this iron better than non- iron found in plant foods such as vegetables.

 

3. Muscle

Body posture of meat-eaters is stronger than that of vegetarians. It provides muscle strength.

 

4. Bone

Diets without meat usually contain lower amounts of calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B-12, protein, and omega-3 fatty acids, which have important roles in maintaining bone health.

 

5. Brain

Meat contains vitamin B12, which promotes brain development in children.

 

6. Heart

Meat products are good to boost energy level and maintains a healthy heart

 

7. Blood Sugar Control.  

Researches shows meat helps maintain sugar levels in the body. This is great news for diabetics.

 

9. Immunity.

Zinc present in meat is a continuous source of immunity.

 

10. Cancer prevention

A serving of beef or lamb delivers half a human’s daily selenium needs. Selenium is an antioxidant that prevents cell damage and may contribute to cancer prevention.

 

11. Energy

It gives instant energy to the head and heart.

 

12. Weight Loss

Studies now shows that boiled, smoked, and oven-baked meat helps in weight loss. GYM instructors also advise including meat in their daily routine. It provides long-lasting energy, resulting in fewer hunger pangs.

The Myths About Meat

A most harmful myth about meat is that it doesn’t belong in a healthy diet

As told earlier, some people strongly believe that meat consumption leads to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity. 

But the main source of all these diseases is sugar. Sugar contains carbohydrates resulting in bad health, obesity, and fatigue.

The degenerative health conditions that exist now weren’t around when the cavemen’s main source of food was meat, vegetables, fish, nuts, seeds, and fruits. 45-65% of energy requirements were derived from animal sources, and diseases were unknown to them in earlier societies.

Harvard University Research

According to Harvard University evolutionary biologists Katherine Zink and Daniel Lieberman ( the authors of the Nature paper) researched that vegetarians had to go through up to 15 million “chewing cycles” a year.

Meat is much more calorie-rich meal. It does not require more chewing cycles as compared to plant-eaters. (Cooking has made things easier but did not come into vogue until 500,000 years ago.)

Another Research

Zink and Lieberman experimented with 24 modern humans and give them 3 kinds of food to consume (jewel yams, carrots, and beets) and one kind of meat (goat, raw). 

With electromyography sensors, they measured the amount of energy the head and jaw muscles exert to chew and swallow the sample food items.

Results of this research was not shocking, as they found 39% to 46% less force is required to chew and swallow processed meat than processed plant foods.

Interesting Meat Facts

• Some companies package beef in a carbon monoxide atmosphere to keep the meat looking pink or “fresh” for up to one full year. This only affects the color, though; the meat still spoils normally.
•  English words for livestock (cow, sheep, chicken) are Germanic-based, and the words for meats (beef, mutton, poultry) are French-based. This is because the people who raised the animals were Anglo-Saxon peasants and the people who ate them were Norman aristocrats.
• The red juice seeping out of a perfectly cooked rare steak is not blood but a mix of water and myoglobin.
• Americans mostly eat white chicken meat and export the rest to Russia/Asia, where dark meat is preferred, so most chickens get split in two and sent worldwide.
• Usain Bolt ate 100 Chicken McNuggets a day for 10 days before the Beijing Olympics and eventually won 3 gold medals.
• 49% of American adults eat at least one sandwich on any given day, according to the CDC. The most common fillings are lettuce, mayonnaise, tomatoes, mustard, catsup, and ham.
• Canned food can last indefinitely if sealed properly. On his wedding day in 1956, Beryl Lailey promised to keep a canned whole chicken until his 50th Anniversary, when he would eat it. He did and did not become ill.
•  Japan is obsessed with Kentucky Fried. Chicken on Christmas. Some people even order months in advance to avoid lines.
• Scientists are developing edible meat grown from stem cells, hoping to replace meat from slaughtered livestock.
• 70% of all red meat consumed worldwide is goat meat.
• The terms “white meat” and “dark meat” comes from the Victorian era, when people were too embarrassed to use the words “leg” and “breast.”
• Before 1868, eating meat from four-legged animals had been prohibited in Japan for more than a thousand years.
• Denmark has the highest consumption of meat per person. (Source)

In a nutshell, meat is an excellent source of nutrition. It helps build our immune system, and meat intake helps fight against many diseases, such as type 2 sugar and cancer. In this blog, we discussed meat, its types, health benefits, researches, and in the last some interesting facts about meat.

 I hope you would help me to write more and more. As a new blogger, I have just started writing, and I am inspired by Google, YouTube and other information channels.

If you think some information is missing or not accurate, then please share your valuable comments. Help us grow. Thanks for Reading this whole long blog.😊 I will try to cover maximum meat recipes in my upcoming blogs.