Meat is good, right, or is it bad? As time has gone on, studies have begun to show that certain meats can be bad for your health.
This is in addition to new diets and opinion pieces on the dangers of meat in general. While these articles have some credibility, they gloss over the fact that you can still eat healthy on a meaty diet.
It all depends on what kind of meat you eat, how often you eat it and what you actually call meat. For our purposes, fish is also meat since it is a great source of protein.
In order to eat healthy on a meaty diet, there are a few important steps to follow.
#1 Choose your meat carefully
One of the most important parts of eating healthy on a meat diet is based on being selective about the types of meat you choose to eat.
Your best bet is to go with meat that is labeled as “Select” or “Choice.” While “Prime” can be delicious, it is often fattier and can have lots of cholesterol.
You should also be on the lookout for leaner cuts of meat and poultry. Lean cuts are lower in fat and generally much healthier for you.
Lean cuts of beef include chuck, tenderloin, sirloin and round. For pork or lamb, lean cuts include tenderloin, chops, leg, and loin. For poultry, the best is skinless breast meat.
#2 Be careful of ground meats
It’s important that you be quite careful when it comes to buying ground meat. For ground poultry, there’s often a danger of having more fat than ground beef does, as ground poultry usually includes the dark meat and skin, which are both quite fatty.
In those situations, always go with ground breast meat.
For other ground meats, you should be careful to check the percentages of lean meat to fat. If you want to eat healthy, delicious ground meat, make sure it is at least 90% lean meat. This goes for both meat and poultry.
#3 Get Fishy
When people talk about meat, they often focus mostly on beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and turkey.
While those are great sources (if you choose the right cuts), there is another option: fish! Fish is a great source of protein and healthy omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, you should probably be eating much more fish than you are eating now, no matter how much fish you’re eating.
Some of the best fish you can add to your diet are:
- Wild salmon: one 3-ounce piece of salmon has 17 grams of protein and just 121 calories. Although it’s considered an oily fish, it is one of the good fatty foods that will help you to be healthy and lose weight.
- Halibut: one 3-ounce piece of halibut has 16 grams of protein and just 77 calories. Not only is this a protein-rich fish, but it also has lots of great fiber, which can leave you feeling more satisfied.
- Light canned tuna: for once 3-ounce serving of tuna, you get 16 grams of protein with just 73 calories. Just because it’s canned doesn’t mean it’s bad, especially if you go for the lighter version. It also happens to be one of the most affordable fish for health and weight loss.
#4 Switch it up
There’s no way for us to talk about healthy fish to eat on a meaty diet without talking about your meats as well.
We know the major meat players here: chicken, beef, pork, and lamb, but if you want to have great amounts of protein and eat healthily, you’ll need to switch up the types of meat you consume on a regular basis.
- Grass-fed beef: while it is beef, yes, it isn’t normally the kind you find easily. Grass-fed beef is much lower in fat as well as in calories. For example, while a lean 7-ounce strip steak has 386 calories with 16 grams of fat, a 7-ounce piece of grass-fed strip steak has only 234 calories and just 5 grams of fat.
- Bison: bison is a great alternative to beef with a similar flavor profile. Even better, it has half the fat and much fewer calories than your conventional red meat. While 90% ground beef hamburger has about 10 grams of fat, the same sized buffalo burger has just 2 grams of fat.
- Ostrich: this may be more available to those in South Africa and other ostrich-y locations, but if you can find it you should definitely go for it. It has the rich taste of beef and is technically red meat (even though it’s poultry) but with much less fat than chicken or turkey. Luckily, it’s becoming more available in supermarkets around the country.
Start eating healthier, meatier food today
With these tips, you can enjoy your daily meals while still eating meat regularly. As long as you focus on leaner, more diverse meats, you’ll see great results, not only in your weight and physical health but also in your mood.
Good luck!
Bio: Bryson Telling is a writer for Lima France, a world leader in developing innovative food manufacturing machine.