Dietary definition: MEAT

Many times a day when asking patients about food intake I am told 'I don't eat meat'. When I ask how the person gets protein in their diet, they tell me they eat chicken, fish, turkey, dairy products. Somehow the term 'meat' has come to mean specifically 'beef' or 'red meat'. Well, you can take the following as good news or bad news: beef as a general source of animal protein is no more or less healthy than chicken, turkey, pork or fish. a lean cut of any animal flesh will have about the same fat content and overall nutritional value. You will be no healthier eating a pound of chicken or bluefin tuna than a pound of sirloin steak or pork loin. There are a number of on-line nutritional content tables that can verify this. If you know of any dietary research that shows a health benefit from specifically consuming only one source of animal protein or specifically excluding one source of animal protein I will happily share it on my blog.