The Role That Meat Plays In A Balanced Diet

By Author: Almeat
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Meat is an extremely useful source of protein, vitamins and minerals in a diet. But as with most things in life it is better to have in moderati.
And the Department of Health has advised that anyone who consumes 90g or more, (cooked weight), of red and processed meat a day should cut down to 70g. Eating large amounts of red and processed meats is actually quite likely to be linked to bowel cancer. However, red meat is also a great source of iron and vitamin B12 too.When healthy choices are made meat can easily be incorporated into a healthy and balanced diet. But some meats are very high in saturated fats, which can raise blood cholesterol level and cause heart disease. The type of meat that you buy and how you choose to prepare it can have a big impact on it's saturated fats content, here are a few examples:- Chicken - fried chicken breast in bread crumbs actually contains six times as much saturated fat as chicken grilled without the skin- Rump Steak - a lean grilled rump steak will contain half the fat of a fried steak with fat- If the fat is trimmed and they grilled they contain around one third of the amount of saturated ...
... fat that roasted untrimmed chops would.The meat you buy is equally as important to the preparation of it too, after all there's no point polishing a turd. If you want to incorporate meat into a healthy diet then it is always best to go for the leanest option, so ask your butcher for the leanest cut, or buy bacon medallions instead of bacon with the fat. If you're buying pre-packed meat from the supermarket then check the nutrition label to see how much fat it contains, and compare a variety of different products. Choosing turkey and chicken without the skin will help to reduce your saturated fat intake. Processed meat products and meats found in pastries will often tend to have much higher fat content, so you should try to avoid pies, pastries, sausages, beef burgers, and salami.It is also important to store meat in safely to stop bacteria from spreading and prevent any risk of food poisoning. Any raw meat or poultry should be stored in clean sealed containers and on the bottom shelf of the fridge, this means that the meat cannot touch of drip onto anything else. Anything that has made contact with raw meat should always be properly cleaned too.