What is better for you: Beef, pork, chicken?

Which is better for you??
· The new food pyramid, while far from being perfect, is an improvement on the old Food Guide Pyramid because it separates the major food groups by quality.
· All fish and seafood are good sources of protein, with about 20-25 grams for every three-ounce serving (the size of a deck of cards) of fish, crab, lobster, prawns and scallops, and 11-18 grams for oysters, mussels and clams.
· Oily fish, meaning, fish whose body fat is distributed throughout their flesh, contains the highest amounts of the essential fatty acid omega-3.
· Omega-3 reduces triglyceride levels, makes blood less likely to clot, improves blood flow, reduces blood pressure, and prevents abnormal heart rhythms.
· Omega-3 may also relieve rheumatoid arthritis, prevent type-2 diabetes, and improve the symptoms of attention-deficit disorder and dyslexia.
· While very few of us will be able or want to consume as much fish as the Greenland Eskimos, it is possible to get too much omega-3 if you take fish oil supplements.
· Dosages of 4-10 grams daily of fish oil supplements have been known to increase blood-sugar levels in diabetics (lower doses of 2.5 grams do not).
· Shellfish (crabs, shrimp, squid, oysters, mussels) is naturally low in fat and contains minerals such as magnesium, copper, zinc and selenium.
· Modern methods reveal that shellfish, like many other types of fish, contains less than 100 milligrams of cholesterol for a three-ounce serving.
· All this doesn't really make a difference if you have normal cholesterol levels because it is saturated fat and trans-fat that have a greater impact on your blood cholesterol and not dietary cholesterol.
· The word "poultry" includes chicken, turkey, duck, and goose and, I suppose, even ostrich, but for the sake of saving column space and because the No. 1 kind of poultry eaten is chicken, let's just stick to that.
· Many people ask, "Is chicken better for you than beef or pork?"
· Both poultry and meat are good sources of protein (about 24 grams for a three-ounce serving), iron, zinc, and Vitamins B6 and B12.
· Chicken fat, like all other kinds of fat, is a mixture of saturated (31 percent), monounsaturated (49 percent), and polyunsaturated fat (20 percent).
· Fifty percent of chicken fat is found in its skin while the other 50 percent is found in its meat.
· When it comes to cholesterol, beef, pork and chicken have approximately the same amounts.
· A three-ounce serving of roast beef has 73 milligrams (mg) while the same size serving of pork rib chop has 69 mg and chicken breast has 72 mg.
· Regarding saturated fat, beef has 38 percent; pork has 35 percent, while chicken has 31 percent.
· If you compare the same size serving of grilled beef or pork tenderloin with all visible fat removed and a breaded deep-fried chicken thigh, beef and pork will be the better choice in terms of calories and fat.
· As a rule of thumb for chicken, skinless white meat has the least amount of calories and fat, followed by skinless dark meat, white meat with skin, and dark meat with skin (which has the highest amount of fat).
· The skin is also, according to many people, the most delicious part of chicken.
· Even if you don't intend to eat the skin, leave it on during cooking because it helps to keep the chicken meat moist and flavorful.
· Of all the cooking methods, slow-roasting a whole chicken at a low temperature removes the most amount of fat.
· The term "red meat" includes beef, pork, lamb, caribou and other exotic varieties like buffalo, deer, and wild boar.
· Protein itself does not appear to be related to higher rates of heart disease, cancer or diabetes.
· The reason red meat is put at the tip of the new pyramid with the advice to "eat sparingly" is because it tends to include more saturated fat than other protein sources.
· A lean cut of beef or pork can have less fat than dark chicken meat with the skin on.
· The pyramid is not perfect and needs streamlining of its own.
· A high consumption of red meat has may be associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, type-2 diabetes and colon cancer.
· Even in the studies that show there might be a link, the researchers involved say they don't know exactly why.
· The African Masai tribe eats a lot of protein and saturated fat but don't suffer any ill effects.
· It is dangerous to compare ourselves with indigenous people who still live the traditional way because we live totally different lifestyles.
· Truly, more studies are needed to clarify the exact role of red meat in colon cancer and the specific role of saturated fat in heart disease since we now know that trans-fat from hydrogenated cooking oil raises bad cholesterol and lowers the good kind, refined carbohydrates raise triglycerides and lower good cholesterol, and eating more omega-6 (found in most vegetables oils) than omega-3 can raise blood pressure and blood clotting.
Source(s):
http://www.tinajuanfitness.info/articles…