Red Meat and Your Health (Not What You Think)

Our family enjoy Venison steak around once a week. This is sourced from the wild and not farmed. I know from looking at the meat that it is very lean, can you tell me if it has benefits similar to organic grass fed beef?

I love beef. Eat it very regularly. We either have beef, chicken, pork or fish for every night time meal. Only thing is now we live in Norway (from Australia) and the quality (in comparison) of beef here is disappointing. To get meat worth of a steak we have to pay aprox 65US a kg. Anything less than that and it is only worth putting in a stir fry – which we have all the time. The thing i find most disappointing is that it seems to be very hard to find/know which meats are organic and grass fed. I miss the variety.

It’s amazing how people will spout off on something they known nothing about. Eating red meat causes heart attacks? I’ve never seen anything that would lead me to believe that. No proof.
I eat red meat almost every evening. I have vegetarian friends. Guess who is more healthy.

Yeah, I never bought into that dogma. But I will say that there is a big difference in terms of benefits when you compare commercial, hormone and antibiotic containing meat to grass-fed, free range meat. And hey, don’t forget that red meat contains CREATINE. It’s like a 4- for -1 deal in terms of benefits!!!!!

Totally agree that red meat should be part of a balanced diet. I just have to reiterate, though, how critical it is to choose the best source of beef and the cut. Organic grass feed beef is what we eat at home as I cannot believe the growth hormones (in the US as most other developed countries have banned this), antibiotics and rubbish they feed beef for the mass market. As for grain fed beef, it is all in the type of fat the cow develops as Joel says. Grass fed beef is loaded with conjugated linoleic acid which is a fat burning fat while grain and hormone fed beef are high in xenoestrogens which are a key driver of weight gain. Consider this amazing fact: In the US commercially raised, grain fed cattle take only 1/5 of the time of a grass fed organic cow to reach market. Sounds like a seriously bad science experiment to me.

On the subject of beef cuts, a pretty stark example is grain fed prime rib versus grass fed sirloin (also known as porterhouse). The prime rib has per 100g (about 4 oz) 335 calories, 17g of protein and 29g of fat versus 100g of sirloin at 142 calories, 6g fat and 21g of protein. Hmmmmm

I don’t know about heart attacks but eating a nice piece of red meat makes me feel good and that’s about all I know…

I also dont eat red meat because of the “low health quality” that red meat tends to have….but that decision was made only because i couldnt find any organic cuts of red meat any where near my country,,,i live in Bahrain..its in the middle east….and the healthiest cuts of meat that we can find are chicken breasts, fish and turkey breasts…and i get the raw turkey breasts because the smoked varieties tend to be loaded with sugar, sodium and god knows what…but i mean…if i can get my hands on some grass fed organic beef…i’ll eat it down like theres no tomoro….i tried ordering some online..but they dont deliver it to us in Bahrain,…and even if they did….its way too expensive….i think the best choice is to get my self a calf and raise it properly…then EAT it..lol

Also remember that the stress intensive rearing causes in mass-produced beef leads to high levels of homocysteine in the meat which IS linked with heart disease.

The big problem with beef is not that it causes heart disease, it is that there is a risk of disease and cancer if it is not organic and grass fed, or the source of the beef itself is infected with prions or other diseases.

Funnily enough, while purchasing stuff for this week’s Cheat Your Way Thin diet, I was buying some beef and my dad had a go at me saying that red meat was hardly going to be good for me! Needless to say I set him straight on that!

I don’t know where I’d be without my steak! It’s my favourite part of low-carb days!

Nearly every article on this page is just against conventional thinking just to appear controversial. It`s pretty pathetic.

Although I l love beef, I rarely ate it because I heard it was unhealthy but after reading this article it will definitely appear more often on my menu. Thanks for clering things up Joel.

I do not eat any animal produces. Up until about 10 years ago I loved to eat burger and steaks, and plenty of them. But I was aproaching my 50th birthday and felt terrible with all those condition people normally blame on age. Even though I exercised regularly I still could not get in shape. Then someone suggested I stop eating meat and I laughed but noticed how healthy they were. So, I tried it to prove them wrong. After 6 weeks I was hooked, because I had lost fat gained muscle, no longer had joint pain, felt like a 20 year old again, and now have not had even a cold in all that time. My doctor says I am healthier than most 25 year old even though I am in my late 50’s. The dangers of meat go much farther than just heart problem, they are a major cause of cancers too.

thanks for the great information. i enjoy learning what you share. my first post. i’ll do better in the future. how do i find out more about the “gi” ratings of foods?

I started on the organic beef about 5 yrs ago and what a good move that made. The taste and health benefits were amazing. i have my dogs on a raw meat diet and they are much healthier now than they were 5 years ago. Meat if you know where it comes from is a good thing.

I don’t eat red meat very much but that is not because I think its bad for me, I just prefer white meat. I don’t think its bad for anybody, evrything in moderation I say.

I’m still on the fence with red meat. As with everything I suppose moderation is the way to go here as well…

@Jacqueline – I, too, am not so worried about heart disease and red meat. However, I have heard that it is harder on the stomach and can lead to stomach cancer. I have not heard whether organic grass-fed red meat is any better than conventional red meat in this regard.

While I love the stuff, I can only have it sparingly. More than once every couple of weeks triggers a gout flare up for me.

Back in the 80’s I stopped eating red meat all together based on the reports on how many growth hormones/antibiotics were being pumped into cattle. Started eating red meat more than 1x per month in 2000. Portion size is the big change for me. I find red meat digests slowly. I can only tolerate 4-6 oz once or twice a week. Larger portions or more frequent eating and I feel sluggish, bound up. Probably more info than you needed to know. Ha!

Joel, i have a problem, i sent you an email

Hi Joel,

I didn’t used to believe in this kind of hype, but when I heard of all the different ailments one could develop from eating red meat, along with commercially grown type, than I began to watch it. But I’m not sure if it’s all true, even though the meat I buy is the commercially grown variety. Can I still play it safe with that type of beef?
Joe

I eat red meat at least once a week. There is nothing like a good steak. I have always heard of red meat being bad for your heart and never quite understood why..so thanks for clearing up what I already thought was false.

I don’t eat red meat very often. I don’t really eat chicken or fish all that often either. I work at a steak house where we are routinely served New York strip and Top Sirloin steaks night after night for dinner. I realize that certain cuts of beef are lean and that, in some cases, eating red meat can be healthy. That being said, I save the meat for special occasions, and when I do eat it, I choose the leaner cuts, and smaller portions.

Hi Joel,

WOW I didn’t know that there were so many unsaturated fatty acids in beef,

yet another reason to eat beef ^^

you never stop learning new and exciting stuff :)

Thanks for continually providing an insight

Mat