White meat or red meat, which is more nutritious?

Meat is a food that many people like, but do you really know how to eat meat? Some people think that there is nothing they don't like about meat? As the saying goes, "I'd rather eat four ounces of birds in the sky than half a pound of beasts on the ground," or "It's better to eat two-legged animals than four-legged animals, and it's better to eat legless animals than two-legged animals." That is, eating fish is better than eating poultry, and eating poultry is better than eating livestock meat. These are the rich experiences of people eating meat from ancient times to the present. So do these sayings conform to the new concept of modern nutrition? This involves the question of whether it is better to eat white meat or red meat, which many people are confused about.

Red meat generally refers to meat that is red before cooking. Such as pork, beef, and lamb. Red meat has some advantages: red meat contains some minerals, such as iron, which cannot be replaced by white meat. It is a very important source of food for growing teenagers and people with iron deficiency anemia. But white meat (that is, meat that is white before cooking, including fish, poultry, and some seafood) can not only provide high-quality protein like red meat, but also has a lower proportion of saturated fat, which is more friendly to cardiovascular health. In summary, both have their own strengths.

However, on the one hand, in modern large-scale farms, we can see that chicken and duck houses are relatively crowded, and the two-legged chickens and ducks in the feed pen often have the characteristics of less exercise and single nutrition, as well as some other uncontrollable factors. On the other hand, four-legged cattle and sheep are sometimes raised in a free-range manner, which has the characteristics of more exercise. From this perspective, the quality of red meat is not worse than that of white meat.

So, should we eat red meat or white meat, chicken, duck or beef and mutton? How should we choose? In fact, we don’t have to go to extremes. Although nutritionists recommend eating more white meat and less red meat, it is best to eat them alternately, so that we can achieve a balanced nutrition and promote health.

Another important factor that influences our choices is the way food is processed. For example, frying will convert some unsaturated fatty acids. Red meat contains more unsaturated fatty acids. After a large amount of unsaturated fatty acids are converted, some of them are risky to our health. In addition, consuming more unsaturated fatty acids will increase the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the blood. In addition to possibly causing cardiovascular problems such as atherosclerosis, it may also increase insulin resistance and increase the risk of diabetes. Therefore, whether to eat red meat or white meat, and how to eat it, we should choose according to the ingredients and our own physical condition.

When we eat meat, we must first understand that both red meat and white meat are good for our health, but no matter what kind of food we eat, excessive consumption will harm the body. In this regard, how to balance meals and eat a balanced diet is the key to staying healthy. A healthy body cannot be separated from a balanced diet. In daily life, it is recommended to eat mainly white meat, eat more chicken, duck, fish, eat less pork, beef, etc., and listen to the advice of experts to help yourself maintain physical and mental health.

(The first author is a master's student majoring in social medicine and health management at Shanxi Medical University, and the second author is a director of the Chinese Society of Food Science and Technology and a professor at Shanxi Medical University)