Many meat lovers can't imagine a major meal without meat. Meat often serves as the main event on America's dinner plate. Restaurant menus and home meals alike are typically organized around meat. Meat is an excellent source of essential nutrients such as protein and iron that your body can't synthesize: you must obtain these nutrients from the food you eat. However, certain types of meat also contain loads of cholesterol, saturated fat and calories. If you're going to feature meat at your dinner table, choose those lean and low in calories.
Selection
When at the grocery store, examine the meat for visible fat and marbling, and then pass over those fatty cuts. Instead, choose lean meats. Generally, white meats have less fat and fewer calories than red meat. But even white meat, such as pork, packs on calories if it is fatty. Look at package labels for ground beef and poultry. Choose meats that are 90 percent or higher in lean meat. Carefully read labels for ground turkey and chicken as they often include dark meat and fat. This boosts the fat content and often lowers the lean meat percentage to 80 percent or less -- about the same as you'll find in cheaper ground beef. Avoid "Prime" cuts, as this means this meat is well-marbled. Choose "Choice" or "Select" cuts.
Preparation
Meat, lean or not, can cause significant caloric damage when prepared with fat. Avoid breading or battering your meat, and avoid frying it. Instead, broil, grill or sauté the meat in a small amount of olive oil. Trim all visible fat from the meat before you cook it. Use marinades, curries or low-calorie sauces to moisten, tenderize and flavor the meat, rather than relying on the fat. Reduce fat further by making soups or stews a day ahead of time. Cool the dish in the refrigerator over night and then skim the fat, which will have hardened and risen to the top. When possible, prepare your meats in 3- to 5-oz. serving sizes -- about the size of a deck of playing cards. This can help you with portion control at dinner time.
Poultry
Chicken and turkey breast offer a robust nutritional profile, mild flavor that complements many cuisines and fewer calories than most meats. Always remove the skin to reduce the calories. For example, chicken breast without the skin provides 48 percent fewer calories and nearly 90 percent less fat compared to chicken breast with skin. (reference: Calorie Lab) A 5-oz. serving of skinless chicken breast contains about 140 calories, almost a third of which are burned during the process of chewing, digesting, absorbing and eliminating the protein-rich food, leaving the final caloric damage at a paltry 100 calories. (reference: Burn the Fat)
Fish and Seafood
Fish provides quality protein and, in contrast to many other meats, it is low in saturated fat. It's also an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, nutrients that lower cholesterol, reduce your risk of cardiovascular and offer numerous other health benefits. The American Heart Association recommends that you eat fish at least twice a week. Eat water-packed rather than oil-packed tuna. Many types of white fish have fewer than 130 calories per 3.5-oz. serving when baked, steamed or grilled, including bass, cod, haddock, lobster, shrimp, crab meat, flatfish, monked fish, perch, pike and pollock. Oily fish, such as herring, mackerel, salmon, sardines and tuna, have more oil and calories, but they are higher in omega-3 fatty acids. Though oily, tuna canned in water still has fewer than 130 calories per 3.5-oz. serving.
Beef and Pork
Even lean cuts of beef and pork tend to have more calories than white fish and chicken and turkey breast. Lean beef cuts include tenderloin, round, chuck and sirloin. Lean cuts of llamb and pork include tenderloin, leg and loin chops.
Member Comments