When using parts of a cow for food, bone marrow is often overlooked. The marrow of beef bones, which is the gelatinous material inside the bones, is suitable as a tasty spread for toast or for mixing with other ingredients. Beef marrow is not particularly nutritious and it is quite high in calories and fat, but the fats it contains are the healthier types of fat, and it does contribute calcium to your diet.
Calories
A 2-oz. serving of beef marrow contains 502.3 calories. Considering that marrow is rarely eaten just by itself, this may be too many calories for most meal plans. If you consume three meals per day along with a few small snacks, each meal for a woman may contain 300 to 500 calories, while each meal for a man may range from 400 to 600 calories. Consider eating a smaller portion of beef marrow to make it fit better into your diet.
Fat
Too much fat in your diet may trigger weight gain, no matter what type of fat it is -- and beef marrow contains a lot of fat. Each 2-oz. serving has 54.3 g of fat, although the majority is unsaturated fat. Unsaturated fats may help decrease your cholesterol levels and lower your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Regardless of the variety of fat, limit your consumption of fat to 20 to 35 percent of the calories you consume in a single day.
Protein
You get a small amount of protein in beef marrow; each 2-oz. serving provides you with 0.3 g of this macronutrient. As a rule, the amount of protein your body requires each day is between 50 and 175 g, so you cannot rely on the protein in beef marrow to satisfy much of your daily need. The protein in this food contributes to your immune function, lean muscle growth and energy level.
Calcium
If you are on a diet of 2,000 calories and you consume a 2-oz. serving of beef marrow, you will get 5 percent of the daily recommended intake of calcium. The calcium in bone marrow may decrease your risk of hypertension, and it also influences bone density, keeping your bones strong and helping ward off the age-related disease of osteoporosis. Calcium may also play a role in preventing stroke and colon cancer.
References
- FitClick: Beef Bone Marrow
- The Diet Channel; Calories: What's an Ideal Daily Intake?; Michele Turcotte, MS, RD/LDN
- MayoClinic.com; Dietary Fats; February 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork with These Nutrition Guidelines; February 2011
- McKinley Health Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Macronutrients: The Importance of Carbohydrate, Protein, and Fat; March 2008
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Calcium
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