When we posted the study a few days ago about how eating protein is necessary for weight loss (or even maintaining muscle mass if you’re not dieting) the question came up – does it matter where the protein comes from?
Well turns out it does.
A new study finds that consuming protein from red meat increases your risk of stroke, where the same amount from poultry reduces it.
Researchers then created a model that estimated the effect of exchanging 1 serving of red meat per day for one serving of an alternate source of protein.
- Switching from red meat to poultry lowered stroke risk by 27%
- Switching to nuts lowered risk by 17%
- Switching to fish lowered risk by 17%
- Switching to low-fat dairy reduced risk by 11%
- Switching to whole-fat dairy reduced risk by 10%
- Switching to eggs or legumes did not change the risk.
Dr. Adam Bernstein, the lead author of the study and a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic, said he was not surprised to see that red meat eaters suffer more strokes.
“We’ve also done work on red meat and diabetes and red meat and coronary heart disease. So it makes sense that these cardio-metabolic diseases are grouped together,” Bernstein told Reuters Health.
So skip the steak tonight, and opt for some chicken or fish instead!
How about grass-fed, free-range, meditates, does yoga, etc. red meat vs the hamburger I buy in the store?
HA! Love your sense of humor. There is a nutritional advantage to grass-fed vs corn-fed beef. According to Wikipedia: “Most grass-fed cattle are leaner than feedlot beef, lacking marbling, which lowers the fat content and caloric level of the meat. Meat from grass-fed cattle also have higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and the omega-3 fatty acids ALA, EPA, and DHA.” However, free-range (in the US) actually is legally only regulated in terms of poultry, and the only requirement is that the poultry be given access to outside. There is no minimum amount of time or space required. So a chicken can be “free-range” legally if once in it’s life it’s let out of the cage for minutes. There is (if the stock is actually allowed to roam in the sunshine and eat grass and bugs and whatnot) also a better Omega-3 content. But with the legal term being so vague it’s hard to be sure you’re getting value.