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The Meaty Bits...
Protein, Fats and Organic Meat verus Processed Meats
by Shauna Kendall
In this article we will explore Meat - got you excited hasn't it.
But wait… there more. There's more to it than 'meats' the eye…
From
the onset I will say, if you are eating meat as part of the protein
content of your diet, then eat the freshest, most organic - hormone
free - meats you can source. If you can't get them organic-fresh,
get organic frozen. If you can't get them organic or organic frozen,
drop in to your local butcher and get the freshest cuts you can.
Meat
is generally around 22% protein in its butchered form and contains
several nutrients in their concentrated form, specifically iron, and
B12. These two nutrients are generally much more available in meats
compared to plant sources. (Although you may be surprised to know
a great source of non-meat bioavailable iron can be found in prunes). Have a look at
Healthy
Protein Alternatives for non- meat eaters
Meat
can provide the body with a source of mostly saturated fats which
is important for providing us with energy. Fats provide twice as much
energy per gram than carbohydrates or protein. Fats also provide our
bodies with cholesterol to build all membranes and nerve mylenation
as well as sex and adrenocorticoid hormones and bile salts.
So
lets look at the types of meat generally available to us and it's
advantages and disadvantages.
Fresh Meat
Advantages: Fresh meat has a good protein profile like the muscle meats of beef,
lamb, pork, game, the typical steak cuts and roasts. These muscle
meats provide us with similar amino acid (protein) profile to our
own muscles. As mentioned before meat has some saturated fats. Depending
on the cut of meat this will vary, leaner is better. Fresh meat is
high in nutrients like selenium, phosphorus and potassium.
Disadvantages: Meat must be cooked thoroughly as raw meat may still contain bacteria.
If the meat is not organically certified it may contain steroids,
hormones, chemical residues, (fungicides, herbicides, pesticides),
heavy metals from water sources/and or grazing pastures.
The
more raw the meat is, the better your digestion needs to be to cook
it and break it down with your digestive acids. Those with poor digestion
will find meats that have been cooked for longer periods will be easier
to digest - eg. A stew simmered all day compared to a steak straight
off the barbeque. Inhumanely grown and butchered meat makes for inferior
quality meat, evident in its flavour, texture and nutrient content.
If it is cooled too rapidly when butchered the muscle fibres shrink
and make the meat tough when it is cooked (ie Lamb will do this).
Fresh
meat will keep in the long term if it is frozen, otherwise it needs
to be refrigerated no more than 2 days and then cooked, so it does
not make for a very transportable form of protein compared to nuts,
seeds or even eggs. A high fat content can rapidly lead to spoilage
at room temperatures (rancid fat).
Frozen
Meat - will last for 1 - 2 years but the quality is inferior to fresh
meat.
Meat
has almost no fibre in it. In fact high red meat diets are one of
the main contributing factors in colon/rectal cancer. Research has
shown that this type of cancer is less common in those who tend to
eat more chicken and less red meat, and even less in those who consume
fish at least 3 times per week.
Processed Meats - smoked, pickled, preserved, refined & combined - sausage meats,
bacon, salami, sandwich meats, rissoles, hotdogs etc,
Advantages: Well, the be honest, there are not a lot of advantages here. Not
truly healthy ones and that's what this is all about - recommending
foods that will give you the best possible health benefits. If you
were starving these processed meats would provide your body with a
certain amount of nourishment and therefore energy. It may be better
for you than say - dying of hunger or eating no protein at all. A
lot of disadvantaged people (and armed forces personnel!) are supplied
with canned meat and no other major sources of protein. This will
often sustain them until they can resume eating from /or create their
own regular food sources, but it is far from ideal.
It
really is good to get these sorts of meats direct from a butcher who
makes them himself on the premises and knows the art of creating these
kinds of foods in the traditional way, otherwise you are buying products
that are full of chemicals you don't want.
Ground
mince is best if you do it yourself or wait at the butcher's while
it is done for you. There are just too many reasons not to buy these
kinds of products especially when better forms of protein are available
to purchase.
Disadvantages:
The biggest disadvantage is that cured/processed meats are high in
sodium nitrates and other preserving chemicals. Processed meats are
also a poor source of nutrition, especially in the long term. Nitrates
(like sodium nitrites) are potentially carcinogenic (cause cancer)
when mixed with amines (natural or synthetic). This is combination
is common particularly in western food combining practices like having
processed meats with beer and wine. The problem is - the nitrates
are in more and more foods.
And
not only foods, they are in some prescription drugs as well. How many
people do you think would consider their 'drugs' as part of their
daily nutrition intake? They are, and cannot and should not be disregarded.
Once
in the body sodium nitrite forms a nitrosamine compounds that enter
the bloodstream and lower the function of the liver and pancreas.
In the 1970's the USDA (United States Dept of Agriculture) tried to
ban this additive (ie so they know its bad for us) but it was vetoed
by food manufacturers who complained there was nothing else they could
use to preserve their packaged goods.
Why
would manufacturers continue to use a chemical that is so dangerous??
"Simple; this chemical just happens to turn meat bright red. It's actually a colour fixer, and it makes old, dead meats appear
fresh and vibrant. Thus, food manufacturers insist on using sodium
nitrite for the simple reason that it sells more meat products. Consumers
are strongly influenced by the colour of grocery products and when
meat products look fresh, people will buy them, even if the true colour
of the months-old meat is putrid gray." (www.newstarget.com/z011148.html)
Nitrates
are a really big problem I'm sure no one in the food industry likes
to discuss, in fact I think they'd all really like for the nitrates
& amines issue to disappear, but I anticipate that over time it will
become a similar scenario to that of the smoking lobby…."Smoking is
not harmful to your health" and then a whole lot of lawsuits, campaigns,
lives lost, and money spent later…"Smoking is harmful to your health".
Talking
of processed meats, this is a good time to mention MRM - Mechanically
Recovered Meat (sounds yummy). Commonly used for pie or sausage filling
- in bakery products and products you will buy in the supermarket.
MRM is "the carcass scrapings removed from the bones once the best
meat has already been removed.
The remaining bits are put through
a machine similar to a giant washing machine, which strips every last
shred of tissue from the bones. (It then becomes) …a grey, porridge-like
slurry … with the addition of additives, preservatives to keep the
bacteria in check, emulsifiers to thickeners to make it firm and chunky,
and colourings to make it pink and lean looking." Hmm…Sausage rolls
will never look the same…
So
make sure you buy your sausage rolls and pies from someone who makes
their own meat mixtures.
"In
the UK, it took another 6 years to ban the use of cattle vertebrae
in MRM, after it was discovered to be the highest potential carrier
of BSE virus in cattle." (Sue Dibb)
Oh
but the Govt and its departments always has our wellbeing in mind
don't they??…when it suits them and the market.
How
are the vitamins affected when meat is processed?
Organically
grown meats will have higher levels of vitamin and minerals than mass
produced, caged, force fed animals. The more the meat is processed,
the less nutrition is available in it. For example ground beef mince
contains lower nutrient values than a steak. In poultry most of the
saturated fats and cholesterol is found in the skin so removing the
skin can lower the fats consumed. Red meats, depending on its cut,
may be more difficult to remove the fat, as sometimes it is marbled
through the meat.
Frozen
meat will loose some quality when thawed, compared to fresh meat.
Its vitamin E content is somewhat lowered due to oxidation. Proteins
remain unchanged during freezing but the fats may be susceptible to
rancidity.
Pork
and poultry are richer in unsaturated fatty acids and are more susceptible
to rancidity than other meats.(paragraph - fao website) There is a
lot of variation in the nutrient composition of frozen/thawed meats
in the scientific data. This seems to be due to the many ways in which
to cook meat, thawing processes, freezing duration, and time lapsed
between slaughter and the initial freezing, as well as the variation
in testing conditions and the animals selected. (In a pork chop) "It
was tentatively concluded after storage at -12oC and cooking that
about 90% of the thiamin was retained but no firm conclusion could
be drawn about other vitamins. No conclusions could be drawn about
storage at the lower temperature." (fao website)
The same study said
approximately 90% of riboflavin was retained at -12oC and there was
80% pyridoxine, however results were erratic.
With
processed meat products I did find results that said the thiamin content
of some meat products will differ from country to country, eg.The
UK uses sulphur dioxide as a preservative which destroys thiamin however
the USA does not.
You
have to wonder what happens to meat when it is 'cured' these days.
Traditionally, it used to take weeks for the meat to age and be put
through its processes. Nowadays, when everything is about speed the
curing process can be sped up to 1-2 weeks by injecting the meat
with a curing solution, and thin slices of meat like bacon can
be cured in a few hours, and even faster if the meat is heated and
the cure can take place in the packaging.
I
haven't found any research in this area - stating what actually happens
to the nutrition value of the meat in this kind of sped up process,
or even research on the curing solutions they use and the interaction
it may have with plastic. Which overall is a bit concerning considering
most all the processed meat is sold in plastic.
Biological
actions attributed to over consumption of meat
My
findings have been so far that this area of research is by far from
definitive and there seems to be quite a bit of unresolved questions
regarding the effects of meat once it's in the body. Part of this
confusion I believe is related to that fact that when testing, some
meat may be heavy with contaminants (heavy metals, pesticides etc)
while other meat may be more on the organic side. The meat with toxins,
once in the system cannot but create a confusing picture for the observer
when attempting to assess the bioavailability of the nutrients being
studied. In one of the most resent studies completed in June 2005,
'Professor Sheila Bingham, Principal Investigator of the study from
the MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit in Cambridge, UK said "People have
suspected from some time that high levels of red and processed meat
increase risk of bowel cancer, but this is one of the largest studies
worldwide and the first from Europe of this type, show a strong relationship.
The overall picture is very consistent for red and processed meat
and fibre across all the European populations studied." ' (Medical
Research Council, UK , medicalnewstoday website)
Another
survey showing a 67% increase in pancreatic cancer for people consuming
moderate amounts of processed meat (think sodium nitrate) on a frequent
basis. (Pulse, Vol. 65/Issue16; 23/1/2005, newstarget.com website)
Besides then, the ever increasing group of side effects from ingesting
preservatives and toxins through the meat, there is also the meat
itself to consider.
The
high consumption of meat may increase the amount of circulating triglycerides
and cholesterol, therefore increase cholesterol levels and increase
blood pressure. Increased volumes of meat in the diet contribute to
the following;- - increased risk of colon and rectal cancer (partly
because of the lack of fibre) - atherosclerosis; - heart disease;
- kidney disease; - osteoporosis; - constipation - due to the lowered
fibre intake; - less energy; - less good fats and too much saturated
fat.
Some
research I came across felt that the focus on the 'fat content' of
the meat was a distraction from the real problems - being toxins found
in the meat (fat cells) prior to being processed and then the toxic
processes afterward. It seems no one wants to talk about it because
its obviously a huge issue.
Ways
to combat the chemical onslaught
Some
proven strategies have been to consume high doses of vitamin C and
vitamin E before the meals containing the sodium nitrite is consumed.
Having these antioxidants available in your system will inhibit the
conversion of sodium nitrite to the cancer-causing nitrosamines.
Another
thing you can do is have chlorella in your diet as this will help
bind heavy metals and assist them in being eliminated from your body.
Some people like to combine eating these kinds of greens when they
eat seafood so that it will take out any of the heavy metals that
might exist in the seafood. In Clinic we use a couple of products
to remove the heavy metals and toxins. They tend to be homeopathically
based and work very well.
Like
I said in the beginning…get it fresh and organic, …. or at least,
get it fresh.
For information about meat substitutes
For more information contact Robert or Shauna
at the HeavenEarth Natural Therapies Clinic tel: 61 7 5522 0411.
email: contact@HeavenEarthHealing.com
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