I’ve tried several times to go “red meat free” and each time my weights drop precipitously and I lose endurance. Then I eat beef twice and I’m back in turbo mode. I’m not sure what chicken is lacking but to me it just doesn’t seem to fuel me as well as beef/bison/horse in general.
As a result I tend to stick to beef, bison, horse and fatty fish. Chicken is one thing I can easily do without. But dear chicken thanks for the egg, I eat 20-40 a week.
If (and I sometimes think that this is a BIG “if”) labels are correct, I tend to eat more chicken simply because it’s a lot easier to precisely control what I take in.
As long as you know that your source isn’t pumping in the hormones, a chicken breast >seems< to be like any other chicken breast.
However, beef tends to have an enormous amount of variation – very different fat content, ground beef can have a lot of different weird fillers, and unless you intentionally buy organic, you never know what kinds of hormones have been pumped into your beef (and yeah, those hormones usually include a lot of estrogens).
As for the health risks of beef – let’s be clear that even though claims from the 1980’s seem to have been grossly exaggerated, the jury is still out. Something is going on with an approximate correlation regarding a few long-term health risks and red meat, but I am dubious when researchers or interpreters of research are too adamant about preaching their pet theories.
Personally, I feel that most of the health risks associated with red meat eating stem from the fact that most people who self-identify as red meat eaters generally take shitty care of themselves, and eat horrible diets…while most people who identify themselves as people who avoid red meat have a tendency to make generally healthy dietary choices.
Most if not all of these large-population diet studies do not take into account the people who consciously chose to eat red meat in an informed manner, as part of a generally healthy diet. I do not know, but I suspect, that people who make >informed< red meat eating decisions have much better health than the slobs observed in most of these studies.
But, I’m still open to new information, and who knows what the next studies will indicate.
Edit: I just realized that everything I said was stated more clearly on the ‘Red meats are bad for you’ thread…oh well
[quote]LHT wrote:
Personally, I feel that most of the health risks associated with red meat eating stem from the fact that most people who self-identify as red meat eaters generally take shitty care of themselves, and eat horrible diets…while most people who identify themselves as people who avoid red meat have a tendency to make generally healthy dietary choices.
l[/quote]
this is pretty much something that people just don’t think about but is powerfully important.
grass fed beef every time, if we’re talking normally farmed though, then chicken or turkey will have to do. but theres no excuse if you find a good grass fed source, all it takes is a bit of effort.
also wild game is equal/better then grass fed beef imo. especially when cutting.
I like both. but would most likely choose chicken breast over steak if someone forced me too.