This is just something I’ve noticed in a lot of the nutrition articles I’ve read on here, Elite, etc… turkey, chicken, and especially beef are always mentioned, but it seems like pork is rarely touted as a good protein source. Is there a specific reason for this?
Personally, I’ve been eating a lot of pork sirloin chops recently and freakin love 'em. With a little pork rub and BBQ seasoning they’re delicious. Beats chicken breast any day of the week lol. I’m just curious if there’s something inherently “different” about pork or if this is just an ignorant observation. Thanks guys
Probably because pork in the US is absolute garbage. Most poultry is going to be almost as bad but it’s cheaper. Personally, if pork isn’t bacon, sausage, or bbq I just don’t like it. Beef is my go to meat. That being said if you really like pork or beef you should look into buying a 1/4, 1/2, whole one from local organic or Amish farms. You’ll get good quality at the best price.
[quote]kollak95 wrote:
This is just something I’ve noticed in a lot of the nutrition articles I’ve read on here, Elite, etc… turkey, chicken, and especially beef are always mentioned, but it seems like pork is rarely touted as a good protein source. Is there a specific reason for this?
Personally, I’ve been eating a lot of pork sirloin chops recently and freakin love 'em. With a little pork rub and BBQ seasoning they’re delicious. Beats chicken breast any day of the week lol. I’m just curious if there’s something inherently “different” about pork or if this is just an ignorant observation. Thanks guys [/quote]
I think it’s because while bulking many report their best gains come from copious amounts of red meat/steak.
While dieting, when fat content is closely monitored, leaner proteins like chicken, turkey, fish and egg whites are emphasized.
I think this leaves pork in somewhat of “grey” area.
I personally love pork too, I will slow cook pork shoulders and occasionally add in some bacon with my morning eggs.
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
There are plenty of very very lean cuts of pork.[/quote]
for sure, I have been buying lean pork cutlets and they are easy to saute, and taste very good. I personally don’t get a lot of thiamine (B1) in my diet and pork is one of the best sources for that.
And whether you accept the pathogen theory or not, pork from pigs fed as they are in America have close to 30% Omega 6s. Grassfed beef as well as other ungulate meat has basically none.
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
There are plenty of very very lean cuts of pork.[/quote]
for sure, I have been buying lean pork cutlets and they are easy to saute, and taste very good. I personally don’t get a lot of thiamine (B1) in my diet and pork is one of the best sources for that.[/quote]
Yeah the sirloin chops I’ve been buying have 4g of fat per 20g protein, not bad at all. And I can get over a pound and a half for like five bucks. Interesting replies guys, much appreciated
My lady friend absolutely loves bacon, limits herself to once a week at breakfast. She told a veggie friend that only atheist cowards do not eat bacon. There is a lot of very good pork.
A problem a lot of people have with pork is that not everywhere sells the natural stuff. The stuff on most shelves is pumped full of saline and while that doesn’t really pose any health issues, the meat never turns out as well as the natural stuff. They do this because Mary Sue soccer mom can’t cook an unadultered pork chop without turning it into a hockey puck and the saline helps prevent that. All you need to do for a natural boneless rib or loin chop is cook for 6.5 to 7 minutes per side on medium heat on a heated grill and they come out like butter every time. IMO if you want to spend $6-10 per pound on pork you get a much better product than if you spend that $6-10 per pound on crappy cuts of steak.
I worked with meat for a while, and I eat pork chops/tenderloin at least 5 times a week.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
A problem a lot of people have with pork is that not everywhere sells the natural stuff. The stuff on most shelves is pumped full of saline and while that doesn’t really pose any health issues, the meat never turns out as well as the natural stuff. They do this because Mary Sue soccer mom can’t cook an unadultered pork chop without turning it into a hockey puck and the saline helps prevent that. All you need to do for a natural boneless rib or loin chop is cook for 6.5 to 7 minutes per side on medium heat on a heated grill and they come out like butter every time. IMO if you want to spend $6-10 per pound on pork you get a much better product than if you spend that $6-10 per pound on crappy cuts of steak.
I worked with meat for a while, and I eat pork chops/tenderloin at least 5 times a week.[/quote]
^this…good pork needs patience. I roast a shoulder/picnic (Pernil style) cut every-other week. Low and slow, lots of garlic and spice until its fork tender. The best post workout meal around.
I love pork. Only thing I can “assume” is that its a fatty white meat and if you want white meat its usually “lean meat” and folks buy chicken or maybe fish. For a fatty meat I like read meat better.
[quote]RJK wrote:
I love pork. Only thing I can “assume” is that its a fatty white meat and if you want white meat its usually “lean meat” and folks buy chicken or maybe fish. For a fatty meat I like read meat better.[/quote]
Try a well trimmed natural loin chop, or a natural well trimmed tenderloin for lean meat cooked like I posted above, or a natural rib chop like I posted above for a fatty cut.
I think you’ll be suprised. IMO you need to spend 1.5x+ on steak to get the same quality you can get out of pork right now.
[quote]mertdawg wrote:
pork from pigs fed as they are in America have close to 30% Omega 6s. [/quote]
Interesting chain of causation:
The pigs’ largely soy and corn-derived food source strongly contributes to their getting shockingly fat, to a degree you almost wouldn’t believe an animal could get, and causes their fat to be very high in linoleic acid. Very abnormally so, compared to the wild condition. That itself is a large part of the contribution to the animals getting so fat.
Humans eat that fat, with that very high linoleic acid, contributing towards their getting shockingly fat in turn, particularly if part of an entire pattern of high linoleic-acid intake.
(An individual human with some intake of it may not get fat, particularly if physically active. It’s not an absolute cause. Also, some linoleic acid is necessary, so as a component of an otherwise good diet, it doesn’t have to be a problem.)
[quote]mertdawg wrote:
pork from pigs fed as they are in America have close to 30% Omega 6s. [/quote]
Interesting chain of causation:
The pigs’ largely soy and corn-derived food source strongly contributes to their getting shockingly fat, to a degree you almost wouldn’t believe an animal could get, and causes their fat to be very high in linoleic acid. Very abnormally so, compared to the wild condition. That itself is a large part of the contribution to the animals getting so fat.
Humans eat that fat, with that very high linoleic acid, contributing towards their getting shockingly fat in turn, particularly if part of an entire pattern of high linoleic-acid intake.
(An individual human with some intake of it may not get fat, particularly if physically active. It’s not an absolute cause. Also, some linoleic acid is necessary, so as a component of an otherwise good diet, it doesn’t have to be a problem.)[/quote]
Humans spent centuries just to figure out how to make corn and soy into food that didn’t kill them in a matter of months. Hey Bill, I was wondering what you thought about high oleic sunflower and safflower. They are mostly MUFA’s. Is there some hidden problem with them?
They’re far better than the regular forms of these oils.
High-oleic safflower still has apparently about 15% linoleic, which would be a little high if it were a main contributor in the diet, but from the standpoint of having some of it sometimes, would hardly be a culprit. High oleic sunflower seems more variable; figures I’ve seen have been values such as 7-12% linoleic acid.
I can’t say for sure on using these as a large percentage of fat intake. I tend to expect that the top choices of olive, grass-fed beef, and grassfed butterfat are probably better as staples where personally affordable, with coconut also having some real advantages. But maybe not, perhaps if ever put to a genuinely measurable test, fat intake could be some quite substantial percentage of these and do equally well. I know of no hidden problem. I’m totally comfortable with these as being allowable. I vastly prefer seeing these on a label to the common vegetable oils.
I got my hands on some authentic imported cinghiale (Italian wild boar) and it has an entirely different taste than domestic pork. On top of making an already seriously awesome sauce get better, it’s quite lean.
I’ve been wanting to do a guided boar hunt in Texas or some southern state (they almost pay you to come shoot them, since they’re so densely overpopulated) and bring home a couple of whole hogs. I’ve never had wild boar, but as someone said above, I never came across a meat I didn’t like.
That’s a lie. My grandfather bought a goose for Thanksgiving one year. ABSOLUTELY terrible.