The Many Benefits of Red Meat

Red meat has been demonised by many over the years being blamed for cancer, obesity, heart disease and more by the vegan and vegetarian societies and some ill-informed nutritional advisors. Truth is red meat has a lot to offer if approached with some key awareness in place.

Red meat is one of our key sources of saturated fat. Saturated fat actually has some health benefits e.g. Saturated fat is required for calcium to be effectively incorporated into bone. This is according to one of the leading experts in Lipid (fat) science, Mary Enig, PhD.

Red meat gives a perfect amino acid profile making it a complete protein. In Chinese medicine it is considered a yang food or fire food great for liberating energy. This makes red meat a great choice to start the day.

If your metabolism is functioning efficiently you should wake up hungry! Red meat is very satiating. The principle hormones associated with the root chakra: cortisol, adrenaline, pregnenalone, testosterone and DHEA are all modified favourably with red meat. Many studies show that meat eaters have more favourable testosterone levels. Testosterone is made from DHEA.

Meat eating is strongly correlated with enhanced athletic performance, greater levels of strength and hypertrophy (Forbes-Ewan, Chris. Effect of Vegetarian Diets on Performance in Strength Sports. Sport science. 2002, V6).

It is exceptionally rare to find someone with impressive muscular development who does not eat meat. There are many reasons for this aside from the red meat testosterone connection. Zinc which is a very important mineral in muscle building and testosterone level maintenance is found in high levels in meat and is also bioavailable. Low zinc levels are correlated with low testosterone as well as impaired immune system and slow wound healing.

Red meat is an excellent source of iron and the form of iron it supplies is called heme iron. This form of iron is more easily absorbed than non- heme iron found in plants. Iron is necessary for the formation of red blood cells and lack of it leads to a form of anaemia. This will seriously impair energy production and hamper any athletic training.

Red meat reduces risk of depression in women. Researchers in Australia studied a group of 1000 women and they found that those who ate less than the recommended amount of lamb and beef were twice as likely to be diagnosed with the mental health disorders (from Deakin University, Victoria.)

Red meat is an excellent source of carnitine. Carnitine is a compound which helps shuttle fatty acids into the mitochondria of the cells where they can be burned for energy. It is good for heart health, increased energy, reduction of fat mass and increase of lean body mass and treatment of peripheral vascular disease and diabetic neuropathy (university of Maryland medical centre).

Red meat provides the best source of carnitine providing 95mg per 100g of beef steak. The highest plant source is avocado providing an abysmal 2mg per medium sized avocado.

What is interesting is that the root chakra governs the skeletal structure (muscle and bones). Carnitine improves lean body mass (muscle) and has effects on the heart which is of course also a muscle. What we can take from this is that anything which is good for the muscular system is also good for the heart which is also a muscle. Also what we see is that anything that supports the base chakra also supports the heart.

Grass fed red meat and wild red meats are rich in the fatty acid CLA. This has many health benefits including anti-tumour and anti-cancer properties. In fact wild and grass fed meats are one of Natures’ richest sources of CLA containing 3-5 times more CLA than their domestically grain fed counterparts.

To find out how much red meat you should be incorporating into your diet then why not try one of my nutritional programs:

An Introduction to Metabolic Typing