Red Meat Reprieve: Go for the Lean Cuts

In a new study that rebuts the conventional wisdom that red meat is less healthy than eating chicken or fish, researchers have found that the key to a healthy diet lies in the leanness of the meat, rather than its source.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the Chicago Center for Clinical Research and the University of Minnesota found that a diet based on lean red meat is as healthy for the heart as one based on lean white meat.

“There has been this trend where people are eating chicken or fish, and avoiding red meat. This study shows that, if you select the right cut of red meat, you can substitute it and still be able to follow a diet low in saturated fats,” said Dr. Peter Kwiterovich, director of the lipid clinic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a coauthor of the study.

The results are published in today’s Archives of Internal Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Assn.

The research, which builds on findings of some earlier studies, was funded by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn.

While those previous studies suggested that lean red meat was as good as white meat for maintaining good cholesterol levels, researchers said the Johns Hopkins study was conducted under more realistic circumstances. In prior studies, investigators prepared special meals that were fed to study participants. In contrast, this is the first study in which participants prepared their meals at home, following specific dietary instructions. This means that it is possible for the average person to follow this diet, said Kwiterovich.

Alice Liechtenstein, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston, said the results are encouraging because it means that people seeking to control their cholesterol have more dietary choices.

For the study, 191 adults with elevated cholesterol levels were randomly assigned diets in which 80% of their meat intake came either from lean red meat (veal, beef or pork) or lean white meat (chicken or fish).

During a follow-up period of nine months, researchers measured the cholesterol levels of the participants and found that the levels of low-density lipoproteins, the so-called “bad cholesterol,” had decreased similarly between both sets of dieters. The same was true for the increase in high-density lipoproteins, or “good cholesterol”.

The degree in which the “bad cholesterol” decreased was modest--between 2% and 3%--but comparable between both groups of dieters, Kwiterovich noted.

For those who can’t wait to get to the deli meat counter, Kwiterovich suggested some useful guidelines. He recommends that people limit their intake of cooked lean red meat to 6 ounces per day (3 ounces of meat is about the size of a deck of cards). A good choice of red meat low in saturated fats is flank steak, said Kwiterovich. Avoid regular hamburger meat, he advises, because it can contain as much as 30% fat.