Meaty thoughts…

I finally got round to looking at August’s newsletter of GI News–a useful and lively healthy eating outlet from the University of Sydney and based around the principles of the Glycaemic Index and Glycaemic Load.

There’s a short piece by dietician Nicole Senior in which she discusses the pros and cons  of eating red meat from the perspectives of health and the environment.

It’s far from bad news for red meat fanciers.

She quotes recent research:

A model healthy diet according to Australia’s National Health & Medical Research Council, contains 65g a day of red meat (455g/1lb per week) and the American Institute of Cancer Research: World Cancer Research Fund says to limit red meat to no more than 500g (1lb 2oz a week) to reduce the risk of cancer.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Professor Tony McMichael and colleagues from the Australian National University have suggested we limit red meat to no more than 90g (3oz) a day (630g/1lb 5oz a week), based on the idea people in developed countries currently eat more than double this.

Restricting red meat to a quarter of the Plate, she says, will help as a guide to achieving this.

I then took another peek at Michael Pollen’s excellent and amusing Food Rules (Penguin) in which he says that when buying meat, it’s worth looking for animals that have been fed in pastures.

Monsieur Fraisse, our butcher in Lautrec, knows where each animal he butchers has been raised and what they’ve been fed on. A luxury I know and not so easy when shopping in supermarkets.

Worth asking though?–if there’s a working butcher’s counter at the supermarket?

I’d be interested to hear any feed back–(so to speak!).

Michael Pollen writes:

The food from these animals will contain much healthier types of fat as well as higher levels of vitamins and antioxidents.

You will pay more but if you are buying and consuming less–the cost won’t be much higher.

The meat will taste better too!

Michael Pollen’s mantra on how to eat:

Eat food. Not too much. Mainly plants.

You could also check out the piece by Professor Jennie Brand-Miller–GI expert–on the protein values to be got from plants, in the same August newsletter.