Health : Health Buzz: Meat Will Soon Carry Nutritional Panels

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Health Buzz: Meat Will Soon Carry Nutritional Panels Posted: 30 Dec 2010 12:35 PM PST Calorie Count, Grams of Saturated Fat and Total Fat Must Be Included About a year from now, in January 2012, the federal government will require that our favorite cuts of meat carry nutritional panels to show just how many calories and how much fat they contain. This will help consumers make more informed food choices, says U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The new rule will apply to 40 popular cuts of meat and poultry, including chicken and beef as well as hamburger and ground turkey. And while many products already carry statements like "76 percent lean," the new provision will also require that they advertise the percentage that's not lean. Labels must either be attached to the meat packaging or available for customers at the checkout counter. The labels will likely remind consumers that not all meat is created equal. Red meat, for example, has been associated with a shorter life and a higher risk of diabetes, U.S. News's Katherine Hobson reported in 2009. From: Can Red Meat Have a Place in a Healthy Diet? There are many hypothesized mechanisms to explain how red meat might contribute to health problems, and they likely vary by disease, says Walter Willett, chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Behind the increase in diabetes risk, for example, seems to be meat's strongly absorbed iron content; red meat contains heme iron, more readily available to your body than the iron found in plants. As for cancer, carcinogens are produced during high-temperature cooking, especially in charred meat. Or the culprit may be saturated fat, which has been associated with some forms of cancer. It could be that people who eat more red meat eat less of something else that has beneficial health effects, like vegetables and fish. We simply don't know. As with most things, moderation goes a long way. You may have heard about a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine that found a "modest" increase in mortality for older men and women who ate the most red meat versus those who ate the least. But those 20 percent who ate the most red meat were eating a lot of it—about 4.6 ounces per day, or more than 32 ounces a week. The American Institute for Cancer Research suggests no more than 18 ounces of cooked beef, pork, or lamb a week. Including some red meat in your diet is "perfectly fine," says Tara Gidus, a nutrition performance coach and American Dietetic Association spokesperson. She says you should pick lean cuts of meat to reduce the saturated fat content and avoid processed meat (which in the recent study was also associated with a higher risk of heart disease and cancer). And "don't char the heck out of it," she says. Some folks also prefer grass-fed beef, saying it not only has health benefits that grain-fed cows lack but that it tastes better and is kinder to the animals and land. Whatever color of meat you eat, remember that most nutritionists recommend protein occupy only about 25 percent of the real estate on your plate. Another 25 percent can come from whole-grain based foods and a full half from vegetables and fruits. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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