New Diet Includes Red Meat
by KXMB TV Sarah Gustin
Posted on 3/9/2012
Enjoying a sizzling sirloin or tasty T-bone could be the best prescription for your heart. Reporter Sarah Gustin has more on a diet that says red meat does a body good.
(Sarah Gustin, Reporting): When you think of dieting, fruits and vegetables probably come to mind, but results from one diet study prove you can have your steak and eat it too.
(Nancy Jo Bateman, ND Beef Commission): “One of the most exciting studies that we have come out with this past year is called the BOLD study. Those are initials for Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet.”
(Sarah): Recently the well-known DASH diet was put to the test. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet limits red meat intake to one ounce per day. While the new BOLD Diet –Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet–increases that serving to 5.4 ounces every day. Researchers found that those eating more beef still lowered their cholesterol by the same ten percentage points.
(Joan Nagel, St. Alexius Licensed Registered Dietician): “They tested labs and they tested weights and overall they noticed a generalization, a 10% decrease in total cholesterol and also the LDL cholesterol, which we kind of label as the bad cholesterol. 10% is pretty significant in reducing that.”
(Sarah): If you’re wondering which one of these cuts to grab off the shelf, there are plenty of choices.
(Joan Nagel, St. Alexius): “Anything that has less than 10 grams of total fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol. There are actually 29 cuts that qualify for lean. Beef has a lot of vitamins and minerals. it has about 10 essential nutrients, it’s a good source of protein, vitamin B 12, vitamin b6 and it actually has a good source of monounsaturated fat. I think that is something people are unaware of, it actually has the good source of healthy fats that are found in the olive oil and canola oil.”
(Sarah): A diet that is red meat friendly is good news for North Dakotans. After all, it is our state’s most abundant protein source.
(Nancy Jo Bateman / ND Beef Commission): “Maybe this helps to bring home to producers that pay for this program through the beef check off how their money from North Dakota goes into national programs. It helps to fund nutrition research.”
(Sarah): Money well spent if more of you are choosing this as a cut above the rest.
(Anchor): Nagel also recommends watching your sodium intake and trimming any visible fat from any meat.