Red Meat and Chicken

Have you ever heard of a doctor, a nutritionist, or anyone saying that eating chicken breasts without the skin (grilled or BBQ'd) is unhealthy and raises cholesterol? I know i haven't. If it were a reality, or a myth, people would be talking about it no matter what (just like high protein damages the kidneys or whatever). Other than that new crap about grilled chicken being a carcinogen, i haven't heard anything else. I never cared about cholesterol amounts in food, and i never will. Personally, i don't think cholesterol you ingest from food affects your body's own cholesterol. it just raises the value in the blood stream as it's absorbed. Now, why is it that RED MEAT gets all the bad rap when it comes to cholesterol. i'm sure you've heard it all "too much beef isnt' good for you" ... "red meat raises your cholesterol" ... "red meat causes heart problems"... etc. I've done some research on this and... the cholesterol in the food itself isn't causing the problem (that's what i personally think). It's the saturated fat in the beef itself that causes the problems... don't get me wrong... i'm not saying beef is bad (i'm against this whole red meat is bad shit), but i'm saying that the content of fat in beef is much higher than any other meats (except for pork). So, let's compare it with chicken breasts (since chicken breasts are lean and known to be safe and healthy):

1- a serving of 100 grams of chicken breasts has 1.3 grams of fat in it, a serving of 100 grams of 90% lean beef has 10 grams of fat in it
2- a serving of 100 grams of chicken breasts has 23 grams of protein in it, whereas 90% lean beef would have 20 grams
3- a serving of 100 grams of chicken breasts has 58 MG OF CHOLESTEROL while a serving of 100 grams of 90% lean beef has 65 MG CHOLESTEROL
4- here's the real killer :) ... 1 egg yolk has... drum role please... 215 MG OF CHOLESTEROL!!!! that's about 350 grams worth of beef!!! people don't eat that much beef every day, but they sure eat an egg or 2 everyday during breakfast (if they have breakfast)...

There is, ofcourse, a correlation between the amount of red meat a person eats and his/her chances of getting heart disease and high cholesterol... but we've always been told that it's from the cholesterol... no... it's from the fat... an egg yolk has almost 4 times as much cholesterol as 100 grams of 90% lean beef, but it has 3 times less fat than 100 gr beef. and remember, when you eat a half pound burger, it's gonna be mostly 75% or 80% lean... if you don't include the oil they use to cook it, that's around 50-60 grams of saturated fat... if you include the oil, that's about 60-80 grams of saturated fat... and the cholesterol content is just about the same as an egg yolk in that case.

my point? all kinds of meat (and eggs) are good, just watch your f***ing saturated fat intake. and when i say watch your fat intake, that's what i mean. i don't mean eliminate it... you need fat just as much as anything else. just make sure you get most of it from unsaturated fat sources... fish oil and flax oil being your best bets.