in today's video we are going to be talking about the top four healthiest meats
you can eat meat has been demonized over the last several decades
and unfairly so the link between meat causing diseases such as heart disease and colon cancer
is weak at best but it has still been enough to dissuade most of us off meat and red meat
especially western countries are eating less meat than ever before but somehow the diseases
that meat has been blamed for are only increasing the truth is that meat is extremely nutritious and
good for our health it contains several vitamins and minerals that we can not get enough of from
plants alone making it a key component to our diet but the truth is some meat is healthier than other
meat so in today's video we are going to be going through the top four healthiest meats you can eat
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a health coach and i post
videos on a high fat nutrient dense way of eating if you like this video please give it a thumbs up
feel free to share and make sure to subscribe and make sure to follow me on instagram twitter and
facebook where i share new posts every single day as i said at the start of this video meat has been
wrongly demonized for decades one of the original reasons was because it contains cholesterol
and it was thought that this dietary cholesterol would raise our blood cholesterol levels
and this would lead to heart disease it turns out the dietary cholesterol has little impact on our
blood cholesterol levels our bodies create over 70 percent of the cholesterol in our blood and
adjust this percentage based on how much we get through diet if we eat more dietary cholesterol
our bodies produce less and if we eat more dietary cholesterol our bodies produce more there is very
little variation in our blood levels when dietary cholesterol is increased or decreased even the us
dietary guidelines dropped their recommendation to limit dietary cholesterol in 2015. if you want to
know more about cholesterol and its role in our health i uploaded a video on the topic last week
that will provide more clarity the other main reason that meat is considered unhealthy
is because it contains saturated fat but the dietary fat we consume does not translate to
fat in our blood which is what it gets blamed for more and more evidence is emerging showing that
saturated fat is not the cause of disease and is actually beneficial for our health meat is also
a superior protein source when compared to plant protein sources such as beans and legumes not only
can you obtain more protein with less calories but the protein itself is more bioavailable on top of
that the vitamins and minerals in meat are more bioavailable as well take vitamin a for example
while the different versions of this nutrient often get lumped together they are actually really
different beta-carotene which is the form of vitamin a found in plants has to be converted to
retinol in order for the body to use it the rate at which we can make this conversion is very poor
with over half of the population having a gene mutation that significantly down
regulates this conversion retinol is a form of vitamin a that is only found in animal foods
and because it is already pre-converted we can absorb and use more of it but anyways let's get
into the top four healthiest meats you can eat and make sure to stick around until the end because i
think number one might surprise you number four beef we are starting things off with beef as i
previously mentioned beef especially has been wrongly demonized for decades we have been told
to limit it in favor of leaner types of meat such as chicken but the truth is that beef is one of
the best types of meat you can consume there are nine essential amino acids all of which we need
to consume on a daily basis for optimal health beef and all other types of animal protein are
considered to be complete protein sources because they contain all nine essential amino acids
in balanced amounts plant proteins are considered incomplete and have to be paired together in order
to obtain all the essential amino acids in the correct amount it takes over 600 calories
of kidney beans to obtain the same amount of protein that you can get in a four ounce steak
which is only 180 calories but protein isn't the only reason the beef is great cows are ruminant
animals which means that they have a digestive system designed to obtain nutrients from plants
food is fermented in a specialized stomach prior to digestion as humans if we ate the same plants
that cows eat we would not be able to obtain the same nutritional value because this is not what
our digestive system is designed for but here's the cool thing all the nutrients that cows obtain
from their complex digestive system is passed on to us when we eat their meat now in terms
of whether you need to eat 100 grass-fed beef or not this is a highly debated topic
in terms of nutritional value they are pretty similar grass-fed beef is slightly more nutritious
but the difference is pretty small there are other reasons to choose grass-fed beef and i personally
try to choose 100 grass-fed beef whenever i can but the truth is is that most cows spend
the majority of their life on pasture either way now if 100 grass-fed beef is in your budget
of course choose that there are some really affordable options that are popping up
you can head to the website eatwild.org if you're in north america and that will connect
you with local farms there's also butcher box and true local if you're in the u.s or canada
and those are delivery services offering grass-fed and pasture-raised meat but if grass-fed beef
isn't in your budget don't feel guilty about buying conventional number three oregon meats this
is a bit of a broader category than one specific type of meat but i had to include organ meats
on this list organ meats and specifically the liver of animals are extremely nutritious
they are the most nutrient dense foods out there in terms of bioavailable vitamins and minerals
beef liver especially blows everything else out of the water but kidney heart spleen and other
organs are great as well now the reason that i didn't put organ meats number one on this list
is because you only need to consume them in small amounts to reap the benefits one to two small
serves of liver a week will help to maximize your nutrition and if you're not a fan of the taste of
liver you can grind it up and mix it with ground beef make burger patties and this is an easy
way to hide it in your food and not even notice the other option is to take beef liver capsules
i always like to mention this option because i get asked about this all the time people who
want to eat liver for their nutritional value but just really can't stomach the taste taking
six beef liver capsules a day is the equivalent to eating one to two serves of beef liver a week
the brand i've been using for the last couple of years is grassland nutrition and i really like
them because everything is sourced from within australia from the highest quality beef and they
are a small family-run business who the owners are retired farmers they started producing this
product because they experienced the benefits of beef liver for themselves and they want to
make it more accessible but yeah if you want to check them out i will link the product in the
description box down below with a code to save ten percent number two salmon now for some reason fish
often isn't considered meat which i think is weird but today we are considering it meat salmon is a
cold water oily fish and these types of fish are one of the richest sources of omega-3 fatty acids
and it is important to note that the form of omega-3 that is in fish is the best form you
can consume the type of omega-3 in nuts and seeds is actually the precursor to the final nutrient
when you consume it in this form your body has to convert it and this conversion process is very
poor the type of omega-3 that is in fish such as salmon is already converted so you can use more of
it and omega-3 is really important for our brain health our heart health and also our joint health
as we spoke about earlier with beef the difference nutritionally between grass-fed and conventional
isn't that big but when it comes to salmon the difference between wild caught and farmed is more
significant so in this case i would strongly urge you to choose wild caught when you can
now if you live in a country where it's not as easy to get a hold of wild caught salmon
i live in australia for example and pretty much all the fresh salmon is farmed unfortunately
another option is to buy it canned you can buy wild caught canned salmon here and if you really
can't find that then other comparable options are sardines mackerel herring and anchovies number one
lamb like cows sheep are ruminant animals with the ability to ferment their food before they digest
it this makes lamb very similar to beef nutrition wise the difference between lamb and beef is that
lamb is raised almost exclusively on pasture in some countries 99 are raised only on pasture
and never in feedlots it is easier to buy high quality lamb than it is beef in most places but
once again even if they are finished in feedlots it's still very nutritious lamb is also one of the
best sources of stearic acid a type of saturated fat that is well known for its health benefits
stearic acid is found in the fat of animals and the fat of some plants stearic acid has been
associated with weight loss reduced blood pressure improved heart function and reduced cancer risk in
one study done on mice where they were fed either stearic acid linoleic acid or oleic acid enriched
diets the researchers found that the stearic acid group reduced visceral fat by 70 percent
compared to other groups the study concluded dietary stearic acid leads to the reduction of
visceral fat as well as lowering blood glucose and leptin concentrations right now our world is
going through an obesity and an insulin resistance epidemic and stearic acid can help with both and
those are my top four healthiest meats you can eat now before we wrap up i want to take a quick
moment to talk about pork and chicken and why they didn't make the list while i do not think
that pork and chicken need to be avoided entirely there are a couple reasons i didn't include them
pigs and chickens are mass farmed like no other animal and unfortunately in worse conditions than
beef they are often fed diets entirely of corn and soy which is far different than their natural diet
because of this pork and chicken are much higher in omega-6 than what is ideal too much omega-6 in
our diets is inflammatory and unfortunately most of us are already consuming too much however the
top source of omega-6 in our diets is vegetable oil which is unhealthy for several reasons
but one of which is omega-6 so if you have already cut out all vegetable oils out of
your diet that's most of the battle and including pork and chicken in your diet is probably okay of
course you can buy pasture raised pork and chicken this will be a better option but when we compare
the nutritional value of these animals to the ones i previously mentioned on my list beef organ meat
salmon and lamb pork and chicken do not compare anyways guys that is all i have for you today
i hope you enjoyed this video if you did remember to like and subscribe and let me know in the
comment section down below what your favorite type of meat is if you do comment i really appreciate
it when you guys comment more this pushes my video out to more people youtube recommends it more so
yeah if you do leave a comment really appreciate it if you did enjoy this video you might also like
my video on the top five foods for weight loss you can check it out here if you want to catch
up on my most recent upload you can find it right here and if you want to take a look at my keto and
carnivore diet coaching programs you can find them here thanks again guys i'll see you next time bye