Good morning everyone!
They started re-doing my kitchen this week. Completely. My wife and I are looking forward to cooking some healthy meals when they're done. In the meantime, however, all the planning and preparation has taken so much time that I'm afraid I only have an abbreviated diary today. I had planned on continuing my "The Road to Better Health -- one person's story" series -- talking more about carbs, glycemic index, etc., but that takes a lot of time and research to get right!
In the meantime, however, for the red meat eaters out there, I wanted to talk about bison.
But first, some housekeeping
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When I started changing my diet, I went hard core. I completely eliminated a number of foods that had too much fat and too many calories. Hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, even steaks, got crossed off the list.
But as spring turned into summer . . . I was really missing throwing some meat on the barbecue. And then someone told me about bison. They told me it was lower in cholesterol and calories and fat, and higher in iron and protein.
Then I read this (from Bisoncentral.com - bison sellers association, so, obviously a bit biased):
Bison are handled as little as possible. They spend their lives on grass, much as they always have, with very little time in the feedlot. They are not subjected to questionable drugs, chemicals or hormones. The members of the NBA feel so strongly about this that they have a resolution opposing the use of these substances in the production of Bison for meat.
Perhaps they're telling the truth. I read the following at health.families.com
What's more, bison themselves are healthier animals. Typically, bison graze on grass and are not fed commercial feed or grains. They are also not subjected to drugs, chemicals and hormones. Consequently, they have a lower fat content than beef and pork. In fact, if you were to compare a 3-ounce portion of bison meat with the same portion of lean beef you would see that the bison has 143 calories and 2.4 grams of fat, while the lean beef has 211 calories and 10 grams of fat. Likewise, when compared with lean pork, which contains 212 calories and 9 grams of fat, bison is the healthier choice. Also, since bison feed primarily on grass their levels of omega-3 fat and conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) both of which help to reduce cancer, heart disease and diabetes, are higher.
Then I did some comparisons myself. In fact, bison seems to rank around where poultry does in terms of the important nutritional stats.
Here's what I found at nutritiondata.com (data is for 100g):
Meat | KCals | Sat. Fat | Protein | Cholesterol |
Beef, top sirloin, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0" fat, all grades, cooked, broiled | 212 | 4 | 29 | 73 |
Beef, chuck, arm pot roast, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0" fat,
all grades, cooked, braised | 297 | 8 | 29 | 95 |
Filet Mignon (Beef, tenderloin, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0" fat, all grades, cooked, broiled) | 218 | 4 | 28 | 84 |
Bison, top sirloin, separable lean only, 1" steak, cooked, broiled | 171 | 2 | 28 | 86 |
Bison, top round, separable lean only, 1" steak, cooked, broiled | 174 | 2 | 30 | 85 |
Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted | 165 | 1 | 31 | 85 |
Turkey, fryer-roasters, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted | 135 | 0 | 30 | 83 |
Fish, salmon, Atlantic, farmed, cooked, dry heat | 206 | 3 | 22 | 63 |
Note -- there are charts around that portray bison much better than that, but this web site can tell you why it's an unfair comparison. I think my chart above is more fair. But, still, it's paints bison in a pretty favorable light, as far as I can tell.
In any event . . . how does it taste?
In a word: it tastes great!
In fact, I fired up the barby, and cooked two regular steaks (for my kids) and two bison steaks (for me and my wife), and I thought the bison tasted better. A week or two later, I purchased some ground bison (it comes 95% lean!) and made burgers from it -- my kids couldn't tell the difference -- but it was my first hamburger in half a year!
So -- if you're into steaks and burgers -- give bison a try!
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