Difference btn Dark Meat vs. White Meat

Dark Meat vs White Meat: What's the Difference?

Misinformation, half truths, and misleading data abound both online, off-line, and sadly often from experts' mouths.

I always thought white verses dark or red meat was sort of a strange beast, and one where a few ivory-tower experts were able to confuse a nation.

The primary reason dark meat has been labeled bad - besides a large contingency of political agenda - is saturated fat content. Unfortunately, the general public was considered too dumb to understand the difference between saturated verses other fats. I cannot accept that.

Dark Meats
Dark meats simply have more myoglobin proteins, the magic stuff that ships oxygen to the muscle cells.

Dark meats must use myoglobins as they transfer oxygen more efficiently to the muscles than glycogen. Muscles used more frequently, get to be dark. This is why non-flying poultry drumsticks are dark meat, while breast meat is white.

When dark meat is cooked it turns the myoglobins to metmyoglobins, which is brown/gray. Metmyoglobins are very high in iron (albeit there is not that much in dark meat in the first place).

White Meat
White meat gets the 'juice' through glycogen. Glycogen is a polysaccharide of glucose, an animal starch. Animal starch is stored primarily in the liver and broken down into glucose when needed by the white muscle.

Nutritional Comparison
Dark meats tend to contain more zinc, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, vitamins B6 and B12, amino acids, iron than white meat. Dark beef meat contains about 11 times more zinc than tuna, and about 3 times as much iron than raw spinach. Chicken dark meat contain vitamins A, K, B6, B12, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, minerals as selenium, phosphorus and zinc.

Even the fats in most of the dark meats have healthy parts. They contain Omega-3, and Omega-6 fatty acids, and other 'healthy' fats.

It is the saturated fat content which lowers the true quality of dark meat.

USDA Choice

Understanding USDA Gradings
When selecting beef the simplest way is choosing "USDA Select" cuts. Although "USDA Standard" has even less fat, it is rare for a consumer to be able get this grade.

The USDA Prime, Choice, and Select grading is mostly about the marbling (the fat between the muscle tissue), not the nutritional value of the meat. The other qualifiers of USDA beef ratings are maturity, texture, firmness, and color. The full range of classification of beef meat is prime, choice, select, standard, commercial, utility, cutter and canner.

Pick "USDA Select" steaks and you just reduced the fat content from above 8% to down to 3 to 4% of the steak.

The percentage of fat content of beef is as follows per USDA standards:

• Kobe beef : 20%-25%

• USDA Prime : above 8%

• USDA Choice: 4%-8%

• USDA Select: 3%-4%

• USDA Standard: below 3%

To reduce the saturated fat content of chicken dark meat, simply remove the skin.