I am so sad. I am thinking that the pork chops I have in my refrigerator will be good for supper. They are fairly lean. Since I have been on the TLC diet, I don’t eat a large portion. I am going to make Brown Rice and a salad with garbanzo beans to go with them, so it should be all good.
BUT, now I see that the USDA says PORK is red meat. And, RED MEAT is on the AVOID list. Actually, this is what the USDA site says:
“Oxygen is delivered to muscles by the red cells in the blood. One of the proteins in meat, myoglobin, holds the oxygen in the muscle. The amount of myoglobin in animal muscles determines the color of meat. Pork is classified a ‘red’ meat because it contains more myoglobin than chicken or fish. When fresh pork is cooked, it becomes lighter in color, but it is still a red meat. Pork is classed as ‘livestock’ along with veal, lamb and beef. All livestock are considered ‘red meat.'”
Actually, RED MEAT is limited to 4 servings a week, so I just have to limit what I eat the rest of the week. With the chicken and fish I have had this week, I will be fine. Whew! I know CBS News would not be considered a reliable source for this. I did check it with the actual article published by Morris et al. and this is correct, but I cannot link to the article itself.
So, why did I think of pork as white meat. Because the Pork Board said so. Their advertising campaign used Pork – the Other White Meat for years. Pork Board about how successful that advertising campaign was. They do have a good point, that lean pork can have less fat than chicken.
Here is another wrinkle: According to Science Daily, a Purdue University study of the DASH diet found that lean, uncured pork could be used in place of chicken and fish without a significant effect on blood pressure, which is the target of the DASH diet. This may or may not apply to the MIND diet, though. I haven’t had time to find the actual article yet, but this is the citation:
- R. D. Sayer, A. J. Wright, N. Chen, W. W. Campbell. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet retains effectiveness to reduce blood pressure when lean pork is substituted for chicken and fish as the predominant source of protein. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2015; DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.115.111757