Surprise - The Truth About Beef

Once upon a time their was a myth made up that beef was bad for you. That within the depth of the meat lies heart attacks, strokes, and cancers just waiting to attack your poor innocent body. One day scientists discovered that beef is healthy and nutritious for you. SURPRISE!

 Beef can provide you with a number of vitamins essential to your health. The most prevalent vitamins found in beef are B vitamins. B vitamins are known to help maintain your metabolism, immune system and blood glucose levels, form healthy red blood cells and hemoglobin and combat fatigue, diarrhea, constipation, memory loss and anemia.

A 4-ounce cut of beef provides almost 50 percent of your daily recommended value of B12 and provides just over 25 percent of your daily recommended value of B6. You also will find niacin and riboflavin.

Zinc is also a very high nutrient found in beef. It helps maintain your immune system and it also helps form protein and DNA within your body, heal wounds and sustain your senses of smell and taste. A 4-ounce steak provides you with 40 percent of your daily zinc intake.

Right around 40 percent of your daily recommended value of selenium can be found in a 4-ounce cut of beef. This mineral is a key component to selenoproteins, which act like antioxidants in the body and prevent free radicals from damaging healthy cells.

Beef is very rich in Iron, a 4-ounce steak providing you with 25 percent of your daily intake. Iron helps build the proteins and enzymes needed to maintain your overall health, while facilitating the transport of oxygen and regulation of cell growth. It's also known to combat fatigue, poor concentration and anemia.

I don't know how people can believe that beef is unhealthy for your body. Look at all the minerals and vitamins that it can provide you, each helping your body in a different way.
Other than the four essential minerals in beef there are other great ways it helps our body!

•  Studies indicate, that if our ancestors didn't eat red meat, such as beef, our brains would be 1/4 the size they presently are! The proteins and fats in red meats are the reasons for our rapid growth and intelligence!
• Beef is rich in linoleic and palmiotelic acids, which have strong anticancer effects and fight viruses and other pathogens.
• Beef can also help PREVENT wrinkles!It is an excellent source of Coenzyme Q10, which has been shown to help reduce the formation of wrinkles. 

Here's some quick tips on how to select and store you healthy beef!

•  Always examine the sell-by date on the label and choose the beef with the latest date. The muscle portion of the meat should be a red or purplish color and not brown, which is a signal that the meat has been excessively exposed to oxygen and is spoiled.
• The leanest cuts of beef are taken from the back leg bone, called the round bone.  These cuts are the leanest (most muscular) because the cow uses its back legs as its primary means of movement.
• Since beef is highly perishable, it should always be kept at cold temperatures, either refrigerated or frozen. Refrigerate the beef in the original store packaging, if it is still intact and secure, as this will reduce the amount of handling involved.
• Ground beef will keep for about one to two days, steaks for two to three days, and roasts for three to four days in the refrigerator.
• If you have more beef than you can use within this period of time, you can freeze it in a cold temperature freezer.



The different cuts of beef.

 For some healthy cooking ideas for your beef here's a link to a "Belly Bites" website I found.

http://www.bellybytes.com/recipe/beef/ 

Hope to hear back from you! Check in tomorrow!

~Carling