It's certainly been a bad week for meat. Last month, the World Health Organization notified the public that processed meat was as big a cancer threat as cigarettes, asbestos and arsenic, making people say goodbye to ham, and putting the final nail on bacon's coffin.
All these information we're getting is according to a new study from Oxford University, claiming that eating just one steak a week can add to the chance of bowel cancer by 42 per cent. This study is reportedly to be one of the largest of its kind. What they do is collect data from a pool of middle-aged people who have been enslaved by steak, and measured a normal portion of red meat as 70g. It is believed that an average steak is about 284g, which is the equivalent of four portions. And - here's the kicker - the study also recommended to have just one portion of the most delicious food on the planet, per week. R.I.P Steak Night.
But that was last week; this week is a different story. Charlotte Stirling-Reed, a nutritionist helped search for health benefits of red meat. So it's not time to say goodbye to red meat just yet. Red meat is packed with protein and iron according to Stirling-Reed of SR Nutrition and a fellow of the Association for Nutrition. As a number of groups in the United Kingdom have decreased intake of iron containing food, red meat can have a beneficial role in decreasing the risk of having Iron Deficiency Anemia.
And believe it or not, some experts estimate suggests that almost two thirds of the human population lack iron in their system. Contrary to what people say, the highest concentrations of iron can be found in beef more than other commonly consumed meat such as pork or chicken. Red meat has heme iron, which is absorbed and put to work more conveniently than the non-heme iron found in green vegetables.
