The Many Degrees of Fat

There’s plenty of misinformation and lack of knowledge emanating from the intersection of meat and fat. As the best restaurant in Dehradun, we naturally serve quite a bit of both: however, a general, though easily cured, ignorance about these topics ensures that a lot of the effort that we put into maximizing gains and minimizing negative side-effects are often ignored. So, to rectify that let us first begin with what exactly meat is.

Red and White

Meats are often distinguished as white and red based upon the colour, with red being regarded as high in fatty content, and white as healthier. For the most part, this distinction is not exactly accurate: a deeper look at red meat shows that many of the red meats can actually be classified as lean red, as their contents are actually beneficial for the general health of the consumer.

The many kingdoms of fat

This mixup is primarily because people don’t know their fats. In general, there are at least four kinds of fat that suffuse the meat and muscle of various animals: polyunsaturated fat, saturated, monosaturated, and trans-fatty acids. While each have their specific effects upon the human body, they can be broadly lumped into two categories: saturated fats that raise cholesterol levels and have quite detrimental effects upon the human body; and Polyunsaturated fat, monosaturated fat, and Omega-3, whom studies have found to reduce cholesterol and perhaps even decrease incidence of cancer and reduce the blood pressure.

As the best multicuisine restaurant in Dehradun we’ve been quite conscious of the distinction and most of our meat comes from the healthy side of that dividing line.

Degrees of Blushes

The fat content thereby influence strongly influences the categorization of meat. However, the visual distinction that we usually make, red or white, is something defined simply by the presence, or absence, of a myoglobin, an iron containing protein. Muscles that need more oxygen will be redder – so you can find great variations within a single animal. Take the humble chicken – as it will use its legs for much more than just walking, the leg area is generally a lot redder than the breast piece, even though the meat is regarded as white. (This is primarily because ‘white’ here is a stand in for ‘less red’, than actual white.)

Consequently, this myoglobin is only the surface: underneath, the many factors of cardiovascular health and fat content influence the true categorization a lot more profoundly. An actual evaluation of the meat will and should take into account these factors.

Calories of meat

Nevertheless, regardless of the type of fat or the degree of fat content, for those looking to calorie count, any kind of fat will lead to the counter ticking ominously. Even though we recommend healthier and lean meats like fish, for the weight watchers it’s generally a good idea to have lean portions besides. No focus on detail of good or bad fats is going to help your health much if you continue to give excessive amount of it to your body.