Experts: Meat is a valuable food
The festive roast is also part of a balanced diet - the magazine Reader's Digest publishes tips on eating meat and sausages
First the foot-and-mouth disease, then banned medicines, and finally the BSE crisis - the reputation of meat has suffered greatly in recent years. Reader's Digest Germany has now asked experts how healthy or unhealthy animal consumption has become. In the January issue, nutrition and agriculture experts give the answer: Meat is a valuable food that ideally complements plant-based food.The message from the nutrition experts is clear: It is much easier to eat healthily with meat. After all, when you eat, you not only take in the essential amino acids that the body needs for muscle and nerve function, but also fatty acids and vitamins A (good for the eyes), B1, B2, B6, B12 (for the metabolic processes) as well as D (good for the bones). In this context, Konrad Biesalski from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim also does away with the prejudice that expectant mothers should rather not eat meat. On the contrary: during pregnancy it can be risky not to eat meat at all, says Biesalski.
But how much sausage and meat is right for the average consumer? The German Nutrition Society recommends 300 to 600 grams per week for adults, and the Dortmund Research Institute for Child Nutrition recommends 14 to 40 grams per day for young people up to the age of 75. In truth, however, Germans consume two to three times as much on average. Wolfgang Branscheid from the Federal Institute for Meat Research sees it calmly: "There is no scientific justification for stricter limitations on meat consumption." The real problem is that people in industrialized nations eat "too much, too fat and too sweet" and on top of that have too little exercise. Advice from the experts: You should not eat your fill of roast pork and liver sausage, but rather eat a balanced diet - i.e. with bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, dairy products, fruit, vegetables, fish and also meat.
Whole foods are leaving vegetarians behind
In this context, Claus Leitzmann, one of the best-known German nutrition experts from Giessen, refers to studies according to which "wholefoods" who eat meat once or twice a week are the people who are best supplied with nutrients. Vegetarians follow in second place. But which types of meat should be preferred? The same applies here: it's all in the mix. Red meat from beef, lamb and game has a lot of healthy iron. The white meat from chicken or turkey is usually leaner, which is also healthy.
It is important to note the following at the sales counter: veal should be pink, pork light red to red, beef and mutton may look darker, but not have a deep brown-red color tones. Don't forget the preparation: Meat must not be overheated or even burn in the pan. Otherwise the vitamins and minerals are lost.
But - how reliable is meat these days? "Safer than ever," says Lore Schöberlein from the Saxon State Institute for Agriculture in Dresden in Reader's Digest. In response to the scandals of recent years, the regulations on rearing, transporting and slaughtering the animals have been tightened to such an extent that consumption is becoming increasingly safe. But Schöberlein admits, using the BSE test as an example, that there is a residual risk. The reason: Since only animals older than two years are tested, infections in young animals remain undetected.
At one point, the nutrition experts promote at least a thorough examination: on the subject of offal. While bovine brain is considered BSE risk material and is no longer sold in the EU, experts such as Wolfgang Branscheid consider pig brain to be "harmless, but very fatty and not recommended". What remains are the heart, liver and kidneys, which continue to be considered delicacies. Here, too, the motto applies: less is more. Konrad Biesalski from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim therefore advises: 100 grams every 14 days.