Meat and Meat Products including Poultry - Bristol Diabetes.

Types of Fat in Meat.
Reduce Saturated Fat.
What's in a Sausage?
Fat Content of Mince.
Poultry: White Meat vs. Dark Meat?
Is Pork White Meat?
External Links.
Fat Content Tables.
Cooked Meat: Nutritional Tables.

Types of Fat in Meat

About 50% of the fat in red meat is saturated fat, the remainder is mainly monounsaturated fat with some polyunsaturated fat.

Fat in poultry (including eggs) is about 33% saturated fat with most of the remainder being polyunsaturated fat. Making poultry a healthier choice even if the overall fat content is similar.

Everyone is advised to limit the quantities of saturated fat they eat, particularly diabetic's who are generally more at risk of heart disease.

Reducing Saturated Fat

To reduce the amount of saturated fat in your diet -

Choose leaner cuts of meat
Trim excess fat from meat
Grill - don't add fat while cooking
Avoid processed products like sausages and pies
Minimise any fat added while cooking
Consider changing some meals to healthier alternatives such as poultry or fish
Reduce the amount of full fat dairy foods too.

What's in a Sausage?

Like all processed foods you can't judge a sausage by its skin so check the label. Typically sausages are somewhere in the range of 20-30% fat with the premium (expensive) sausages often having the highest fat content!

Carbohydrate's in sausages (in the UK) range from about 30% rusk and soya in the cheaper sausages to 10% bread used in the more expensive sausages.

Fat Content of Mince.

There was wide variation in the fat content of mince. The Food Standards Agency's Survey on the fat content in minced meat is well worth a read if you eat mince.

Nearly 1 in 5 (18%) of the samples the FSA took had a higher fat content than the pack label stated (including an additional tolerance level). Some a lot more than the declared limit, this includes premium 'lean' brands too.

Definitions of lean, extra lean or super lean not well defined at all.

Mince Fat Content

Beef Mince: 1.9 to 32.3%

Lean Beef: 4.0 to 15.7%

Pork Mince: 1.8 to 20.9%

Turkey Mince: 0.6 to 14.3%

Chicken Mince: 0.7 to 14.0%

Source FSA survey Sept 2004.

Poultry: White Meat vs. Dark or Brown Meat.

Brown or dark meat has about 3% more fat than the leaner white meat. Eaten without the skin, brown or dark meat its still a healthy and more strongly flavoured option.

White meat though, with about ½ the overall fat content of brown meat is a healthier choice!

Is Pork White Meat?

Is Pork a white meat like Chicken and Turkey? That's to much to claim in my opinion.

It does have less fat (and saturated fat) than lamb or beef in general. Lean cuts (trimmed of fat) of Beef, Lamb and Pork are all quite low in fat though.

For mince or sausages (and yes I do eat them both) I go for poultry though.

External Links.

Meat	Sugar Absorption Rate	Notes
Beef	Very Slow	Pick lean cuts, trim any excess fat and keep any fat added during cooking to a minimum. Reduce or better still avoid using Corned Beef. For more details see the beef fat content table.
Black Pudding or Blood Pudding	Unknown	No Glycemic Index figures but as it is blood, black pudding has some blood glucose in it. Figures for carbohydrates I have seen, range from 10-15% so it will have a moderate effect on raising blood sugar levels. Also high in fat. The white lumps in it are some of the saturated fat, solidified. Reduce or better still avoid.
Burgers, Pasties, Pate, Pies, ...	Unknown	Like many highly processed foods they are often high in fat combined with carbohydrate's in the form of cereal, pastry, potato, bread or batter usually carbohydrate's that quickly convert to blood sugar. Even a food labeled 100% beef may well have large amounts of beef fat for example. See the Lean Beef mince figure to see what 'lean beef' actually means for a burger. Lean Chicken or Turkey Mince is a better option than Beef, Pork or Lamb Mince.
Chicken	Very Slow	Remove skin to reduce fat. Brown or darker meat is higher in fat than the white meat. For more details see the poultry fat content table.
Duck	Very Slow	Like all water fowl high in fat close to the skin. Correctly cooked some of this can be removed during cooking.
Goose	Very Slow	Like all water fowl high in fat close to the skin. Correctly cooked some of this can be removed during cooking.
Lamb	Very Slow	One of the meats with higher fat. Pick lean cuts, (leg rather than shoulder for example) trim any excess fat and keep any fat added during cooking to a minimum. For more details see the fat content table.
Pork, Gammon, Bacon & Ham	Very Slow	Pick lean cuts of Pork, Bacon, Gammon or Ham, trim any excess fat and keep any fat added during cooking to a minimum. Reduce of better still avoid using Luncheon Meat and Crackling. For more details see the pork fat content table.
Sausage, Sausage Meat & Scotch Eggs	Unknown	Often high in fat (up to 30%) this includes the premium (expensive) brands. Carbohydrate's can be up to 30% of the sausage. Often high in salt too. If you can't resist them, pricking the sausage and then grilling reduces fat a little. Turkey or Poultry based sausages have less saturated fat too. Better to reduce or avoid though.
Turkey	Very Slow	Remove skin to reduce fat. Brown or darker meat is higher in fat than the white meat. For more details see the poultry fat content table.
Venison	Very Slow	Naturally low in fat compared to other red meats. Be careful of other meat (and fat) being added in products like venison sausages. For more details see the venison fat content table. Note that this figure is likely to be for wild venison, farmed venison may be a little higher in fat.

Fat Content Tables

Meat is a naturally variable product so these are averages.
Mince Fat Content.

Beef Fat Content Chicken and Turkey Fat Content Lamb & Pork Fat Content

Beef - Topside 3-4% White Meat no skin 3% Lamb - Average 11%

Beef - Rump 4% Dark Meat no skin 6% Pork - Leg 2%

Beef - Silverside 4% White Meat with skin 8% Pork - Steaks 3%

Corned Beef 13-14% Dark Meat with skin 11% Venison Fat Content

Venison 2%

Cooked Meat: Typical Food Group, Fibre & Sodium Content

Nutritional information from product labels. High to very high sodium (salt) content on all of the meats that give details. 2 slices or 50g (2oz) of the Aldi Beef would give an adult male ¼ of his recommended daily maximum of salt!

I am curious too where the fibre comes from in the roast chicken as only vegetables have fibre.

Chilled Cooked Meat Calories in 100g (3½oz) Protein Carbohydrate
(sugars) Total Fat
(Saturated) Fibre
^* Sodium
^**

Beef: Topside (Aldi - May 2005) 121 21.0% 0.3%
(nil) 4.0%
(1.6%) Trace 1.2%
Very High
Chicken: Roast (Mattesons - May 2005) 131 24.8% 2.2%
(0.6%) 3.4%
(1.0%) 0.5% 0.9%
High
Ham: Dry Cure (Asda - May 2005) 118 22.0% 1.5%
(0.5%) 2.7%
(1.0%) nil 0.7%
High

Pork Lunch Tongue: (Asda - May 2005) 167 19.0% 1.5%
(0.5%) 10.0%
(4.2%) Trace 1.1%
Very High

Canned Cooked Meat Calories in 100g (3½oz) Protein Carbohydrate
(sugars) Total Fat
(Saturated) Fibre
^* Sodium
^**

Beef Corned: (Asda - Nov 2004) 230 25.0% 1.0%
(1.0%) 14.0%
(7.0%) Nil 1.0%
Very High

Beef Slices in gravy: (John West - Jan 2005) 128 18.0% 5.0%
(?) 4.0%
(?) ? ?

65% Beef Stewed Steak in gravy: (Asda - Mar 2005) 112 14.0% 2.8%
(0.2%) 5.0%
(2.0%) Nil 0.5%
High

Pork Chopped: (Pek - Apr 2005) 199 17.0% 1.8%
(?) 15.0%
(?) ? ?

Pork Chopped Extra Lean: (Pek - Apr 2005) 165 17.6% 1.2%
(?) 10.0%
(?) ? ?

^* In the UK fibre is not included in with the carbohydrate figures.
^** Multiple the Sodium value by 2.5 to get the Salt equivalent.