Health&Nutrition

RUNNER’S KITCHEN: What’s Your Beef?

February 18, 2010
By Bobbi Barbarich

Keep your figure trim with lean beef

Running through winter can help maintain your lean body mass, but it’s still easy to gain weight over the colder months, when festive gatherings can lead runners to develop extra layers of rump insulation. Getting rid of the fat, however, may be as easy as trimming off the excess - especially when it comes to beef. Lean beef has only slightly more fat content than turkey or chicken (2.5 to 3 g of fat per serving). Trimmed of fat either before or after cooking, almost all beef is considered lean, or less than 10 per cent fat (10 g fat per 100 g serving). Except for blade, rib eye and T-bone cuts, most trimmed beef actually qualifies as extra lean, with 7.5 per cent fat or less.

Because protein is digested more slowly than carbohydrates or fat, eating high protein foods like lean Canadian beef with your meals will help curb between-meal hunger. Breaking down protein also demands a bit more energy during digestion than fat or carbs. This thermic effect isn’t huge, but can make a difference long-term.

Protein Power

Protein is crucial for lean body mass and healthy weight loss, and also plays a critical role in post-workout recovery. Just one 100 g serving of beef - the size of a deck of cards - provides a third of your daily protein needs. Beef, however, goes beyond muscle-building blocks - every cut contains a significant dose of zinc, selenium and the healthy trans fat, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

Zinc

If the majority of your zinc intake is from poorly absorbed supplements or plant sources, consider including beef with your meals twice a week. Zinc boosts your immune system, which is particularly vulnerable after high-intensity runs in cold temperatures. Zinc is found in most meat, but beef is particularly rich in highly absorbable zinc, containing almost an entire day’s requirement in one serving.

Selenium

The trace mineral selenium is an important cofactor for many enzymes, especially in the immune system. It stimulates antibody production and is a powerful antioxidant. Working with vitamins C and E, selenium protects against raging free radicals becoming especially rampant when you’re breathing cold air. One serving of beef meets half your daily needs.

Healthy trans fats

While engineered trans fats found in processed foods are terrible for you, natural trans fatty acids, which are produced by bacteria in ruminant animals like cows, are not harmful. Beef contains a small amount of CLA, trans fats found naturally in beef and dairy products. Promising research suggests that CLA may fight mammary, prostate and colorectal cancer cell growth. CLA is also being intensely studied as a tool for weight loss, though positive results are deceptively small when compared to lifestyle changes.

Trimming the fat from your beef isn’t the only way to slim your silhouette, but lean, mineral-packed beef is a tasty step toward your next PB.

Bobbi Barbarich is the nutrition editor at Canadian Running. She lives in Nelson, B.C.

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