Eating Beef Without Your Heart Having a Cow

One of our former students is currently in pharmacy school. Being an Animal Science major in pharmacy school, he finds himself answering lots of questions about animals and the food industry. He and I were visiting about some of the preconceived ideas people have about beef and its effects on the heart. So, I suggested that he write a guest blog post about it. I think he did a great job!

Let me introduce you to Mr. Brad Briggs:

Brad's #meatcounterselfie 

My name is Brad Briggs. I’m a third-year pharmacy student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, but I also have a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in animal science from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. To a lot of people, these might seem like two totally different worlds, but they actually have a lot in common. Pharmacy wants to keep patients healthy while keeping the cost of healthcare to the most reasonable level possible. Farmers and ranchers focus on producing products that are safe, affordable, and the highest possible quality. We both care about the consumer in terms of safety, affordability, and quality of our products and services. Pharmacists and farmers both want their consumers to be happy and healthy.

We spend hours upon hours in pharmacy school learning drugs, interactions, side effects, treatment algorithms etc. to treat our patients in the most effective manner possible, but we also focus on non-pharmacological interventions including healthy eating habits. A large part of what keeps you healthy is what you choose to put in your cupboard and refrigerator. Sometimes certain meats, like beef, can get a bad rap when it comes to things like heart health. I love beef, and I also care about heart health. The two things are not mutually exclusive. My goal in this article is to talk about dietary recommendations for fat and sodium intake in regards to heart health while making recommendations on cuts of beef that help you stay within those goals.

First I would like to start with some basic definitions (I was a high school science teacher for two years, bear with me). Saturated fats are simply fats that don’t have any double bonds between carbon atoms. That just means that most saturated fats are solids at room temperature. Examples of saturated fats are butter, cheese, and various other animal fats. Trans fats are fats with kinks in their chemical structure. In many cases, they are artificially produced. The restaurant industry commonly uses trans fats in their deep fryers because they can be used longer without having to change the oil. Some places like New York have outlawed the use of trans fats in food preparation because they have such a negative impact on health. Trans fats raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and lower good (HDL) cholesterol. Trans fats are commonly found in baked goods like donuts, pie crusts, and biscuits among other things. Lean beef is defined by the USDA as 3.5 ounces or 100 grams of cooked beef that contains less than 10 grams total fat, 4.5 grams saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol. Extra-lean beef is defined as a 3.5 ounces or 100 grams of cooked beef that contains less than 5 grams total fat, 2 grams saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol.

Lean beef is not the white whale of the meat industry. There are several tasty options for lean healthy cuts of beef in your local grocery store. There are actually 29 cuts of lean beef that have a total fat content that is between that of a skinless chicken breast and a skinless chicken thigh. A safe bet for lean beef when shopping is to look for “loin” or “round” on the package. You can always ask the butcher if you have questions as well. The butcher at my local chain grocery store is extremely friendly and helpful.

The American Heart Association gives us our basic guidelines for fat and salt intake for a heart healthy lifestyle. The recommended intake of saturated fat for someone trying to lower their cholesterol is 5 to 6% of their total daily calories. For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, that is about 13 grams of saturated fat total per day. To put that into beef terms, that
is about 6.8 ounces of top sirloin steak or 5.6 ounces of 95% lean ground beef which are both considered lean cuts of beef. The American Heart Association does not have a specific value for trans-fat consumption. Best practice would be to generally avoid anything that has added trans-fat by reading the nutrition labels. Excessive trans-fat should not be a major concern when purchasing beef products. As far as salt, the AHA recommends less than 2,300 milligrams a day. Ideally an adult would consume less than 1,500 milligrams of salt per day, but even reducing whatever your current sodium level is by 1,000 milligrams a day can have a very positive impact on blood pressure and heart health. The naturally occurring sodium in beef is negligible ranging from about 30 to 60 milligrams for a 3-ounce serving.

The main issue with sodium and beef comes with preparation. Many marinades, steak sauces, and seasoning preparations are LOADED with sodium. One tablespoon of A1 steak sauce has 280 milligrams of sodium. A tablespoon of Italian dressing has 243 milligrams of sodium. A tablespoon of soy sauce has 920 milligrams of sodium which is almost half of the total daily limit. A teaspoon of taco seasoning has 215 milligrams of sodium. However, you don’t have to sacrifice your taste buds in order to save your circulatory system. There are many low sodium or even salt free substitutes. In my own kitchen, we make our own taco seasoning without salt. We also use salt free seasonings that can be purchased in the seasoning section of the grocery store. Being a meat lover, I also often grill steaks straight from the butcher without additional seasoning. Mother nature can do all the seasoning work for you!

Beef can be a heart friendly meat choice, but like in most aspects of life, moderation is the key. It is important to have a healthy diet as well as some sort of exercise routine in order to have a healthy heart. Your pharmacist or other healthcare provider can always answer any questions you may have about food choices or salt substitutes that might be right for you. It has been my pleasure to be your future pharmacist at the meat counter.

Brad Briggs is a Student Pharmacist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He received a B.S. and M.S. in animal science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville which introduced him to the world of agriculture. Moving to North Little Rock, AR after graduate school eventually landed him at the head of a high school biology classroom at North Little Rock High School. After two years on the other side of the desk, he applied and was accepted to the UAMS College of Pharmacy where he has been able to use his love of teaching and science background to start educating his patients for a better state of health. He looks forward to practicing pharmacy in a hospital setting working directly with patients to teach them about their medicine to improve their chronic and acute disease states.

Don’t test your luck: food safety and pot lucks

Happy Easter!

Our church, Presley Chapel UMC.
We'd love to have you join us!

Our little church has an Easter tradition of a church pot luck after the egg hunt.  As I was making my dishes on Sunday morning, and loading them in the back of my car for the ¾-mile trip to our country church, my meat-scientist husband and I had several discussions about the safest preparation and storage plans for our dishes. That got me thinking that lots of people probably have questions about preparing, storing and traveling with food for a potluck.

Food safety is especially important at potluck dinners because you are preparing food for a wide variety of people, including vulnerable people like the elderly, or the sick, or small children. The food is more likely to sit out a while before being served, and lots of people have probably handled it. As with any food prep, be sure to remember the 4 steps of food safety Clean, Cook, Chill, and Separate. Other than that, I have a few other thoughts specific to potluck foods.

First, clean.

Be sure to wash your hands and make sure your utensils and dishes are clean. Sometimes, my casserole dishes get a little neglected in the back of the cabinet, so I washed them before I started. Deadly bacteria may live on dust and adding wet food and warm temperatures can stimulate them to grow and produce toxins that make people very sick, very fast.

Separate.

Make sure you keep foods that you plan to cook, like raw meat and eggs, separated from those that you will eat without cooking, like breads and fresh fruit and vegetables. Keep the dishes and utensils separate, too. When there’s space, I try to prepare uncooked foods in a completely separate part of the kitchen than ready-to-eat foods.

Cook.

When you are preparing a dish for a potluck, it is especially important to use a meat thermometer on meats and dishes containing eggs. Make sure you get things cooked to 160°F (165°F for poultry).  Even dishes that don’t contain meat should probably be cooked to 160°F, that should help kill any bacteria that may cause spoilage or could grow during the storage times and make people sick.

(At potluck dinners, you don’t have much control on how long the dishes are held, but you can be extra cautious about cleanliness and cookery to eliminate bacteria in the dish initially. That way, fewer bacteria are present to grow in the dish before it’s served.) 

Chill.

Picnics or potlucks,
get your leftovers in the fridge!

Knowing when to chill a dish for potluck is hard. I made three dishes on Sunday morning at 8 am. I knew that we would probably not eat until after 12:15. So, I had to decide if I wanted to keep my dishes warm for 4 hours or chill them down and heat them back up. Our church is small, and we have a brand new oven in the kitchen. I decided to put them in the fridge and warm them back up before we served lunch. The main concern is to minimize the amount of time your dishes spend in the Danger Zone of temperature (40°F to 140°F) before they are served.

Cover.

When you cook your food and it reaches 160°F or higher, most of the bacteria are killed. So, keeping it covered will keep new bacteria out during the trip to the dinner. Some of the people at church on Sunday, covered their dishes with foil when they cooked it, then covered the foil with those plastic lids that come with the casserole dishes. I thought that was a great idea, once the food was cooked, it didn’t have to be uncovered until it was served. I was not as pleased with my foil covering on my dishes, but it got the job done. 

Transport.

When you live ¾ of a mile from church, you can throw the softball stuff to one side of your trunk and transport your dishes for potluck in the back of your car (The hills didn’t cause them to spill! YAY!). Most people don’t have that luxury, so you have to think about traveling with your potluck dish.

My best advice is simply to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

Use a cooler with ice packs for cold dishes like coleslaw or deviled eggs. If a cooler is too bulky, you might just pack some ice in a large baggie and place your dishes on it. For warm dishes, there are some great thermal casserole carriers that you can buy or put them in a cooler to keep them warm. If you don’t have far to go, just wrapping the dishes in towels will help keep them warm.

Reheat.

If you need to reheat your dish, be sure to use a thermometer and heat it to 160°F. Take the temperature in a few places in the dish. Some ovens don’t heat evenly, especially older ones, and you want to make sure the whole dish warm.

Leftovers.

Just like at home, you don’t want those leftovers to set out at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Get them covered and in the fridge as soon as you can.

Other thoughts.

·       Preparing single-serving items, like fried chicken, green bean bundles, or deviled eggs, minimizes the number of people who handle the food, which would minimize the chances of contamination.

·        You may consider listing any allergens that your food may contain on an index card to accompany your dish. Common allergens include wheat, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shell fish, fish and soy. If there are people with diabetes in your crowd, you may think about making dishes without sugar.

·        If you have a good distance to travel, you may consider making dishes that are less likely to spoil. For instance, you may make a savory green bean bundle rather than the classic green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup. Salty and sugary dishes are less likely to spoil that dishes that contain more cream and mayonnaise.

·        When taste-testing your dishes, be sure to use a new spoon every time. Don’t be a double dipper.

·        If you’ve been sick, just go buy something from the store for the potluck. Fried chicken, drinks, ice. Don’t try to prepare anything. You don’t want to spread your illness.

I love potluck dinners, but they can be dangerous if people are not careful about food safety. I hope that you can feel a little more confident about preparing food for them in the future. Please ask me any questions you may have in the comments.