The negative impact of red meat on our cholesterol profile may be similar to that of white meat.
Switching from Beef to Chicken & Fish May Not Lower Cholesterol
4.6/5 - (40 votes)
In light of recommendations for heart-healthy eating from national professional organizations encouraging Americans to limit their intake of meat, the beef industry commissioned and co-wrote this review of randomized controlled trials comparing the effects of beef versus chicken and fish on cholesterol levels published over the last 60 years. They found that the impact of beef consumption on the cholesterol profile of humans is similar to that of fish and/or poultry, meaning that switching from red meat to white meat likely wouldn’t make any difference. And that’s really no surprise, given how fat we’ve genetically manipulated chickens to be these days–up to ten times more fat than they had a century ago. So there are a number of cuts of beef that have less cholesterol-raising saturated fat than chicken, so no surprise that white meat was found to be no better than red. But their conclusion was that therefore you can eat beef as part of a balanced diet to manage your cholesterol. That’s just like the Coke versus Pepsi thing. Even though Coke has less sugar than Pepsi–16 spoonfuls of sugar per bottle instead of just 15. If studies on blood sugar found no difference between drinking Coke versus Pepsi, you wouldn’t conclude that Pepsi may be considered when recommending diets for the management of blood sugars; you’d say they’re both just as bad, so we should ideally consume neither.
That’s a standard drug industry trick, to compare your fancy new drug not to the best out there, but to some miserable drug to make yours look better. Note they didn’t compare beef to plant proteins, like in this study. But I was surprised as I started reading this that they found no benefit to switching to a plant protein diet either. What were they eating? Plant protein diet on the left; animal protein diet on the right. Breakfast looks ok. Instead of a burger for lunch, the plant group got a kidney bean and tomato casserole and a salad; nice. And dinner, instead of another burger, just some boring vegetables. Why was the cholesterol of the plant group as bad as the animal group? Oh, because they had the plant protein group eating three tablespoons of beef tallow every day–three tablespoons of straight beef fat margarine–well, no wonder.
This was part of a series of studies that tried to figure out what was so cholesterol-raising about meat—was it the animal protein, or was it the animal fat? So they created fake meat products made to have the same amount of saturated fat and cholesterol by adding extracted animal fats and cholesterol. Who could they get to make such strange concoctions? The Ralston Purina dog food company.
But what’s crazy is that even if you do keep the saturated animal fat and cholesterol the same, by adding meat fats to the veggie burgers, and making the plant group swallow cholesterol pills to equal it out, sometimes you still see an advantage in the plant protein group. See how they had them switch diets halfway through and their cholesterol levels switched as well?
You switch people from meat to tofu, their cholesterol goes down. But what if you switch them from meat to tofu plus lard! Then their cholesterol may stay the same, though tofu and lard may indeed actually be better than meat, since it may result in less oxidized cholesterol. So even just swapping plant protein for animal protein may have advantages, but if we really want to maximize the power of diet to lower cholesterol, we may want to move entirely to plants. The standard dietary advice to cut down on fatty meat, dairy, and eggs may lower cholesterol 5% to 10%, but flexitarian or vegetarian diets may drop our levels 10% to 15%, vegan diets 15% to 25%, and healthier vegan diets up to 35%–like this study showing a 61-point drop in LDL cholesterol within a matter of weeks.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- K C Maki, M E Van Elswyk, T M Rains, E L Sohn, S McNeill. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that compare the lipid effects of beef versus poultry and/or fish consumption. J Clin Lipidol. 2012 Jul-Aug;6(4):352-61.
- E Ashton, M Ball. Effects of soy as tofu vs meat on lipoprotein concentrations. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2000 Jan;54(1):14-9.
- E L Ashton, F S Dalais, M J Ball. Effect of meat replacement by tofu on CHD risk factors including copper induced LDL oxidation. J Am Coll Nutr. 2000 Nov-Dec;19(6):761-7.
- K K Carroll, P M Giovannetti, M W Huff, O Moase, D C Roberts, B M Wolfe. Hypocholesterolemic effect of substituting soybean protein for animal protein in the diet of healthy young women. Am J Clin Nutr. 1978 Aug;31(8):1312-21.
- R L Shorey, B Bazan, G S Lo, F H Steinke. Determinants of hypocholesterolemic response to soy and animal protein-based diets. Am J Clin Nutr. 1981 Sep;34(9):1769-78.
- S L Wiebe, V M Bruce, B E McDonald. A comparison of the effect of diets containing beef protein and plant proteins on blood lipids of healthy young men. Am J Clin Nutr. 1984 Nov;40(5):982-9.
- P M Clifton. Protein and coronary heart disease: the role of different protein sources. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2011 Dec;13(6):493-8.
- H R Ferdowsian, N D Barnard. Effects of plant-based diets on plasma lipids. Am J Cardiol. 2009 Oct 1;104(7):947-56.
- D J Jenkins, C W Kendall, A Marchie, D Faulkner, E Vidgen, K G Lapsley, E A Trautwein, T L Parker, R G Josse, L A Leiter, P W Connelly. The effect of combining plant sterols, soy protein, viscous fibers, and almonds in treating hypercholesterolemia. Metabolism. 2003 Nov;52(11):1478-83.
- Y Wang, C Lehane, K Ghebremeskel, M A Crawford. Modern organic and broiler chickens sold for human consumption provide more energy from fat than protein. Public Health Nutr. 2010 Mar;13(3):400-8.
In light of recommendations for heart-healthy eating from national professional organizations encouraging Americans to limit their intake of meat, the beef industry commissioned and co-wrote this review of randomized controlled trials comparing the effects of beef versus chicken and fish on cholesterol levels published over the last 60 years. They found that the impact of beef consumption on the cholesterol profile of humans is similar to that of fish and/or poultry, meaning that switching from red meat to white meat likely wouldn’t make any difference. And that’s really no surprise, given how fat we’ve genetically manipulated chickens to be these days–up to ten times more fat than they had a century ago. So there are a number of cuts of beef that have less cholesterol-raising saturated fat than chicken, so no surprise that white meat was found to be no better than red. But their conclusion was that therefore you can eat beef as part of a balanced diet to manage your cholesterol. That’s just like the Coke versus Pepsi thing. Even though Coke has less sugar than Pepsi–16 spoonfuls of sugar per bottle instead of just 15. If studies on blood sugar found no difference between drinking Coke versus Pepsi, you wouldn’t conclude that Pepsi may be considered when recommending diets for the management of blood sugars; you’d say they’re both just as bad, so we should ideally consume neither.
That’s a standard drug industry trick, to compare your fancy new drug not to the best out there, but to some miserable drug to make yours look better. Note they didn’t compare beef to plant proteins, like in this study. But I was surprised as I started reading this that they found no benefit to switching to a plant protein diet either. What were they eating? Plant protein diet on the left; animal protein diet on the right. Breakfast looks ok. Instead of a burger for lunch, the plant group got a kidney bean and tomato casserole and a salad; nice. And dinner, instead of another burger, just some boring vegetables. Why was the cholesterol of the plant group as bad as the animal group? Oh, because they had the plant protein group eating three tablespoons of beef tallow every day–three tablespoons of straight beef fat margarine–well, no wonder.
This was part of a series of studies that tried to figure out what was so cholesterol-raising about meat—was it the animal protein, or was it the animal fat? So they created fake meat products made to have the same amount of saturated fat and cholesterol by adding extracted animal fats and cholesterol. Who could they get to make such strange concoctions? The Ralston Purina dog food company.
But what’s crazy is that even if you do keep the saturated animal fat and cholesterol the same, by adding meat fats to the veggie burgers, and making the plant group swallow cholesterol pills to equal it out, sometimes you still see an advantage in the plant protein group. See how they had them switch diets halfway through and their cholesterol levels switched as well?
You switch people from meat to tofu, their cholesterol goes down. But what if you switch them from meat to tofu plus lard! Then their cholesterol may stay the same, though tofu and lard may indeed actually be better than meat, since it may result in less oxidized cholesterol. So even just swapping plant protein for animal protein may have advantages, but if we really want to maximize the power of diet to lower cholesterol, we may want to move entirely to plants. The standard dietary advice to cut down on fatty meat, dairy, and eggs may lower cholesterol 5% to 10%, but flexitarian or vegetarian diets may drop our levels 10% to 15%, vegan diets 15% to 25%, and healthier vegan diets up to 35%–like this study showing a 61-point drop in LDL cholesterol within a matter of weeks.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- K C Maki, M E Van Elswyk, T M Rains, E L Sohn, S McNeill. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that compare the lipid effects of beef versus poultry and/or fish consumption. J Clin Lipidol. 2012 Jul-Aug;6(4):352-61.
- E Ashton, M Ball. Effects of soy as tofu vs meat on lipoprotein concentrations. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2000 Jan;54(1):14-9.
- E L Ashton, F S Dalais, M J Ball. Effect of meat replacement by tofu on CHD risk factors including copper induced LDL oxidation. J Am Coll Nutr. 2000 Nov-Dec;19(6):761-7.
- K K Carroll, P M Giovannetti, M W Huff, O Moase, D C Roberts, B M Wolfe. Hypocholesterolemic effect of substituting soybean protein for animal protein in the diet of healthy young women. Am J Clin Nutr. 1978 Aug;31(8):1312-21.
- R L Shorey, B Bazan, G S Lo, F H Steinke. Determinants of hypocholesterolemic response to soy and animal protein-based diets. Am J Clin Nutr. 1981 Sep;34(9):1769-78.
- S L Wiebe, V M Bruce, B E McDonald. A comparison of the effect of diets containing beef protein and plant proteins on blood lipids of healthy young men. Am J Clin Nutr. 1984 Nov;40(5):982-9.
- P M Clifton. Protein and coronary heart disease: the role of different protein sources. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2011 Dec;13(6):493-8.
- H R Ferdowsian, N D Barnard. Effects of plant-based diets on plasma lipids. Am J Cardiol. 2009 Oct 1;104(7):947-56.
- D J Jenkins, C W Kendall, A Marchie, D Faulkner, E Vidgen, K G Lapsley, E A Trautwein, T L Parker, R G Josse, L A Leiter, P W Connelly. The effect of combining plant sterols, soy protein, viscous fibers, and almonds in treating hypercholesterolemia. Metabolism. 2003 Nov;52(11):1478-83.
- Y Wang, C Lehane, K Ghebremeskel, M A Crawford. Modern organic and broiler chickens sold for human consumption provide more energy from fat than protein. Public Health Nutr. 2010 Mar;13(3):400-8.
Republishing "Switching from Beef to Chicken & Fish May Not Lower Cholesterol"
Terms
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
Title
Switching from Beef to Chicken & Fish May Not Lower Cholesterol
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Thought chicken was a low-fat food? It used to be, but not any more. It may be one of the reasons we may be getting fatter as well: Chicken Big: Poultry and Obesity.
Isn’t protein just protein? How does our body know if it’s coming from a plant or an animal? How could it have different effects on cardiovascular risk? See Protein and Heart Disease, another reason why Plant Protein [is] Preferable.
I used that same Coke/Pepsi comparison in my analysis of another body of beef-funded research: BOLD Indeed: Beef Lowers Cholesterol?
More on the role of oxidized cholesterol in Does Cholesterol Size Matter? and Arterial Acne.
Lowering cholesterol is as simple as reducing one’s intake of three things, and the lower, perhaps, the better: Trans Fat, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero.
What about those news stories on the vindication of saturated fat? See the sneaky science in The Saturated Fat Studies: Buttering Up the Public and The Saturated Fat Studies: Set Up to Fail.
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to our free newsletter. With your subscription, you'll also get notifications for just-released blogs and videos. Check out our information page about our translated resources.
Previous Video
Next Video
