I want to start eating beef, but I currently only eat it 1-2 times a month.

I heard steaks like Sirloin and Flank is good, but I don't see people mentioning if it should say lean. Those same people tell me to look for lean ground beef if I am interested too which makes me curious if Flank and Sirloin steak etc. is lean by default?

When you buy your steak look to see how "marbled" it is.

The more white tissue running through it and around the sides, the more fat it has.

If it has none that's about as lean a cut as you're going to get.

I want to start eating beef, but I currently only eat it 1-2 times a month.

I heard steaks like Sirloin and Flank is good, but I don't see people mentioning if it should say lean. Those same people tell me to look for lean ground beef if I am interested too which makes me curious if Flank and Sirloin steak etc. is lean by default?
You really need to look at the nutrition stats on the package, if available. Most of the meats I buy have the nutrition information on it, or I check online for an estimate before I buy a particular cut.

The label for "lean" is not standardized and can mean different things in different situations. "Lean" ground beef, for instance, is much fatter than other lean cuts of beef and deli meat.

Here (http://www.mibeef.org/conleancuts.htm) are some of the lean cuts of beef and their approximate nutritional makeup.

Also, the more expensive the classification, the more fat. So prime has more fat than choice which has more than select for a particular cut.

My favorite lately is flank, although it's more expensive. Tenderize and marinate overnight because it's a tough cut (due to it being leaner muscle), but tough cuts generally have more flavor.

As a former butcher, I love questions like these :tu:

"Lean" is not a word that denotes any particular amount of quality. You will generally only see it on labels or packages when you're purchasing ground meat, and even then it's not a qualitative judgment but simply telling you how much of the product is "lean" as in "lean muscle tissue," as opposed to fat. For instance, grass fed ground beef is usually "96% lean" which means 96% meat, 4% fat.

You will pretty much never see actual cuts of beef, steaks, roasts, etc., labeled as "lean." The most common labels to see are the USDA grades, which are Select, Choice, and Prime. Contrary to common belief, these are not necessarily direct indicators of quality. They measure color, texture, and primarily fat content. The more intramuscular fat, also referred to as "marbling" because it looks like little flecks of fat running through the muscle, the higher grade the meat will be. Marbling provides moisture and flavor, and therefore Prime beef will usually be more expensive than Choice. Most better meat markets don't even carry anything graded as Select.

However, more fat means more calories, and overall less nutritional benefit. Saturated fat isn't totally horrible for you, but for dieting it's best to stick to naturally leaner cuts. Unfortunately, some of the best cuts on the cow, particularly your traditional grilling steaks (T-bone, strip, ribeye, etc.) tend to have a decent amount of marbling if graded Prime.

Some great lean cuts that are also quite good include Top Sirloin, flank steak (although this is nowhere near as cheap as it used to be because of increasing popularity), tenderloin (which is astronomically expensive), and tri-tip (aka bottom sirloin), which is very similar to Top Sirloin although a little more tender and slightly more marbled.

Choice is a great balance between nutrition and taste.

However, I will point out that the whole "fat = flavor" idea really only applies to GRAIN-FED beef. Cattle don't naturally eat things like corn, they graze on grass. Ranchers figured out a long time ago that if you stuff them full of grain, particularly corn, they grow larger and fatter. However, they can't fully digest grain correctly, and not only do they tend to develop ulcers and other digestive issues (oftentimes resulting in additional unnecessary doses of antibiotics which will be present in the beef unless you shop at a natural market), but the lack of the normal nutrition from grass actuallly DECREASES the amount of flavor in the meat, even though it gives them more fat. As a result, while the rancher gets a better yield off each head of cattle and your fattier or more marbled cuts taste great, the leaner cuts suffer. This is why many people think beef doesn't have that great a flavor without some fat in it.

The solution: Grass-fed beef. An increasing number of ranchers, particularly all-natural beef producers, are returning to grazing their cattle just on grass. This results in a little less growth and virtually none of their cows are fat enough to be labeled as Prime, but the meat throughout the animal takes on a darker color and more full, rich flavor from a grass diet, and the animal itself is much healthier and happier.

If you have a natural food store (such as Whole Foods) or some other high-end meat market in your town, I suggest giving them a shot and taking home some grass fed beef. Grass-fed ground beef is very lean, has tons of flavor, and isn't generally much more expensive than the leanest grades of grain-fed beef.

Also, a side-note, when meat is ground you are taking the bacteria from outside the meat and redistributing it throughout the inside. This increases the rate at which it will go bad. For this reason, ground beef has a maximum lifespan of freshness of about TWO DAYS before it starts to noticeably change in smell and flavor, and will legitimately be spoiled soon after. Beware of any market that has long sell-by dates on ground beef, because they're either unethical or are using meat that has strange additives added to it.

Many conventional markets now add carbon monoxide to the inside of prepacked cuts of meat to maintain the red color, even though this does absolutely nothing to maintain freshness otherwise, and CO is of course quite poisonous to us.

Great post, Glaive.

I'd also like to point out a lot of the fat in beef is actually healthy monounsaturated fat. Also, grass fed beef is much higher in the healthy CLA.

Bison is generally a bit leaner and comparable as I understand it to grass fed beef (as bison generally is grass fed).

Note that if you get grass fed beef or bison, cook it a bit slower or for shorter periods due to the lower fat.

Great post, Glaive.

I'd also like to point out a lot of the fat in beef is actually healthy monounsaturated fat. Also, grass fed beef is much higher in the healthy CLA.

Bison is generally a bit leaner and comparable as I understand it to grass fed beef (as bison generally is grass fed).

Note that if you get grass fed beef or bison, cook it a bit slower or for shorter periods due to the lower fat.

Excellent points. Thanks for adding those in. I knew I forgot something!

Personally, I never quite jived with the taste of bison, but then again I don't like most "game" meats. In my experience most of my customers who liked game thought bison was awesome.

I do know bison is roughly equivalent to grass-fed beef in terms of fat content, as to things like CLA content and other nutritional components (B-vitamins, heme iron, etc.) I don't know exactly how similar they are. I'd assume there's not a huge difference, but that's just a guess.

Awesome info, especially Glaive's.

Now I understand it has alot to do with looking at the meat for myself and just evaluating it from what I know which is ok....but I still don't know how many times I should eat it a month, it could really help me expand my bulk diet more if I eat it more...but I don't want to risk extra significant fat gain if it isn't needed.

Generally, is 7 days a month max doable?

BTW, I would love if the stores in my area put the nutrition content as it would make measuring the meat I take in each meals that much easier...but they don't. They just put the brand, name, weight, price and a bunch of info in fine print about what the meat is like and where its from etc.

Man I feel silly. I've been unsuccessfully looking for "eye of round" for ages. Wikipedia tells me it's just what you Americans call "rump steak". It's the most common kind of beef steak over here :D

Man I feel silly. I've been unsuccessfully looking for "eye of round" for ages. Wikipedia tells me it's just what you Americans call "rump steak". It's the most common kind of beef steak over here :D

:o I'm not alone then!!! Thanks Gazareth!!! :tu: