With Thanksgiving around the corner, the question becomes, which meat are you going to eat: dark or white meat? The common consensus is that white meat is healthy – chicken breasts are the go-to for fitness gurus and healthy-eating advertisements. As always, however, there are pros and cons to both kinds of poultry meat.
Poultry meat, in general, is preferred over other kinds of meat due to the low levels of collagen, which are substances that can interfere with efficient meat digestion. When comparing breast with thighs (which comes with skin), "the presence of skin (due to its fat content) increases the caloric value by around 25–30%," and interestingly, the whole process of cooking increases this value most likely because of the accompanying water loss.
The whole reason why different kinds of meat have different colors is due to the following. Dark meat is due to the presence of myoglobin, which is a protein used in muscles for oxygen transport and supply. White meat has sparse myoglobin. Because oxygen is needed for physical endurance, red meat is found in muscles the animals use when they walk. Consequently, the legs have darker meat compared to breasts.
Multiple studies, however, have challenged the common advice that alludes to better health with the limitation of red meat. It has been shown that "red meats can play an important role in helping people meet their essential nutrient needs" such as "iron, zinc, selenium, potassium, and a range of B-vitamins including niacin, riboflavin, thiamine and vitamin B12." The tendency to avoid red meat originates from the intention to reduce saturated fat in the diet. However, this is not definitively supported to be true as there currently is "no clear evidence to support decades of dietary guidelines to cut saturated fat intake."
What's more, according to a 2014 study, that there was not a significant association between taurine, a natural nutrient found in dark meat, and coronary heart disease (CHD). Among women with high total cholesterol levels, serum taurine was actually significantly associated with low CHD. For women with low total cholesterol levels, the same association was not found. This study thus shows that perhaps it may be that taurine does not contribute to CHD but rather be protective for some individuals in the population.
All of this information, however, must be taken with a grain of salt. I am not suggesting in any way which meat is better to eat. Rather, I advocate for personal research, concluding on a decision yourself.
