Healthy Bytes

Feasting on turkey

read time: 196 words, about a minute

Ahhh, that star of Thanksgiving - the turkey.

45 million turkeys are eaten at Thanksgiving. (Another 22 million at Christmas).

Turkey isn’t the most popular meat protein - it ranks 4th behind chicken, beef and pork. But from a cost and nutrition view point, turkey earns the super bird cape… Clearly the Tom’s need better PR.

Turkey has more protein per portion than it’s more popular farm mates chicken, beef and pork… about 18-26 grams per 3oz serving.

But wait, there’s more…
- turkey has the least fat and the lowest saturated fat
- low in cholesterol, low in sodium, low in calories
- good source of amino acids, calcium, iron, niacin, zinc, phosphorus and B vitamins
- turkey meat is easier to digest than the other 3

A typical bird is about 70% white meat and 30% dark meat. The white meat is drier with less fat and fewer calories.

As for that notion that turkey makes you fall asleep… nope, that’s the crash  of the huge carb load. So go for smaller portions of carbs and larger portions of veggies.

As for the bird… free range Tom’s are much healthier than factory farm Tom’s.

This entry was posted on Fri, 17.Nov.2006 at 11:25 am and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.