The Best Sources of Meat for Runners

Meat has been a staple in the American diet since our country was founded. Unfortunately, the meat we are eating today is not the same quality as it was even a generation ago. Today, eating too much of the “wrong” meat can threaten a runner’s performance, health, and environment.

This may be disheartening news, especially if you know the qualities meat can offer an endurance runner. Meat is the most concentrated source of protein our bodies can digest. It offers branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), iron, and vitamin B12 and key nutrients to increase workout energy, maintain muscle composition, repair muscle tissue, increase performance, and boost recovery.

For comparison, check out the list at the bottom of the article to see the difference in protein concentration in meat products vs. vegetable proteins.

However, don’t assume any meat you choose is high quality or the best protein source to fuel your muscles. Let me explain why the quality of meat is different today and which meats you can choose that are of the highest quality to support your best performance.

Why is meat different today?

Today, meat and poultry are huge industries in the United States.

Consequently, companies have tried to create the cheapest and most efficient way to mass produce meat. To do this, they have created CAFOs, concentrated animal feeding operations, or mega-meat farms, which is where the majority of our meat comes from.

A CAFO is a production area that concentrates a large numbers of animals in relatively small and confined places. These animals are literally living on top of each other. They have to be pumped full of drugs and antibiotics to be kept alive because they spend their lives standing and covered in fecal matter. They are fed genetically modified grains (GMO) and hormones to boost growth rates, so they can be butchered and sold quicker. This is taking place with cattle, chickens, turkeys, pigs, and fish.

How does meat production affect your nutrition as a runner?

Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.

Feeding cattle grain may decrease the price of meat, but it increases the amount of unhealthy saturated fat in the meat and the risk of food poisoning from E.coli. As an endurance athlete, you should invest in grass-fed, grass finished beef. A study published in 2010, in the Nutrition Journal, determined that grass-fed beef had higher, inflammation reducing omega 3 fatty acids and lower cholesterol-elevating saturated fatty acids.

Reducing inflammation is very important to support muscle recovery for an endurance runner.

The birds are “all cooped up”

The picture we all have in our minds of chickens and turkeys is of them happily clucking around a barn yard munching on grass and bugs.

In actuality, most birds are kept in cages stacked to the ceiling and feed on anything from corn to animal guts and antibiotics. These birds are producing less nutritious eggs and hormone laden meat.

“Cage-free” and “Free-range” labels on eggs or poultry aren’t all they are cracked up to be. The “Cage-free” label means the birds are not in individual cages; this doesn’t mean they aren’t all just shoved wing-to-wing into one open space to live on top of each other.

The “Range-free” label simply means the animals have access to outside. The “access to outside” is not regulated by the government and can mean anything from a grass field to a narrow path between barns or a small concrete slab.

What’s the bottom line?

To make sure you are getting the most nutrition from your eggs and poultry, find a local farmer, where you can see the living conditions for yourself.

Like grass-fed cattle, an egg from a grass-fed chicken can offer you enough omega-3 fatty acids to almost replace your daily fish oil supplement.

Pork: The other white meat

A pig farmer in Iowa, Craig Rowles, says he keeps his pigs fit by feeding them antibiotics for weeks after weaning, to ward off possible illness in that vulnerable period. And for months after that, he administers an antibiotic that promotes faster growth with less feed. This unnatural process of raising pigs is considered normal in the conventional pig “production” market.

Choosing organic pork, poultry, and beef guarantees you that the animal was fed 100% organic feed containing no animal byproducts, growth hormones, or antibiotics.

Consider this a guarantee to keep you healthier for your training and less susceptible to food borne illness or food poisoning.

It looks a little fishy.

Fish has been touted as a healthy way to get nutrients that reduce inflammation, increase bone density, and decrease the risk of multiple diseases.

Every meat-eating runner should include fish in their diet for the sake of these three health benefits. Vitamin D, a nutrient nearly everyone is deficient in, works in conjunction with the physical impact of running to improve bone density. Sardines are one of the most concentrated forms of vitamin D we can consume!

Use Environmental Defense Fund’s Seafood Selector, www.edf.org, to help you choose the fish with the lowest toxins and those that are the most sustainably fished.

Eating high quality meat can increase the rate at which your muscles rebuild during recovery, decreases the rate at which your muscles tear during a run, decreases the inflammation that takes place after a run, and even helps increase your bone density.

So, even though eating high quality meat may cost more and take a little more effort to find, the benefits are worth it to help increase your performance. For more, you can read our previous articles on protein for runners

Meat versus vegetable protein sources

Sources

Protein (g)

Animal
Tuna 6-oz can 40g
Chicken breast, 4 oz 35
Pork loin, 4 oz 30
Hamburger, 4 oz 30
Whole egg, 1 large 6
Plant
Baked beans, 1 c 14
Lentil soup, 10.5 oz 11
Tofu, extra firm, 3.5 oz 1.1
Refried beans, 1/2 c 7
Hummus, 1/2 c 6
Kidney beans, 1/2 c 6
Peanut butter, 1 Tbsp 4.5
Almonds, dried, 12 3

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5 Responses

  1. I just let my chickens out of the coop. They ran out into the dew covered pasture, sunshine and fresh air where they will eat grass (non-treated), bugs and seeds, drink fresh water and be free to roam until sunset. I do supplement their diet with a non-medicated, animal by-product free feed.
    Eggs from cage free, pasture raised chickens, on average have:
    • 1/3 less cholesterol
    • 1/4 less saturated fat
    • 2/3 more vitamin A
    • 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
    • 3 times more vitamin E
    • 7 times more beta carotene
    Similar data can be found for beef, poultry, pork and produce. For just a little more than you would pay at the store for regular eggs you can give a healthy boost to your diet, have a much fresher product (my eggs don’t sit at a processor, get shipped to a warehouse and stored in a cooler) and help support a local farmer. Small, holistic, family run farms are out there. Check http://www.localharvest.org or farmerspal.com to find one near you or stop by your local farmers market.

    1. Thanks for the awesome statistics on the difference between cage-free and caged chicken eggs. I knew there was a disparity, but couldn’t find exact numbers and they are impressive.

      For those of you on the Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri border, you can find James at Fishback Farms. I am sure he’ll let you chase the chickens so you can train like Rocky.

    2. James, I love this! With as healthy as your eggs are, people could stop taking their Omega-3’s and Vitamin E by simply eating an egg a day! Thank you for making “real” food available to people!!

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