Remember when I told you about Main Man's cholesterol issues? By the way, if you haven't tried the chicken phillies in that post, you're doing yourself a severe disservice in life. Anyway, his cholesterol problems are not something that's going to go away overnight. We've needed to make some changes in everything, including my dude's love for the bovine genre of the food pyramid...namely, steaks. I've been doing some reading and it seems that bison is an extremely lean alternative to beef, and is even lower in calories and fat than chicken or turkey!! Say whaaaaaat?? The drawback is the price...it's perdy expensive. But I figure, if I can give my guy a beefy tasting burger or steak and have it actually helping his cholesterol numbers rather than hurting them, I'll gladly pay a little more for the extra years on his calendar :)
I wasn't just going to go buy a half a bison off the bat though...we gotta ease into this stuff. So we grabbed some bison burgers at Whole Foods to see if there was a distinct taste difference or not and we were very pleasantly surprised. Some people said bison has a "gamey" taste to it and I would completely disagree...granted, we ate a burger and not a steak, but I could barely taste a difference besides less grease. My next step is to order some more cuts to try for the upcoming grilling season, so I'll let you know how all that goes too. For now though, I just wanted to pass on the benefits of bison vs. beef as it was something that I had never known existed as a substitute before a little research...
NUTRITION
Fat
(grams ) |
Calories
(kcal) |
Cholesterol
(mg) |
Iron
(mg) |
Vitamin B12
(mcg) | |
Bison
|
2.42
|
143
|
82
|
3.42
|
2.86
|
Beef (choice)
|
10.15
|
219
|
86
|
2.99
|
2.65
|
Beef (select)
|
8.09
|
201
|
86
|
2.99
|
2.64
|
Pork
|
9.66
|
212
|
86
|
1.1
|
0.75
|
Chicken
(skinless) |
7.41
|
190
|
89
|
1.21
|
0.33
|
| Sockeye Salmon | 10.97 | 216 | 87 | 0.55 | 5.80 |
Source: USDA
| |||||
I realize Lance isn't the most popular dude on the playground these days, but I do use the Livestrong site alot for calorie estimations, etc...head over there if you want a little more detail on the differences between beef and bison.
Now about those purple things on the plate there...yes, those are taters. Purple taters. Purple taters that lower your blood pressure. Yes, sirree. I've been trying to read about substitutions for other things as well...starches being one important one. Whole wheat is recommended for all breads and pastas when you have high cholesterol, but there's no such thing as a wheat potato. At least not yet, but it's only 2013. It turns out though, that these little gems can actually lower your blood pressure. Plus, they taste mighty nice when they're tossed in a little olive oil, fresh cracked salt and pepper, and rosemary and then roasted till you can stick a fork through them. Rosemary is to potatoes what mac is to cheese. One of those couples that is just meant to be together. That marriage will last, folks. Just like mine and Main Man's :)
So all in all, what tasted and looked like a super hearty cheat meal actually turned out to be a cheating skinnier version of a hearty not really cheating meal. Get it? Then go get it. Your meat and tater loving husband will thank you! Maybe he'll even go to hot yoga with you like mine did last weekend?? He's my favorite feller...
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