Food fads are part of how we live now, and every new season seems to bring a new miraculous food we all need to incorporate into our diets. But the truth is that often it’s the staple foods that have been on our plates and in our recipe books for generations that we need to be paying the most attention to.
Here are three reasons why reliable ingredients like lean proteins that are rich in the macronutrients we need to fuel our busy lives are an essential part of a healthy diet.
1. Lean Proteins Build Muscle and Lose Weight
All moms know that parenting is hard work. If you’re running around after kids and making sure all the housework gets done, you need to be fueling your lifestyle with quality food that will give you the strength and energy you need.
Lean protein is great for building muscle, which is one of the reasons it’s so popular with bodybuilders. But you don’t have to spend mornings on the bench press to benefit from lean protein: it offers a low-calorie source of protein that is essential if you’re living an active lifestyle. And because protein helps you feel full, making lean proteins part of every meal is a great way to beat those mid-morning hunger pangs.
2. Lean Proteins are Heart-Healthy
The most common source for lean protein is meat. A skinless, boneless chicken breast, for example, contains 136 calories, 31 grams of protein, and only 3.6 grams of fat. It contains no carbohydrates at all, so if you’re on a low-carb diet, lean meats like chicken should be a staple.
Because chicken is so lean, you can eat a lot of it without worrying about rising cholesterol or risk of heart disease. But you don’t need to stick to poultry if you want the lean-meat advantage: grass-fed beef, shrimp, pork chops, and pork loin are lean, great-tasting alternatives.
3. Local, Sustainably-Raised Meat Has Less Fat, More Flavor
One major change that has happened in the way we think about food is the growing awareness about the dangers of factory farming. Intensive, industrial agricultural practices are all about bulking up cattle as quickly as possible, and this often leads to a fattier end product.
Furthermore, when you buy meat from a supermarket, you’re often getting products that have travelled huge distances and been shipped back and forth between farms, feedlots, processing facilities, and packing plants. This means that the animals have experienced a lot of stress, and the meat has been heavily processed.
Choosing to switch to a premium meat delivery service that connects you directly with local farms that provide you with meat that was raised in or near your own community will give you better quality protein, and will also help support local farmers.
Food is fuel, and if you want to fuel your body right, you need to make sure that you’re getting the lean protein you need to keep your muscles strong and your cholesterol low. Including premium lean protein in every meal of the day is also a way to reduce inter-meal snacking by filling up on the good stuff when you sit down at the table.
And when your lean protein comes from local farmers and producers, you can be sure that you’re getting the healthiest lean meats around, from suppliers who are invested in making food as healthy as sustainable as possible.
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