Red meat

In gastronomy, red meat is commonly red when raw (and a dark color after it is cooked), in contrast to white meat, which is pale in color before (and after) cooking. In culinary terms, only flesh from mammals or fowl (not fish) is classified as red or white. In nutritional science, red meat is defined as any meat that has more of the protein myoglobin than white meat. White meat is defined as non-dark meat from fish or chicken (excluding the leg or thigh, which is called dark meat). Under the culinary definition, the meat from adult or "gamey" mammals (for example, beef, horse, mutton, venison, boar, hare) is red meat, while that from young mammals (rabbit, veal, lamb) is white. Poultry is white. Most cuts of pork are red, others are white. Game is sometimes put in a separate category altogether. (French: viandes noires — "dark meats".) Some meats (lamb, pork) are classified differently by different writers. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), all meats obtained from mammals (regardless of cut or age) are red meats because they contain more myoglobin than fish or white meat (but not necessarily dark meat) from chicken. Some cuts of pork are considered white under the culinary definition, but all pork is considered red meat in nutritional studies. The National Pork Board has positioned it as "the other white meat", profiting from the ambiguity to suggest that pork has the nutritional properties of white meat, which is considered more healthful. Red meat contains large amounts of iron, creatine, minerals such as zinc and phosphorus, and B-vitamins: (niacin, vitamin B12, thiamin and riboflavin). Red meat is a source of lipoic acid. Red meat contains small amounts of vitamin D. Offal such as liver contains much higher quantities than other parts of the animal. In 2011, the USDA launched MyPlate, which did not distinguish between kinds of meat, but did recommend eating at least of fish each week. In 2011, the Harvard School of Public Health launched the Healthy Eating Plate in part because of the perceived inadequacies of the USDA's recommendations.