If you’ve been around the iron game for any length of time, you’ve probably heard that eating red meat is a must for those looking to gain muscle mass.
For years I shrugged this off as another one of those old wives’ tales that just won’t go away. I always keep an open mind about things, but I still have my gut feelings. My gut told me that this red meat thing was simply B.S. – a case of the blind leading the blind if you will. However, after hearing this from so many people so many times, I finally decided to put aside my bias and do some research.
(Note: I originally wrote this article in the year 2000. It’s an oldie but goodie!)
If there were some sort superior anabolic properties to red meat, what could it be? Could it be the iron content? What about the B-vitamins? Surely it’s not the trace amounts of creatine?
My initial theory was that if there was something to this red meat equals muscle thing, it was probably largely due to the iron content and maybe some of the B-vitamins. After all, bodybuilders (which includes anyone working on their body) tend to eat white meats, which are typically very low in iron. If someone was deficient in iron, then it would be very plausible that correcting that deficiency would restore iron status and improve endurance and maybe even strength.
This is much like the popular ZMA supplements that many rave about. A large number of people are deficient in magnesium and zinc. Correcting those deficiencies can do wonders for various physiological problems, especially testosterone production. Therefore, someone who already has optimal magnesium and zinc status would not likely benefit from ZMA. On the other hand, someone who does have a deficiency that was corrected with the use of a quality zinc and magnesium supplements would swear by its effectiveness. But I digress, back to red meat.
As you know, red meat typically contains a lot of saturated fat. For that reason most of us tend to shy away from making it a staple in our diet. Red meat (and egg yolks for that matter) also contains high amounts of an essential fatty acid called arachidonic acid (AA).
For this reason, Dr. Barry Sears, author of the famous zone Diet, says to stay away from these foods. AA is a precursor to something called prostaglandins (PGs). The two PGs we’re going to talk about briefly are PGE2 and PGF2a. The first one is generally thought to be bad while the second is thought to be good. I wouldn’t be so hasty with that opinion just yet. Our understanding of prostaglandins is really still in the early stages.
Back to AA and Dr. Sears who stated that the PGs formed as a result of AA are inflammatory in nature and should thus be avoided. That sounds good, but . . . There’s always a but, isn’t there? Anytime you have tissue injury, inflammation is involved in healing the wound.
The fact is, if you work out, you have tissue injury – microtrauma to the muscle tissue. As your delayed onset muscle soreness will tell you, inflammation is involved in the healing of this microtrauma.
To prove this point, we only have to turn to various studies which show that when people take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) according to label instructions after training, their protein synthesis (muscle growth) was just about nil, yes, nil, nada, zilch. That ain’t good!
So, it looks like we may have support for the anecdotal evidence that red meat helps one to gain muscle size. However, before you begin stuffing your pie hole with red meat and egg yolks, keep in mind that the Omega 3 fatty acids (found in fish oil and flax oil) have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-catabolic effects, most likely by inhibiting prostaglandin synthesis, especially PGE2.
Now what?! It looks like you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Well, that’s somewhat true.
You have a choice to make. If your primary concern is muscular gain, then eating lots of red meat and egg yolks will very likely help you in your quest for new muscle tissue. If you suffer from one of the many inflammatory conditions that plague many people who exercise (tendonitis, bursitis, arthritis, etc.), then you’d probably want to shy away from AA and eat a diet high in Omega 3′s which will help to combat inflammation, but in a more natural way that taking NSAIDs like ibuprofen or acetaminophen.
Things like this are what make the subject of nutrition so complex. People often ask me, “What should I eat?” Another one I often get is “write me up a diet.” I’d be doing someone a disservice if I just ‘wrote them up a diet’ without acquiring a very detailed history, first. I know that, on the surface, it seems that there are simply good and bad ways to eat. That’s not necessarily the case.
Take the information I’ve given you on arachidonic acid and omega three fatty acids and decide how to apply it to your nutrition plan.
Now when someone sees you eating red meat and says, “I thought red meat was bad for you,” you’ll feel my frustration with those who don’t understand the complexity of nutrition and simply want a yes or no answer. As is always the case, the answer is it depends.
Yours in health,
Dr Clay
