Aisle 2: Look for Lean Ground Meat and Poultry, Ignore “Natural”Claims. Lean is the key word in this department. Read the label carefully because it’s natural to assume that ground turkey is lower in fat than hamburger, but this isn’t always the case. The key wording here is lean and white; packages labeled as such are markedly leaner than other brands.

Ground beef and hamburger are not nutritionally identical. Ground beef is usually leaner than hamburger because the latter can contain as much as 30% fat. Ground sirloin, ground round and lean ground beef will have the least saturated fat. In the meat aisle, natural means very little.

According to USDA, natural is about how the meat was processed not how the animals were raised. Instead look for poultry that is antibiotic free and red meats raised without hormones. Hormones are not allowed in the poultry or egg industry, so labels that say “hormone free” are a useless ploy to get you to buy their brand over another.

TIP: Always place meats, poultry and seafood in plastic bags to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria to other foods in your cart.

Thank you Kimberly Stewart for this Food News.  We did take out Kimberly’s reference to pork as we feel this “unclean” meat should be avoided.

… for the health of your family,
ellen and sally