If you’re trying to eat healthy, you should choose white meat over dark, right? Not necessarily! A new study suggests that dark meat may actually help fight off heart disease – the number one killer of Americans.
Dark meat does have more fat and calories than white meat, but aside from just tasting better, it may also contain taurine, a potential heart-protecting nutrient! The study published in the European Journal of Nutrition found that taurine, which is a naturally-occuring amino acid found in dark poultry meat and also in some fish and shellfish, may protect women with high cholesterol against coronary heart disease. Higher taurine intake was linked to a 60 percent lower risk of developing or dying from heart disease among the women with high cholesterol. The results were not applied to women with low cholesterol levels.
“It is an interesting possibility. If these findings are confirmed, one day we might be able to suggest that someone with high cholesterol eat more poultry, specifically dark meat,” says NYU Langone Medical Center lead researcher Yu Chen, PhD, MPH.
Taurine has also been shown to help remove fatty liver deposits in rats, and may be beneficial for lowering high blood pressure.
More research is needed, but perhaps you shouldn’t feel so guilty next time you reach for the dark meat as long as it’s skinless, and baked not fried. Just remember to cut calories elsewhere! I’ll take dark meat over mashed potatoes any day of the week!
