Meat

On Monday, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health released study results showing that red meat consumption was associated with a higher risk of early death. The more red meat -- beef, pork or lamb, for the purposes of the research -- study participants reported they ate, the more likely they were to die during the period of time that data collection took place (more than 20 years). So what is it in red meat that might make it unhealthy?   No one is sure, exactly, but the authors of the Harvard study mention a few possible culprits in their paper in the Archives of Internal Medicine .   First, eating red meat has been linked to the incidence of heart disease.  The saturated fat and cholesterol in beef, pork and lamb are believed to play a role in the risk of coronary heart disease .  The type of iron found in red meat, known as heme iron, has also been linked to heart attacks and fatal heart disease.  Sodium in processed meats may increase blood pressure, which is a risk factor for heart disease. Other chemicals that are used in processed meats may play a role in heart disease as well, by damaging blood vessels.

The butcher is back. After decades of laboring in obscurity, seeing their craft slip away to the point it was practically extinct, butchers — real meat cutters, not guys who repackage steaks from Cryovac bags — are regaining their respected place in the food chain. You can see it in the crowds at Lindy & Grundy on Fairfax Avenue and at McCall's Meat & Fish Co. in Los Feliz, where customers line up outside when word comes in that a whole pig has been delivered. Southern California meat market standbys, including the Huntington Meats and Marconda's Meats in the original Farmers Market, high-end supermarket chains Bristol Farms, Gelson's and Whole Foods, are seeing business pick up. There's even a MEAT club at UCLA — the Meat Education and Appreciation Team — that sponsors meat cooking events, including trips to butcher shops for private lessons.

It was evidently good enough for Gilligan and Robinson Crusoe. But is coconut water a healthy choice for people who aren't stranded on a deserted island? A longstanding treat in tropical regions across the globe, coconut water hit U.S. supermarkets a few years back and is now being marketed with a vengeance. Sometimes billed as nature's sports drink, the slightly sour beverage has also acquired a reputation for being able to improve circulation, slow aging, fight viruses, boost immunity, and reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Want to learn more about meat? There are several recent good books. "Whole Beast Butchery" by Ryan Farr with Brigit Binns (Chronicle, $40). Do you really like cutting meat? I mean, really like it? This book, from the owner of San Francisco's 4505 Meats, is packed with very detailed, somewhat graphic photos of that being done. Granted, most of us will never be in a position to break down a whole short loin of beef, but there is a certain reassurance in knowing how it's done.

A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday ordered the head of the company responsible for the largest beef recall in U.S. history to appear before Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight unanimously voted to subpoena Steven Mendell, chief executive of Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. The subpoena orders him to testify at a hearing next Wednesday titled, "Regulatory Failure: Must America live with unsafe Food?" Mendell, who is co-owner of the plant that triggered the recall, was invited to testify before the committee at a hearing last week but did not show up.

A federal judge in Brooklyn has rejected a Liberian woman's religious reasons for smuggling meat from an endangered monkey into the country. U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie ruled Wednesday that Mamie Manneh's faith didn't preclude her from applying for permits to import exotic food. Manneh was charged with smuggling the meat three years ago after customs agents seized a shipment of primate parts at Kennedy Airport. Manneh's lawyers argued that some Liberian Christians eat monkey meat for spiritual reasons.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the supplement nitric oxide? Richard Sunland Nitric oxide is a gas naturally found in the body; its function is conveying information between cells. One of its main jobs is increasing blood flow by dilating blood vessels, and that's why it's sometimes given in supplement form to heart patients, orally and intravenously. In at least one study it's been shown to be effective for lowering blood pressure.

Some good buys for your health and your pocketbook: Buy fresh fruits and vegetables in season. Buy frozen otherwise. Frozen is cheaper and may even be better for you than fresh. That's because produce is usually frozen at its ripest, which is usually when it maxes out in nutrient content too. Some nutrients do break down or leach out in the freezing process, but most make it through.

Dear SOS: I'm crazy about the fajitas served at the El Torito restaurant chain. Is there a chance for the recipe? READER Dear Reader: El Torito complied with two recipes--one using beef and the other chicken, and good recipes they are, too. Chicken fajitas are basted with achiote sauce, made with achiote powder, which can be found at any Mexican grocery store or Mexican products counter of supermarkets.

When tourist James Barker had dinner at the home of his Ethiopian hosts, he knew he'd have to be polite and eat whatever indigenous cuisine they offered him. He didn't know it wouldn't be cooked. Ethiopia is "a nation who generally live[s] on raw meat, and it cannot be supposed that they have made great advancement in their cuisine," the Briton wrote in "Narrative of a Journey to Shoa," an 1868 account of his Ethiopian odyssey. Nearly a sesqui-century later, it looks like Barker was prescient.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Looking back now, Rory McIlroy is quick to admit that skipping the Players Championship was a mistake last year. "It wasn't one of my brightest moments," the world's top-ranked golfer said. "Yeah, I'm glad to be back. " Wonder if Bubba Watson will feel the same way next year. Or Charl Schwartzel. Or Darren Clarke. For those who didn't pick up on the link, they are three of the last five major champions — none of whom are on the TPC Sawgrass campus this week.

If early humans had been vegans we might all still be living in caves, Swedish researchers suggested in an article Thursday. When a mother eats meat, her breast-fed child's brain grows faster and she is able to wean the child at an earlier age, allowing her to have more children faster, the article explains. That provided a distinct competitive advantage for early humans when limited resources and a small population made it difficult for them to thrive. "Eating meat enabled the breast-feeding periods and thereby the time between births to be shortened," said psychologist Elia Psouni of Lund University in Sweden.

A basket of meats, cheese and other goodies from the grocery store cost 6.9% more in the first quarter of 2012 than it did a year earlier, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. A group of 16 items, including cheddar cheese, sirloin-tip roast, salad, orange juice and eggs, cost consumers $52.47 during the first three months of the year, the farm group said . During the same period last year, the price was $49.07. In the fourth quarter of 2011, it cost $49.23. The cost of meats such as sliced deli ham and bacon were up due to strong demand and tight supplies, said AFBF senior economist John Anderson in a statement.

As turkey is to Thanksgiving and roast beef to Christmas, so lamb is to Easter and Passover. It's the best season of the year for an industry that's been struggling to get more racks and legs on American dinner plates. Lamb and mutton consumption in the U.S. has dropped for the last four years and is expected to be flat at best in 2012, according to the American Lamb Board. Experts blame a sluggish economy and lamb's high price relative to other meats. Racks of lamb were selling this week at a Whole Foods market in Los Angeles for a hefty $17.99 a pound.

Amid the growing outcry over so-called “pink slime” beef product, three U.S. governors are stepping up to defend the controversial meat. The trio of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, all of whose states have been affected by the backlash against the beef, joined together Thursday for a tour of a Beef Products Inc.'s operating plant in South Sioux City, Neb. The plant, one of the four responsible...

Beef Products Inc. told the Associated Press on Monday that it'll shut down operations at three of the four plants where it makes the meat product that critics have nastily taken to calling “pink slime.” But some food industry experts say that the company's trip through the grinder is unfair. BPI could have done more to inform consumers of the process it used to make what's known as “lean, finely textured beef,” said Seattle food safety lawyer Bill Marler. The company takes fatty meat trimmings, heats them and runs them through a centrifuge to take off the fat and then treats the remaining lean beef with ammonium hydroxide gas to eliminate bacteria such asE. coli.

For patients with high levels of so-called bad cholesterol, doctors routinely reach for two remedies: cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and a diet that cuts out foods high in saturated fat, such as ice cream, red meat and butter. But new research has found that when it comes to lowering artery-clogging cholesterol, what you eat may be more important than what you don't eat. Released online Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., the study found that incorporating several cholesterol-lowering foods — such as soy protein and nuts — into a diet can reduce bad cholesterol far more effectively than a diet low in saturated fat. In fact, the authors assert, levels of LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, can drop to half that seen by many patients who take statins, sold under such names as Lipitor, Crestor or Zocor.

Some beginning cooks think that meat can be tenderized and made flavorful by soaking it in an oil-and-acid mixture. That's only part of it. To be successful, marinades should have the right proportion of two key ingredients, which varies with the type used. More than that, the mixture should be well-spiced to improve the flavor. A good salad oil, laced with herbs and spices, can give an ordinary cut of beef or lamb a gourmet flavor. And wine can tenderize a tough chuck steak enough to broil.

Dr. Walter Willett is the chair of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. He's also a cow's best friend. Earlier this month, Willett and colleagues, who have studied the link between diet and health for decades, published a study that followed more than 100,000 people over more than 20 years - and found that the amount of red meat they ate was linked to a rise in risk of premature death. The notion that red meat might not be so great for you isn't exactly new, but carnivores cried foul.