Some Uncommon Meat to Consider
By Andrew Cunningham

Everyone is familiar with our normal kinds of meat -- the cuts we buy at most supermarkets, stores and restaurants.  For the most part, we’re talßking about the basics -- chicken, pork, beef and fish. 

Chicken is a good white meat that can go with just about anything.  Pork also  tastes good and is served in a variety of dishes. Many of us also crave a nice beefsteak sometimes when we are out.   

I’ve become a bit of a health nut recently. And, unbelievably, I did it through bodybuilding. I wanted to find some new sources of protein for building muscle – some alternatives to the egg, chicken, dairy and steak diet. I found some surprising options that you might want to try.

Kangaroo. At a whopping 24grams of protein, this is a wonderful red meat -- like beef, but with a much lower fat and cholesterol content. Kangaroo meat typically contains less than 2 percent fat. About 40 percent of that is long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) molecules, which are believed to improve blood flow, reduce the blood's tendency to clot, and thereby reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. This meat has a strong flavour and many claim that it is indistinguishable from beef.  This meat should be cooked medium rare.

Ostrich. This is another healthy red meat that is high in protein. It is low in calories and cholesterol and is suitable for all low carbohydrate diets. Though ostrich meat tastes like beef, it does not have fat marbling in the meat like beef. Ostriches have fat, but the fat collects outside the muscles and is easily removed during processing. That means the cuts of meat are very lean with very low fat content. It is ideal for weight watchers who love red meat!  Like kangaroo, it should be cooked rare to medium rare.

Some advice when eating red meats: Like most things in life, don’t overdo it.  Too much red meat makes the liver work too hard, so you shouldn’t eat it more than three times a week.