Is Pork White Meat or Red Meat ?

Putting pork in its nutritional place.

Don’t be swayed by the ‘red meat versus white meat’ debate. When it comes to fat, many factors come into play whether it’s beef, chicken or pork on the plate.

Many Americans have come to think of pork as “the other white meat,” thanks to a long-running pork industry campaign. But a recent study linking red meat consumption to an overall increased risk of death lumped pork in with red meat. So what is pork — red meat or white? Does it matter?

Since 1934, the unabridged version of Webster’s dictionary includes under “white meat” the phrase, “a meat (as veal or pork,null,null,null), light in color, esp. when cooked,” says Peter Sokolovsky, an editor at Merriam-Webster Inc. in Springfield, Mass.

NUTRITION LAB

Putting pork in its nutritional place

Don’t be swayed by the ‘red meat versus white meat’ debate. When it comes to fat, many factors come into play whether it’s beef, chicken or pork on the plate.

By Elena Conis

April 13, 2009

Many Americans have come to think of pork as “the other white meat,” thanks to a long-running pork industry campaign. But a recent study linking red meat consumption to an overall increased risk of death lumped pork in with red meat. So what is pork — red meat or white? Does it matter?

Since 1934, the unabridged version of Webster’s dictionary includes under “white meat” the phrase, “a meat (as veal or pork,null,null,null), light in color, esp. when cooked,” says Peter Sokolovsky, an editor at Merriam-Webster Inc. in Springfield, Mass.

Many scientists today, however, use a different definition, says Susan Brewer, professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In general, she says, they define as “red” any meat product derived from mammals and “white” any meat from fowl.

But that distinction isn’t very helpful for consumers. Saturated fat content is generally higher in meat from mammals than meat from fowl, but among mammals, cud-chewing ruminants, like cows, produce meat higher in saturated fat than that from single-stomach mammals, such as pigs.

That means whether a meat is red or white isn’t the best indication of the type and amount of fat it contains, Brewer says. A serving of chicken from the leg, skin on, contains more saturated fat and about the same amount of cholesterol as the same-sized serving of 95% lean ground beef.

Pork, generally, lies somewhere in the middle. A 3.5-ounce serving of pork loin, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides more saturated fat than one of skinless chicken breast, the same amount as 95% lean ground beef and less than a skin-on chicken leg. But it contains more cholesterol than 95% lean ground beef.