Turkey is becoming an increasingly popular option for those of us looking for a healthier alternative to fattier meats. With products now becoming mainstream like turkey rashers, turkey mince and turkey ham, it’s now even easier to moderate your saturated fat intake with a hit of protein as an extra bonus.
What is a Superfood?
According to Dr. Steven Pratt, an authority on food and aging, and co-author of the New York Times best-selling book “SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life,” Superfoods are nutritional powerhouses that can help ward off disease and keep you healthier. The 14 Superfoods Dr. Pratt has identified include:
- Beans
- Turkey
- Blueberries
- Broccoli
- Oats
- Oranges
- Soy
- Spinach
- Tea (green or black)
- Tomatoes
- Pumpkin
- Salmon
- Walnuts
- Yoghurt
Fat
Turkey is one of the lowest fat mainstream meats around. 100g of grilled turkey breast meat without its skin contains just 155 calories and 1.7g of fat
Protein
An average portion of turkey meat (100g/3.5oz) provides 22.6g of protein, approximately half a woman’s daily requirement and almost half a man’s daily requirement. It contains all the essential amino acids in proportions closely matched to our bodies’ needs
Minerals
Turkey (particularly the dark meat) is a good source of zinc – needed for a healthy immune system and for healing cuts and grazes. Zinc also makes many enzymes in our bodies involved in fat, protein and carbohydrate metabolism. An average portion provides one fifth (20%) of a man or woman’s daily requirement. It also contains phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and in the dark meat, significant amounts of iron
Vitamins
Turkey contains B vitamins, especially niacin which is involved in the conversion of carbohydrates into energy, nerve function and digestion. An average portion of turkey supplies almost 60% of a man’s and almost 80% of a woman’s daily needs. It is also rich in vitamin B12, needed for red cell manufacture, preventing anaemia and cell development an average portion supplies a man’s and woman’s daily needs in full.
Four Facts about Superfoods
In his book, “SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life,” Dr. Steven Pratt maintains that eating the right foods can actually change the body’s biochemistry for the better.
An opthalmologist at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif., Pratt was convinced of the power of these basic foods when he noticed positive results from simple diet changes in patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration – a leading cause of blindness.
In analysing diets that were most effective in preventing disease and countering the negative effects of aging, scientists discovered the same nutrients time after time. Many of these nutrients are found in turkey.
Turkey is rich in nutrients and relatively low in calories. More importantly, it also contains nutrients related to helping prevent diabetes, hypertension, obesity, heart disease and some cancers.
Turkey is a healthy protein source that is lower in fat and provides many of the important nutrients that help build strong immune systems.
“For too many of us today, any discussion of diet brings on instant indigestion,” writes Dr. Pratt. “Recommendations seem to appear in the paper weekly, only to be contradicted weeks, or months later…It’s tiresome and also demoralizing to those that simply want to do the best they can for their health…Whether you’re concerned about cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, macular degeneration or simply maintaining a vigorous lifestyle,
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