The Role of Beef in the American Diet - International Meat Secretariat

The Role of Beef in the American Diet
Table 1.
Zinc Content of Beef and other Animal
Protein Foods
10
Food Zinc Content per Serving *
Milligrams % of Daily Value
Beef, top sirloin steak 5.5 37
Ground beef, 95% lean/5%fat 5.5 37
Pork, top loin chop 2.0 13
Lamb, leg 3.2 22
Veal, loin 2.7 18
Chicken breast, skinless 0.9 6
Chicken thigh, skinless 2.2 15
Turkey breast, skinless 1.5 10
Tuna 0.6 4
Salmon 0.4 3
Eggs (2 large) 1.1 7
* 3 ounces unless otherwise specified
Data from reference 7.
12–19), and more than 80% of women aged 20–49 years were getting
less than the recommended amount of iron from their diets (2).
Many grain products are fortified with iron. Because of fortification,
ready-to-eat cereal and bread are the two top sources of iron in the U.S.
diet; beef, which is naturally rich in iron, is the number three source,
accounting for 9.4 and 7.7% of total iron intake among adults and children,
respectively (5,6). Beef, however, is a more important contributor
of iron than these numbers would seem to indicate. About half of the
iron in beef is present in a form called “heme” iron, which is more readily
absorbed by the body than the non-heme iron found in other foods,
including iron-fortified foods.
Table 2 compares the iron content of beef with that of other animal
products from the Meat Group.
Another important mineral in beef is selenium, which plays a role in
the body’s antioxidant defense system. One serving of beef provides 24%
of the Daily Value and about one half of the RDAfor this mineral (7,7a).
Other Nutrients
Beef, other red meats, poultry, seafood, and eggs are all rich in
protein. Protein from animal sources is of higher quality than protein