In this day and age, plenty of people are conscious of their health and well-being. We’re surrounded by fast-food places, cafes, and coffee shops that most often fill us up with sugar. These empty calories might taste great, but they are not healthy for the body long-term.
Every doctor and nutritionist knows that the best diet is a balanced one. By eating foods from the five food groups each week, we stand a better chance of getting all of the vitamins and nutrition that we need. When combined with regular exercise, a balanced diet is more likely to ward off a variety of chronic diseases including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
Eating Pork as Part of a Balanced Diet
We have long known that meat is part of a healthy and balanced diet. Even those who do not partake in eating meat, such as vegans and vegetarians, need to find other food sources to replace meat so that they can make up for the nutrition lost. Pork is a meat that is sometimes overlooked. Many people eat it in cured form, including ham and bacon, but we don’t always eat pork chops or cuts of pork that are not cured.
The truth is that pork actually contains a wide variety of essential vitamins and minerals that can form the centrepiece of a balanced diet. Consider the following health benefits of pork the next time you are out doing the food shopping for the week:
- Protein: Like other meats, pork is full of vitamins, but did you know that eating one pork chop provides a huge boost in protein? In fact, eating one pork chop alone provides nearly half of the recommended daily protein intake for men, and just over half for women. Proteins are important to every cell in our bodies. They carry chemical messages between cells, are an important part of muscle operation, and repair tissues in the body. To say that we need protein in our diet is an understatement!
- Vitamins and minerals: Pork also contains large quantities of Zinc and B group vitamins. These are essential to the function of many systems in our body, including the immune system and the cardiovascular system.
Cooking with Pork
Unlike some other meats, pork does not take a long time to cook well. In fact, it is possible to cook a lean pork cut in as little as eight minutes. This type of versatility is a great boon to using pork in the kitchen as part of a variety of recipes. It is very easy to find a wide variety of dishes that include pork, and you can start by searching online. For the best pork recipes click here.
Though some do not like the unique flavour of pork, this characteristic can be used as a way to balance other flavours in cooking. It can be easily combined with apples and nuts to create a tasty dish that is well balanced in terms of nutritional intake.
