Beef
Beef for dinner? You bet! Beef is an important source of protein, and as long as you choose lean cuts in the moderate portions (no giant T bones that give the waiter a work out), there’s no reason it can’t be part of your diet. In fact, here’s how important protein is to your blood sugar: a study at the University of Minnesota tested two different diets, one high in protein and one with only half as much. The fat content was the same in both diets. In the group that followed the high protein diet (which was also low in carbs), the blood sugar levels were reduced by as much as if the participants had taken pills prescribed to lower blood sugar.
Your leanest choices are the "skinny six": eye of round, top round, sirloin, bottom round, top loin, and tenderloin. The not so skinny cuts to trim from your diet include rib eye, prime rib, T bone, and most ground beef, which are all high in saturated fats. (To get the leanest ground beef hamburgers or meat loaf, look for "extra lean," or 93% to 95% lean, whether its ground beef, ground round, or ground sirloin.) Saturated fat not only clogs your arteries, it can also contribute to insulin resistance, which makes it harder for your body to use insulin to get blood sugar out of the bloodstream and into cells.
Lean beef isn’t just good for your blood sugar, it’s even good for your waistline. Dieters tend to lose muscle along with fat, which slows their metabolism, since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does. Eating protein helps to hang onto that muscle mass – and keep your metabolism burning on "high."
We’re not advocating a diet super high in protein or super low in carbs, which simply isn’t healthy. Aim to keep your protein intake at 20% to 30% of the calories you eat.
Healthy Bonus of Beef
Protein is not the only selling point. Beef is also one of the best sources of zinc, a mineral that people often come up short on, especially if you’re counting calories, and vitamin B12 which you can get only from eating animal foods such as eggs, milk, and of course, beef. Another beef bonus: it’s fat is rich in conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, a fatty acid that helps lower blood sugar.
