Early Morning Blogging

Medium-Rare, Please

Beef is high is cholesterol. (That gunky white stuff what clogs your blood veins.)
Trim off as much visible fat as possible before cooking.
Top Sirloin is rated B+ for nutrients.

Obviously, protein from the steak, carbohydrates from the baked potato, and vitamins & minerals from the salad I just polished off were essential to a healthy diet. I, however, cannot eat a dry baked potato, so I added a tablespoon each of butter and sour cream. I also added 2 tablespoons of Green Goddess Dressing to my salad. Delicious, yes; nutritious, no, and that is where the meal goes wrong. There's too much fat in my meal.

According to Calorie Count.About.com (2010), "Top Sirloin Beef has a grade of B+." Beef contains very little sodium and no sugar, along with the necessary nutrients: niacin, phosphorus, selenium, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and zinc. This steak has several good points. The only bad thing is that beef is "high in cholesterol." (Calorie Count.About.com, 2010). Follow the links at Calorie Count.About.com under "Nutritional Analysis" to learn more about the good and bad points of beef.

The steak was 6 oz., when I only needed 3. Now, you may be thinking, "But it's only 3 extra ounces, and where's the harm in that?" Well, folks, to paraphrase a cliche, too much of a good thing, when you break it down, can indeed be bad!

Calorie Count.About.com (2010) provided the nutrition facts for a 3 oz. serving of Top Sirloin Beef. (Remember, I ate 6 oz., and not the 3 oz. serving, so I just doubled everything.) Here's the Original Nutritional Calorie chart. I'll leave it to you to do the math.

"Beef, Top Sirloin Serving Size: 3 oz., (after removing fat) Amount Per Serving Calories 158 Calories from Fat 47

% Daily Value* Total Fat 5.3g (8%) Saturated Fat 2.0g (10%) Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2g Monounsaturated Fat 2.2g Cholesterol 76mg (25%) Sodium 56mg (2%) Total Carbohydrates 0.0g (0%) Protein 25.8g

Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 0% Calcium 1% • Iron 16% " (Calorie Count.About.com, 2010)

The potato was medium - and a good choice for carbs to provide energy. However, I added butter and sour cream - both high in fat - which leads to fat in the bloodstream, and on the body. No doubt I just ate more fat than what the nutritional guidelines say we are supposed to eat. For me, it's 19g of fat (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated) per meal, or no more than 30% for the day. (The steak I ate provided for 20% of my total fat allowance for the day.) Even the salad was good. Had I just added pepper and lemon juice instead of a fat-filled dressing, it would have been even better as far as making a healthy choice.

We hear so many times that it isn't what we eat that makes us fat, but how much. I believe that thinking is just so incredibly wrong, and here's why: If there is fat in everything that a person eats, it leads to high cholesterol, which leads to high blood pressure, and eventually heart failure. So, with some additional - and preplanned thought - the meal I just finished could have been much healthier if I had stopped to think about my health. I was hungry because breakfast was at 8:00 this morning, and it's now almost 4:00p.m. Hunger and overeating is often the culprit behind poor food choices, but that should not be the reason a person uses to eat whatever he or she wants - yours truly included! Breaking things down like this helps me better understand the benefits of making wiser food choices. Now, I'm not going to get into telling you what you should and should not eat here. I'm just pointing out some facts.

So, what foods provide the most healthful benefits from the meal I ate? With the exception of the butter, sour cream, and high-fat salad dressing, everything else was a good choice. I could have filled up on the salad instead of having an extra helping of the steak and cut the fat content. I will have to begin measuring sour cream and butter if I want to use them on my baked potatoes, or find a different (i.e.: healthier) substitute, such as Butter Buds and plain yogurt mixed with fresh dill and chives. As for the salad dressing, I'll just have to pick up a bottle of lemon juice the next time I'm at the grocery store.

What did you eat today?