When you think of white meat, chicken and turkey likely come to mind first. But many people also associate fish with the white meat category. This has sparked an ongoing debate – is fish actually white meat? The answer is more complex than it may seem.
The distinction between white and red meat originated for nutritional purposes. White meat is defined as coming from the breast or wings of chicken, turkey, and other birds. Red meat refers to meat from mammals like beef, pork, and lamb.
Fish doesn’t quite fit neatly into either definition. While fish flesh is often white when cooked, fish are not birds or mammals. This leaves people unsure of how to categorize the meat from our finned friends.
The Case For Fish As White Meat
There are several good arguments for classifying fish as white meat:
Similar Protein Composition
Fish has a high protein content comparable to poultry. Both fish and poultry contain around 20-25% protein by weight. The protein in both is made up of similar amino acids as well. This is why both are considered high quality, complete proteins.
Low Myoglobin Content
Myoglobin is the protein responsible for the darker color of red meat. Fish contain much lower levels of myoglobin compared to mammals. This results in lighter flesh, similar to that of poultry
Quick Bursts Of Activity
Fish muscle is structured for short bursts of swimming not sustained activity. This is analogous to the wings and breast meat of birds that fly. In contrast dark meat with more myoglobin in both birds and mammals is built for endurance.
Culinary Uses
Fish and poultry are prepared in similar ways and used interchangeably in many dishes. Think of the classic surf and turf pairing of fish and steak. From a cooking standpoint, fish aligns more with chicken or turkey than red meat.
Reasons Why Fish May Not Be White Meat
Despite the above points, there are some valid reasons why fish stands apart from white meat:
Fish Aren’t Birds or Mammals
The most literal interpretation of white meat from a nutritional perspective only includes avian species like chickens, turkeys, ducks, etc Fish are neither birds nor mammals, so they don’t fit the taxonomic definition
Variability Of Fish Meat
Within the same fish species, some cuts are darker while others are whiter. Tuna or salmon illustrate this well, with color varying by cut. This variability makes it hard to lump all fish squarely into the white meat category.
Darker Flesh In Some Fish
While fish generally have white flesh, there are exceptions. Tuna, shark, and swordfish exhibit darker flesh even when cooked, due to their higher myoglobin content. This characteristic aligns them more with red meat.
Environmental Influences On Color
A fish’s diet and environment impacts the color of its raw flesh. Carotenoids from crustaceans can impart an orange hue. Pollutants may also cause discoloration. These factors make color an imperfect indicator for classification.
Ethical Ambiguity
Pescatarians who avoid red meat but eat fish raise the ethical dilemma – if fish is really white meat, does this contradict ethical motivations for giving up other meats? This philosophical question remains unresolved.
Nutritional Profile Varies Between Fish Species
Rather than divide all fish neatly into white or red meat categories, the most accurate approach is to examine the nutrients in each specific type of fish:
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Oily fish like salmon, tuna, mackerel, and sardines contain more healthy omega-3 fatty acids. They provide the most cardiovascular benefits.
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Leaner whitefish have less overall fat and fewer omega-3s. Examples include tilapia, cod, haddock, and sole.
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Oily fish tend to be darker while whitefish are lighter. But there are exceptions in both groups.
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Some fish are high in vitamin D while others contain modest amounts. Shellfish and fatty fish have the most vitamin D.
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Mercury levels, purine content for gout, and environmental contaminants differ greatly based on species and origin.
Rather than dividing fish into white and red categories, it is more useful to examine the specific nutritional values for each type of fish. This allows you to select the healthiest fish for your needs.
Cultural and Religious Associations
Whether fish is considered white meat or something else entirely depends on cultural and religious context as well:
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Catholics associate fish with Fridays and Lent, when red meat is avoided. This implies fish has a unique designation separate from other meats.
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Jewish kosher rules classify fish differently from mammalian meats. Fish with fins and scales are kosher, while shellfish is not.
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Hindus consider fish acceptable for vegetarians in some contexts, as fish are perceived differently than land animals spiritually.
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Buddhists debate whether eating fish violates the principle of not harming sentient beings, given emerging evidence of pain perception in fish.
Unresolved Questions Remain
The discussion around classifying fish as white meat touches on biology, nutrition, ethics, culture, and philosophy. With so many complex perspectives involved, there may never be universal consensus on this issue. The nuances in the debate over fish reveal how much our relationships with animals and food remain complicated and controversial.
In the end, whether you consider fish white meat, red meat, or an entirely separate third category of aquatic meat, depends on an array of factors. Your cultural background, ethical views, culinary uses, taste preferences, and nutritional priorities all shape your conclusions. With such divergent considerations involved, the best approach is to examine all sides of the issue and then thoughtfully decide where you stand. What matters most is making informed seafood choices that align with your personal beliefs and health goals.
Meat Terminology that Leads to Confusion
Scientists who study meat and food may label certain muscles or groups of muscles as “red” or “white” based on their myoglobin levels, lipid profiles, mitochondrial densities, muscle fiber physiology, and/or how their bodies changed during metabolism and/or proteolysis after death. Some physiological changes in meat color and texture can happen because of an animal’s genes, its diet, or the way it was handled before it was killed. These changes can affect the muscle pH endpoint and cause pale, soft, exudative (PSE) or dark, firm, dry (DFD) muscle. When used in different ways, the words “red,” “white,” “light,” and “dark” may mean different things. Putting some products into “red” or “white” groups might not give enough information to accurately describe the parameter of interest when sharing scientific data. For instance, the terms “red” and “white” meat are often used in nutritional studies to “stand in” for the differences in unsaturated and saturated fat content between beef and poultry. Usually, chicken and turkey breasts are thought of as “white” meat. But in some nutritional contexts, the dark meat from chicken and turkey legs is also considered “white,” even though it is made up of different parts. In the same way, veal is sometimes called “white” meat because it has less myoglobin than beef. Turkey leg meat has about the same amount of iron as ground beef, but because of its different lipid profile, it may still be called “white” meat. So, it would be more accurate to not use the terms “red” and “white” at all and instead use specific parameters to identify meat from a certain species, such as its myoglobin or heme iron content, lipid profile, fatty acid composition, cholesterol content, and so on.
Reinagel (2013) said that calling meat “red” is not a good way to tell if it has heme iron, total fat, or cholesterol. Figure 1 shows a comparison of the iron, total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol contents of 13 cuts of meat from 10 different species. For example, ground lamb and ground turkey are about the same amount of iron, but ground lamb has about 50% more fat than ground turkey. Both ground bison and ground turkey have about the same amount of saturated fat. However, ground turkey has about 30% more cholesterol than ground bison. The amounts of heme iron, total fat, and saturated fat in pork tenderloin and chicken breast meat are almost the same. However, pork has less cholesterol. Another example is that pork tenderloin has about five times as much total fat as chicken nuggets, but most people think of nuggets as healthy “white” meat. Clearly, classifying beef as “red” and turkey as “white” meat is erroneous and misleading.
Nurses Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study did not agree on what “red meat” really means when it comes to heme iron, total fat, saturated fat, or cholesterol (ranked above).
Wikipedia says that “red” or “dark” meat is made up of muscles with slow-twitch fibers and “white” meat is made up of fast-twitch fibers. This may add to the confusion. These words “red” and “white” are used to talk about physiology, but in other situations, they are used to talk about differences in composition. In Reinagel (2013), Carolyn McAnlis, RDN, says that red meats just have more myoglobin, the heme protein that lets muscle cells and the bloodstream exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide (www. fitday. com). Muscles that are used less often are darker than muscles that are used more often. Breast meat from a chicken or turkey is lighter than leg meat because leg muscles need more myoglobin to work properly. Wild ducks and geese, on the other hand, have dark breast meat because they use their breast muscles for long flights. According to Wikipedia, dark meat also contains about 2. White meat has 64 times more saturated fat per gram of protein than red meat. However, red meat has higher levels of B-vitamins, zinc, and iron, which is easier for the body to absorb than iron from plants. A link has been found between heme iron intake and colorectal cancer. Beef is usually blamed, but dark meat from poultry or other foods in the diet should also be taken into account.
Pork, a traditional “red” meat, is pink to red when raw, but becomes lighter in color on cooking. For many years, the National Pork Board used the slogan “Pork, the Other White Meat” to compare pork to “white” chicken and turkey breast muscle, which, as you can see in Figure 1, was a good idea. In some cases, fish muscle is also generally referred to as “white” meat, but this is an oversimplification. “White” fish is white both before and after cooking, whereas fattier fish (e. g. , salmon, and tuna) are red before they are cooked. After cooking, they either turn white (white tuna) or stay pink (pink salmon). Salmon turns pink to red, but not for the same reason that beef, pork, or lamb turns red. Salmon eat tiny shrimp or krill that have a color in their shell. Over time, the salmon absorb enough of this color to turn their meat pink to red.
Role of Lipids in Meat and Cardiovascular Disease
As cited by Kris-Etherton et al. (2014), Gilmore et al. (2011) was the only study that tried to test the idea that eating ground beef high in MUFA would lower cardiovascular risk factors in a way similar to plant-based MUFA. Eating ground beef low in MUFA, on the other hand, would not have this effect. Ground beef from both grass-fed and grain-fed cattle was used, and the total fat content was set at 22.4 percent of the calories. Cattle that were fed grass had higher amounts of SFA, TFA, and α-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3(n-3)), while cattle that were fed grains had higher amounts of oleic acid [18:1(n-9)]. Their theory was proven true when high-MUFA beef significantly raised HDL-C levels compared to low-MUFA beef and significantly lowered the LDL-C:HDL-C ratio compared to the starting point. The authors note that the magnitude of the effect of high-MUFA ground beef in increasing HDL-C concentration (∼0. 08 mmol/L) is about the same as what Kris-Etherton and Yu found when they looked at how high-oleic acid vegetable oils affected HDL-C levels in human studies in 1997.
The Finest White Meat Fish Ever. Striped Bass! I Process it and Make a meal!
FAQ
Is fish considered a white meat?
Why is some fish meat white?
Which meat is white meat?
Is salmon red meat or white meat?
What is a healthy white fish?
“Halibut is a firm, white fish with a rather mild flavor,” says Derocha, and so one that’s kid friendly (try it grilled or using it for fish sticks). It’s a good source of selenium, phosphorus,
Is fish considered white meat or red meat?
White meat, essentially, includes all poultry and fish, regardless of the type. Mammal flesh, for example, is considered to be red meat. Thus, all fish species are white meat. However, it must be noted that not all fish have meat with a white appearance. This does not mean that the said types of fish are not considered to be white meat though.
Which is healthier Red or white meat?
White meat is considered to be healthier than red meat because it is low on saturated fat and people generally avoid red meat if their cholesterol levels are high. However, a 2019 study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that white meat can raise cholesterol levels as much as red meat.