When it comes to eating turkey, I like to dabble on the dark side of things and eat a drumstick. It gives me that old English monarch feeling. Yet dark meat has a bad rap, so I wanted to know just how bad it really is.

First off, to satisfy your curiosity as to why there is dark meat in the first place, you need to know that since turkeys don't really fly much, their legs and thighs are the birds' primary mode of transportation. The muscles of the legs and thigh are full of myoglobin proteins, which ship oxygen to the muscle cells so the turkeys can run around all day and not get tired. Myoglobins make the flesh darker, and consequently, dark meat is considerably higher in iron.

So how do all the different types of meat compare nutritionally? To see just read more


Meat Type (3.5 ounce serving) Calories Total Fat (g) Protein (g)
Breast w/ skin 194 8 29
Breast w/o skin 161 4 30
Wing w/skin 238 13 27
Leg w/ skin 213 11 28
Dark Meat w/ skin 232 13 27
Dark meat w/o skin 192 8 28
Skin only 482 44 19

While I certainly hope no one would choose to eat three and a half ounces of turkey skin, I found it instructive to see how much fat it actually contains. So have a few bites of skin to indulge your taste buds and then put the skin aside.

I am curious if you avoid eating dark turkey meat. So vote in the poll and let me know.

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