Why we all need to eat red meat, by MasterChef's John Torode

By John Torode
Updated: 22:03 BST, 20 September 2008

When I f irst moved to England from Australia in 1990 to work in some of London's smartest and busiest restaurants, such as Mezzo and Quaglino's, 率直に, there wasn't 接近 to a decent piece of meat in this country - it was very, very difficult even to find a good sausage.

Chefs were buying it in from フラン and Italy; no one 手配中の，お尋ね者 to touch British beef.

The British public believed meat was expensive, tasteless but, worst of all, tainted with the 危険 of 原因（となる）ing at least one life-脅すing 病気.

After all, if it didn't give you new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob 病気 (nvCJD), would its fatty nature 与える／捧げる to a heart attack? Beef was the bad boy of British culture. But was it?

Beefed up: A steak kebab is not only a good source of protein but 含む／封じ込めるs 必須の ビタミンs and minerals, too

For a 25-year-old Australian who had grown up eating beef daily - and lots of it - this was a big shock and a 失望.

I'd been raised on the stuff - I can still remember my uncle coming home laden with 捕らえる、獲得するs of meat, which he would cook on his own 特に designed barbecue built in the 支援する garden.

We ate platters of it, all the different 削減（する）s. I loved it and couldn't understand why Britons were happy to 受託する their 状況／情勢.

I began to dig into the 支配する and learn more about British meat, travelling all over the country to 会合，会う 農業者s and discovering small 供給者s who did produce excellent 質 削減（する）s.

In 2000, my love 事件／事情／状勢 with beef 最高潮に達するd in my 開始 Smith's of Smithfield, a restaurant where you could get good meals using decent 地元の meat.

Eight years later, and I know that the public's perception of British beef has come on a long way, thankfully - as it deserves a better 評判.

But only last week, the UN 示唆するd that we should all 削減（する） 負かす／撃墜する on our intake to help 戦闘 気候 change because of the 環境の 衝撃 of livestock 生産／産物.

And, while the danger of BSE may be consigned to history, uninformed 消費者s still worry that a succulent steak or a large, smoky, 井戸／弁護士席 marbled 共同の of beef may see them carried off to a hospital's 死傷者 department with a cholesterol overdose.

井戸／弁護士席, 静める 負かす／撃墜する, everyone! Yes, we are becoming more obese and hardening of the arteries and cardiac 病気 is as much a 関心 as how farming 影響する／感情s 全世界の warming. But here's the truth: beef is not to 非難する. We are.

Why? Because we eat too much, 十分な stop. Too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt, too much everything.

John Torode as Smith's, his Smithfield Market restaurant which is the culmination of his love of beef

Instead of a small meal at lunchtime, people go for three courses - such as p?t? (which is 50 per cent butter), a large plate of pork chops in a creamy sauce and perhaps a cheesecake with choco late sauce.

We don't need this. How much better to eat a 簡単に 取調べ／厳しく尋問するd piece of 井戸／弁護士席 後部d beef?

If the meat is marbled with fat, rather than the 乾燥した，日照りのd-up looking 'lean' beef, then good. The fat will melt through the meat as it cooks, which will make it more moist and tastier, and you won't need to eat so much of it to feel 満足させるd. There are より小数の calories in that than in a pasty or four pieces of toast with lashings of butter.

But there are more 推論する／理由s to eat beef than just the taste. It's chockfull of protein, monounsaturated fats, ビタミンs such as B12, niacin, B6, and trace minerals such as phosphorus and zinc.

Our 団体／死体s need these nutrients to keep us healthy, build strong muscles, give us energy and help us fight 病気.

ビタミン B12, in particular, can be 得るd only from animal protein. It is 必須の in the 生産／産物 of red 血 独房s and, scientists in the magazine Nature have just 明らかにする／漏らすd, 決定的な for 妨げるing brain shrinkage and dementia. And with two out of five Britons deficient in B12, that's a big 関心.

Zinc is important, too, for 負傷させる 傷をいやす／和解させるing and it also helps 支配（する）／統制する the appetite.

What about the way the meat is produced - is there anything to 恐れる? 井戸／弁護士席, growth hormones have been banned since 1988, and 追加するing 抗生物質s to 料金d to encourage growth was 無法者d in 2006.

Of course, 農業者s use 薬／医学s when animals 落ちる ill, but a 政府 veterinary 団体／死体 監視するs any 麻薬s that are given to beef cattle. Once an animal leaves the farm where it was 後部d, it is checked, 虐殺（する）d and packed, in a system that is more rigorous in its checks and discipline than the 核の 力／強力にする 産業 - and that's a fact.

Meat is 自然に healthy and it's 安全な. So how can you make sure that you cook it in a way that will 利益 your family's health?

First, find a good butcher who really understands meat and can advise you what to buy and how to cook it. Look at the meat - a good piece of beef should be dark red, with fin e rivers of fat running through it and a 厚板 of white fat across the 最高の，を越す.

As for turning it into a delicious meal, 井戸／弁護士席, cook it slowly with a handful of vegetables - that way a キロ of beef should be enough to 料金d a family of five.

And if you're using a recipe 調書をとる／予約する, remember to use your own taste and ideas. You don't have to follow the same recipe slavishly. 追加する a dash of your personality.

My family eats いっそう少なく meat than I used to when I was growing up. My two eldest - Marcel, 13, and Casper, 11 - enjoy a good steak, although four-year-old Jonah and Loulou, two, are probably a bit young for it yet.

But we do all follow a 公正に／かなり balanced diet - if it's a big lunch, it's a 挟む for dinner; if it's pasta for lunch, we have something low in carbohydrates later on.

We don't have 抱擁する hunks of meat, but we do enjoy a roast. It's all about balance - and not eating too much of anything.

? John Torode's Beef And Other Bovine 事柄s is published by Quadrille, £20.