Sir, I refer to the letter from Dr. Vivion Tarrant from The National Food Centre (may 8th) on the of eating "lean" red meat. I think he is missing the point slightly. While it is no doubt beneficial to increase your consumption of lean red meat, the sad reality is, that people who the article targeted and who need to improve their diets are not in a position to do so. For the most part people on low incomes supplement their diet with poor quality meat products such as the ubiquitous burger and other high fat, high salt processed meats. Obviously such meat products pay little contribution to a balanced diet and in fact increase the saturated fat content significantly.
It would be more appropriate advise to encourage increased consumption of other protein and iron sources which are far cheaper than red meat. Such foods include pulses and vegetables which although do not have the important nutrients as readily available as red meat are significantly cheaper and do far less harm than highly processed meats which seem to find their way into so many shopping trolleys.
It is also significant that so many vegetarians seem to thrive on no red meat or any other meat in their diet and do not for the most part suffer from any deficiency in iron, vitamin B12, zinc or any of the other nutrients referred to. It is far more important to eat a well balanced diet than to focus on any one food or lack of. Yours etc.,
Moynalty Co. Meath.