Super Food Spotlight: Beef Jerky

Over the past few years, something happened to peoples opinion on beef jerky. What used to be disregarded by healthy eaters as a convenience-store junk food has now become the go-to snack for countless Paleo and Keto dieters.

The rise in beef jerky’s popularity came in along side the growing popularity of keto and paleo diets. With sugary and carb-based snacks off the table people were looking to find something else to snack on and beef jerky was there to fill the void.

BEEF JERKY NUTRITION AT A GLANCE

Per 100 Gram Serving

• Fats – 26 grams
• Potassium 597 mg
• Protein 33 grams
• Iron 30%
• Magnesium 12%
• Vitamin B6 – 10%

BEEF JERKY IS A GREAT SOURCE OF IRON

Iron is extremely important when it comes to the maintenance of healthy cells throughout the body as well as for the production of hemoglobin which is the molecule in blood which carried oxygen, this is why if you have an extreme iron deficiency you may end up with anemia. According to the World Health Organization, an iron deficiency is one of the top nutritional disorders in the world.

Beef jerky is a virtual wellspring of iron, a 1-ounce piece of beef jerky contains 1.5 milligrams of iron which is 20 percent of the prescribed daily recommended amount. The iron component alone makes beef jerky a great choice for something to nibble on as many people are deficient in iron.

BEEF JERKY CAN PROVIDE A MUCH NEEDED AFTERNOON ENERGY BOOST

While we may be full of energy and concentration at work in the morning, we often begin the afternoon with a growing lack of motivation and occasionally even a little yawning. This is natural, as the human power curve registers a natural low between 2:00 and 5:00 PM.

The routine walk to the coffee machine or the quick grip on chocolate bars may bring a short burst of energy but beef jerky could be a better solution than those sugary options. Sugar can make you feel drowsy after the initial energy burst, whereas the low-sugar high-protein snack that is beef jerky will keep you energized for longer and without a crash.

Try ditching the sugar component and go with a small black coffee (that is unless you’re trying to quite caffeine of course) and some beef jerky and see how this mid-afternoon snack works out for you.

GREAT AS A PRE OR POST-WORKOUT SNACK

A good diet is at least as important for the workout as the workout itself.

Athletes have a particularly high demand for proteins to achieve optimal growth of muscle tissue.

As a high protein snack beef jerky is perfect, the protein supports muscle regeneration and the salt helps protect against muscle soreness and supports a rapid recovery of the muscles. Try beef jerky as a snack an hour before or twenty minutes after a workout for best results.

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE BEEF JERKY (VIDEO)

IN SUMMARY

There are some great reasons to eat beef jerky when you feel like a quick snack between meals. Beef jerky contains less calories than numerous different snack options yet at the same time has some healthy benefit such as its potassium, iron, and high levels of protein which other common snacks simply don’t have.

Another advantage of eating beef jerky is that it’s produced using raw beef rather than cooked meat. Raw meat is a lot simpler to process for our digestive system than cooked meat and the nutrients in the jerky will be absorbed easier, allowing you to get the full benefit of them. While the cooking process makes other meats much easier and tastier to eat as well as kills potentially harmful microbes it also does destroy some of the nutritional value of the meat so beef jerky tends to be a more nutritionally dense snack option even than other meat-based snacks.

The protein and nutrients in beef jerky may also give you more energy for the duration of the day. Eating a high quality snack like this about an hour before working out may upgrade your exercise performance. Likewise, you can snack on some beef jerky after your exercise to give a jolt of energy.

Beef jerky also lasts quite a long time even after the package has been opened, unlike other snack foods which may become stale or go bad quickly. NASA even gives packs of beef jerky to astronauts because its a healthy snack that doesn’t need to be refrigerated and if its good enough for space men then it’s probably good enough for you unless you are vegan, then I would like to apologize but also question how you ended up on this blog post in the first place.