Balance your diet: Cooking with beef

Protein isn't the only selling point of this meat choice. Beef is also one of the best sources of zinc, a mineral that people often lack in quantity, especially if they're counting calories.

Vitamin B12 is overlooked as an asset by those who are dieting. It's one that  you can get only from eating animal foods such as eggs, milk and, of course, beef. Another beef bonus: its fat is rich in conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, a fatty acid that helps lower blood sugar.

Beef is an important source of protein, as long as you choose lean cuts and eat moderate portions (excluding the giant T-bone steaks that give the waiter a workout).

Here's how important protein is to your blood sugar: a study at the University of Minnesota tested two different diets, one high in protein and one with only half as much.

• The fat content was the same in both diets.
• In the group that followed the high-protein diet (which was also lower in carbs), blood sugar levels were reduced by as much as if the participants had taken pills prescribed to lower blood sugar.

Want to beef up the health benefits?

If you can find it, you may want to opt for grass-fed beef, which can have as much as 60 percent more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and about twice as much CLA as regular beef.

But be prepared to pay; grass-fed beef can cost at least twice as much.

• Choosing a cut of beefYour leanest choices are the "skinny six": eye of round, top round, sirloin, bottom round, top loin and tenderloin.
• The not-so-skinny cuts to trim from your diet include rib eye, prime rib, T-bone and most ground beef, which are all high in saturated fat.

(To get the leanest ground beef for hamburgers or meat loaf, look for "extra lean," or 93 percent to 95 percent lean, whether it's ground beef, ground round or ground sirloin.)

• Saturated fat not only clogs your arteries, it can also contribute to insulin resistance, which makes it harder for your body to use insulin to get blood sugar out of the bloodstream and into cells.
• Lean beef isn't just good for your blood sugar, it's even good for your waistline. Dieters tend to lose muscle along with fat, which slows their metabolisms, since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does.
• Eating protein helps you hang on to that muscle mass — and keep your metabolism burning on "high."

Forget the mega-burgers with enough calories for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

A healthy serving of lean beef is 85 grams (three ounces), cooked (170 grams/six ounces is okay if you eat meat only once a day).

That's about the size of a deck of cards. Fill the rest of your plate with low-glycemic-load (GL) vegetables and whole grains.

Try these tasty sides

Throw together fajitas made with flank steak, green or red peppers and onions for a quick weeknight meal.

• Toss hot grilled beef with cold, crisp lettuce, lime juice and chopped onion for a refreshingly delicious Asian-inspired salad.
• Stir-fry strips of beef with lots of veggies for an easy way to have your beef and get your vegetables, too.
• Cook up three-bean chili with a small amount of extra-lean ground beef.
• Make Asian kebabs with beef marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, crushed garlic and ginger. Serve over brown rice.
• Create healthier meat loaf by combining finely chopped spinach and onions and grated carrots with lean ground beef. Use oats as a binder.
• Make any cut of beef a taste standout by marinating it in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, basil, Dijon mustard and garlic.

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