Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

Red meat, white meat

Just look at the butcher counters to see that not all meats have the same color. The color of the meat is determined by the nature and lifestyle of the animal.

Myoglobin is the protein that gives color to the muscle. It acts as an oxygen reservoir for which iron is absolutely necessary. Therefore, iron gives the muscle a red color. The more myoglobin, the more iron and, consequently, the more red the meat will be.

Mammals generally have redder meat than birds and fish. Red meat, such as beef, contains an average of 4 milligrams of iron per hundred grams, twice as much as chicken meat and three times more than fish.
But there are also differences between mammals. Wild animals have more red meat than domestic animals. Different life habits are the reason.

Wild animals are in constant motion, they need a lot of energy to get food and escape threats. Their fibers therefore contain a large amount of myoglobin. Beef is more red than pork.

Farm chickens spend most of their lives immovably and have white meat with little myoglobin. The meat of the wild ducks is reddish. They spend a lot of energy on both migrations and swimming.

Fish don’t have to support their body weight in water, so they have white and white meat, they don’t have myoglobin in their fibers. But there are also exceptions at sea. The Bonito are fast and migratory swimmers, with a high energy expenditure. As a result, the bonito meat is red because of its high myoglobin content.