soul struggles with the decision, shall you follow Yoda or Palpatine? The YING OR THE

YANG?! WHAT TO DOOOO?!

Meat eaters of the world are full of opinions on rare versus well done, lamb or mutton,

light versus dark. There are so many delicious choices! So when you're carving up a bird,

does science even care which meat is which? Why is meat that color in the first place?

WHAT MEAT IS?!?

I'll use the turkey as an example, because it's far easier to see the meaty differences.

Turkey breasts are made up of fast-twitch muscle fibers. They're made for short bursts

of energy and tire quickly; they become the white meat. The legs, on the other hand, are

slow-twitch muscles; they're used all the time, and can work for long periods.

When you're eating meat, you're eating these two muscle types. The color of meat is determined

by the amount of myoglobin the muscle fibers have in them. You've probably heard of hemoglobin,

it's a molecule on red blood cells that helps carry oxygen; myoglobin is the same molecule,

it's also known as "muscle hemoglobin."

To determine how MUCH myoglobin, you have to consider what the muscles of the animal

are doing all day. Slow-twitch muscles that are used all the time need lots of oxygen

and therefore have lots of myoglobin. Example: cattle and pigs spend a lot of time standing

and walking, so their meat is pink or red -- a rare steak has lots of myoglobin up in

there. Chickens and turkeys spend their time standing, and almost NO time flying around.

Thus, their legs will be filled with fast-twitch muscles, (YOU SAY ABOVE THAT THEIR LEGS ARE

SLOW-TWITCH…) because they're using them a lot. Their breasts and wings, though, kinda

weak fast-twitch muscles -- less myoglobin and therefore lighter in color.

Now ducks -- ducks fly and swim all the time! So duck breasts and wings and legs are all

slow-twitch, dark muscles. Speaking of swimming, fish meat would be considered "darker" around

the tail or fins -- because those move the most. Ocean fish like tuna swim ALL the time,

so they're much darker than say, a catfish which slinks around slowly. Humans have a

mix of the two depending if they're say, sprinters (fast-twitch) or distance runners (slow-twitch).

I don't know why that would be helpful. I dunno... you know... you get really hungry.

When you cook a fast-twitch muscle its myoglobin changes color depending on the temperature.

As it undergoes a chemical change, the myoglobin can no longer hold oxygen, and the iron atoms

at the center of the protein's structure loses an electron. That chemical change forms a

hemichrome -- for the brown of medium cooked meat, and as heat rises more it becomes metmyoglobin…

which is a brownish-grey. White meat doesn't have the myoglobin concentration to color

the meat, so it looks more translucent, and as it cooks, the muscle fibers, which are

normally bound up in tight coils, uncoil -- or denature; the water leaks out and the meat

becomes an opaque white.

Because of the way the muscles are used, they're going to taste different when cooked. The

white meat is thinner, less dense, and is more tender -- so it can be cooked more quickly.

The denser, darker meats take longer -- which is why white meat tends to come out more dry

at Thanksgiving. It's difficult! But when you fry a meat, the juice is held inside -- so

fried chicken breasts are still deeeelectible!

When it comes to which is BETTER that's up to you. A study in the European Journal of

Nutrition said taurine, found in dark poultry meat, could lower coronary heart disease in

some women.

All in all, white meat is lower in saturated fat but slathering gravy on the white to combat

its dry texture… kind of scraps the benefits. Dark meat is higher in saturated fats, but

contains a lot more vitamins as well as iron, zinc and other minerals!

So which do you prefer, white meat or dark?