FIVE WAYS TO PREPARE . . . BEEF

HOw to get the most nutrients from food. This week: Beef

1. COOK steak rare if you’re watching your weight. Lightly cooked meat is harder to digest, so you extract fewer calories from it.

2. SERVE roast beef with plenty of greens for the maximum boost of iron — 150g roast beef with a serving of spinach provides nearly 40 per cent of your daily iron intake. The haem variety (only from animal sources) helps the body better absorb the non-haem iron from the spinach. 3. DON’T skip the roast potatoes. Beef is rich in most B vitamins but not thiamin (B1) — potatoes are a good source of this. 4. MAKE a beef and cashew stir fry (add broccoli and oyster sauce) — the beef is high in zinc and the cashew nuts supply copper. These work in tandem to keep bones and connective tissue strong. 5. SWITCH from 12 per cent to 5 per cent fat mince — this will cut your saturated fat intake from 8g to 3g per 150g serving (down from 40 per cent of your daily limit to just 15 per cent).