# Humans? Light and Dark meat?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 12, 2003, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850 "2003-11-12T17:36:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jcoscio1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcoscio1)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/1 "2003-11-12T17:36:08Z")
This may be a bit morbid, but do Humans have light and dark meat?
Thanks!
Jon
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### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/2 "2003-11-12T18:24:53Z")
Well, human meat is sometimes called “long pig” because of it’s similarity to pork so what’s pork? (I’m a vegetarian and have no idea…)
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### Author:  [@hyjyljyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyjyljyj)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/3 "2003-11-12T18:32:10Z")
Pork…the other white meat.
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### Author:  [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/4 "2003-11-12T18:40:02Z")
Human…the other white meat.
My understanding is that muscles that are underutilized, such as the breasts and wings in domestic chickens, are ‘white’ meat due to the lessened blood supply to those areas. If this is indeed the mechanism for determining what is ‘light’ and ‘dark’ meat, them most humans would be ‘light’ meat. But Lance Armstrongs’ legs would be ‘dark’ meat.
I’m sure someone who actually knows what they’re talking about will be along shortly to set us all straight.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/5 "2003-11-12T18:51:04Z")
[Here’s an MPEG (752KB) of some manmeat](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/mpeg/umd_video.mpg). Looks like red meat to me, although “Human – The Other White Meat” has a nicer ring to it.
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### Author:  [@cdhostage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdhostage)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/6 "2003-11-12T19:05:46Z")
As far as I know, the small blood vessels in a slice of meat determine its color. Most of the blood has been drained out of meat that’s in the supermarket. Chickens have white breasts, while wild birds have darker breast meat.
Human muscles are fairly vascular, so I’d hazard that all our skeletal muscles (pectorals, quadriceps, calves, biceps, tounge, gluteals, etc) are red meat.
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### Author:  [@meatpropeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meatpropeller)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/7 "2003-11-12T19:28:06Z")
the dark vs light meat is due to the amount of myoglobin in the muscle cells. a cecil article on this:
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a981204b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a981204b.html)
i don’t think that really answers the question though… i would suspect that there is a range of meat “colors” in the human body that varies accordingly with which muscle group you are in and the relative muscle usage level of the person.
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### Author:  [@Thinks2Much](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinks2Much)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/8 "2003-11-12T20:38:37Z")
And you have to believe someone whose name is meatpropeller. 🙂
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### Author:  [@meatpropeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meatpropeller)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/9 "2003-11-12T20:58:07Z")
haha… didn’t even think about that.
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### Author:  [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/10 "2003-11-13T02:34:10Z")
Yes.
The following is from lecture notes posted at [http://www.colorado.edu/epob/epob1220lynch/08muscle.html](http://www.colorado.edu/epob/epob1220lynch/08muscle.html)
“Muscle fibers also differ functionally. Type I (=Slow-oxidative) fibers are slow contracting, have high oxidative capacity, contain many mitochondria, and are richly vascularized. These fibers are common in muscles where long term muscle use is important (e.g., marathon running). Type IIb (=Fast-glycolytic) fibers are fast contracting, utilize anaerobic glycolysis, have few mitochondria, and are poorly vascularized, but have great intensity of contraction. Type IIb are found in muscles where strength is needed for a short time (e.g. sprinter).”
In humans, the soleus is an example of a muscle in which slow-twitch, red fibers predominate while the gastrocnemius is made up mainly of fast-twitch, white fibers.
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### Author:  [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/11 "2003-11-13T02:40:44Z")
Yes.
The following is from lecture notes posted at [http://www.colorado.edu/epob/epob1220lynch/08muscle.html](http://www.colorado.edu/epob/epob1220lynch/08muscle.html)
“Muscle fibers also differ functionally. Type I (=Slow-oxidative) fibers are slow contracting, have high oxidative capacity, contain many mitochondria, and are richly vascularized. These fibers are common in muscles where long term muscle use is important (e.g., marathon running). Type IIb (=Fast-glycolytic) fibers are fast contracting, utilize anaerobic glycolysis, have few mitochondria, and are poorly vascularized, but have great intensity of contraction. Type IIb are found in muscles where strength is needed for a short time (e.g. sprinter).”
In humans, the soleus is an example of a muscle in which slow-twitch, red fibers predominate while the gastrocnemius is made up mainly of fast-twitch, white fibers.
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### Author:  [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/12 "2003-11-14T01:50:03Z")
So… which tastes nicer?
(I like chicken breasts but I’m not so hot on drumsticks.)
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### Author:  [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/13 "2003-11-14T16:26:10Z")
I just wanted to let you know I can’t come over for dinner, afterall. I just remembered I had something else I had to do and it’s really, uh, imortant. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/14 "2003-11-14T16:41:57Z")
Oh, **Ca3799**! You _must_ come! There just won’t be a dinner without you.
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### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/15 "2003-11-14T17:02:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \*
> \*\*[Here’s an MPEG (752KB) of some manmeat](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/mpeg/umd_video.mpg). Looks like red meat to me, although “Human – The Other White Meat” has a nicer ring to it. \*\*
I assume that was MRI data … so isn’t it false color?
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/16 "2003-11-14T17:17:19Z")
**toadspittle** : They used the corpse of an executed criminal. They froze the body and put it in gel (the blue stuff “framing” the sections) and then cut it into segments. (I’d have to go back and look, but I think they were 1mm segments.) The slices were photographed.
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### Author:  [@Church\_Key\_Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Church_Key_Kid)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/17 "2003-11-14T17:24:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I assume that was MRI data … so isn’t it false color?
No, that is a slideshow of a sliced up person. They cut the entire body into thin slices and take a picture of each slice. You can read more about it on the home site, the Visible Human Project: [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/)
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/18 "2003-11-14T18:34:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jcoscio1 \*
> \*\*This may be a bit morbid, but do Humans have light and dark meat?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jon \*\*
**JCOSCIO1** :
You are one sick puppy, but you definitely with the prize for best thread title of the week!
I’m kind of guessing here, but do any mammals have white meat? The whole “pork, the other white meat” is just marketting, no? Seems like if cows, living the cushy life they do before slaughter, have no white meat then hoo-mahns would not either.
So, I weigh in on the “no” side.
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### Author:  [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2003, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/19 "2003-11-15T02:03:00Z")
Why would humans taste like pork and not chicken?
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### Author:  [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-light-and-dark-meat/212850/20 "2003-11-15T15:09:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \*
> \*\*[Here’s an MPEG (752KB) of some manmeat](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/mpeg/umd_video.mpg). Looks like red meat to me, although “Human – The Other White Meat” has a nicer ring to it. \*\*
Not to be morbid, but the problem with this is that it’s not cooked.
Pork looks red before it’s cooked, too.
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