# What type of meat are we?? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 10, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827 "2003-01-10T22:02:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![swingchick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@swingchick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swingchick)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/1 "2003-01-10T22:02:47Z")
Okay, so this may be a weird first post, but hey, that’s the kinda girl I am. My co-worker and I were talking about if people would be classified as dark meat or light meat? I personally think we are a white meat, more like pork than chicken though. So anyone with exprience, anyone who has been lost in the Andes forced to eat their dearest friends. Please no spoillers. No pun intended. I want unbiased opinions. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tony\_Montana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tony\_Montana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Montana)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/2 "2003-01-10T22:11:50Z")
I’m dark meat… ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/3 "2003-01-10T22:14:47Z")
I’m wiener material. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/4 "2003-01-10T22:16:54Z")
It really depends on how active or sedentary you are, how old you are, and how active you’ve been over your lifetime. Chickens have dark meat where their muscles are used the most, and the rest is white meat because it’s not used nearly as much. I’d have to say that I’m a combinatory meat source: there’s some white meat and some dark meat, depending on the area of the body. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/5 "2003-01-10T22:27:48Z")
IIRC, we’re very similar to the pig, gene-wise. If this is the case, wouldn’t our meat be much like pork? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/6 "2003-01-10T22:48:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissa \* > \*\*IIRC, we’re very similar to the pig, gene-wise. If this is the case, wouldn’t our meat be much like pork? \*\* I’ve heard that we taste like pork, although I can’t remember where. People have both white and dark meat, pretty much exactly as **Mirrored Indigo Shadows** said. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/7 "2003-01-10T23:49:46Z")
[We are Spam](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_229.html). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/8 "2003-01-11T00:11:37Z")
What kind of meat are we? TASTY!! * * * God was my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I was forced to eat him. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/9 "2003-01-11T00:28:41Z")
> **[h2g2 - Oops.](https://h2g2.com/alabaster/A499322)** > > h2g2, the Unconventional Guide to Life, the Universe and Everything gives all sorts of info on Long Pig. Cheers, Keithy (thinking about next weeks pot luck ) ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Rame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Mac\_Rame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Rame)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/10 "2003-01-11T01:00:22Z")
While this is in no way an answer to the question I (rather my dad) has a humorous anecdote. A number of years ago he was hiking through the way, way remote corners of Papua New Guinea. We’re talking seriously remote as in “fallen off the face of the earth, taken the first bus to Nowhere and then trekked onward for a few more days” remote. Apparently, as he relates, cannibalism had been only recently made illegal (eat your neighbor, go to jail)…although enforcement was shoddy at best. One night he and his guide were staying in a camp of one tribe in the highlands. To while away the evening the two of them went with some local men to the village smokehouse (not _that_ kind of smokehouse; it was more akin to a sauna). When a group of men get together they only speak about a few subjects: sports, beer, women and food. Considering that PNG sports in the highlands consisted of riddling a member of an unfriendly tribe with arrows and beer was virtually nonexistent, it quickly turned to a discussion on woman and food. While interested in information on the local dating scene, my dad quickly surmised it might not be best to ask whose sister was available lest he accidentally get married (which is, while in a different country, how I came to be but that is a different story). As such, food was the topic du jour. It quickly became apparent during their conversations in the smokehouse that this group practiced cannibalism, though they confessed to not having done so for quite some time as they had made peace with the nearest food source. Curious as he ways he asked, “So, what is the best part to eat?” A toothless old man who at this point said nothing but looked on with great interest, reached over and grabbed my dad’s thigh. As he gently kneaded it with one hand (testing the meat?) he stated in no uncertain terms, “This one.” Story goes that they left at first light. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/11 "2003-01-11T01:25:06Z")
This makes my wondering about how fattening we are slightly less disturbing. I just want to know if we’re more or less fattening than beef, is that so wrong? ---
**Author:** ![DLurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecd19e/32.png) [@DLurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DLurker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/12 "2003-01-11T01:43:59Z")
I have also heard we are the other other white meat. I would have guessed all dark though… So what wine goes with, human? ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/13 "2003-01-11T01:46:11Z")
A good Chianti, of course. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/14 "2003-01-11T02:48:07Z")
White meat, which is the type that is found in chicken breast, consists of fast twitch muscle cells/fibers. This type of muscle is able to produce a lot of power, but fatigues easily. Chickens are ground dwelling birds, and in nature, will fly rapidly away from predators, either to a perch, or to cover elsewhere on the ground. So they need a lot of quick power. Turkeys also belong in this categorie; wild turkeys are capable of bery fast flight for short distances. Commercial turkeys have been bred for larger size, especially breasts. So even though a commercial turkey may never fly during its life, it will still retain the white meat, since that is a genetic factor which does not change regardless of exercise. Dark meat, which is the type that is found in duck breast, consists of slow twitch muscle cells/fibers. This type of muscle is able to produce less power, but for a very long time…it doesn’t fatigue easily. Ducks need to travel long distances (think migration), so they need the dark type of muscles in their breast flying muscles. So domesticated ducks, which have retained the genetic information of dark breast meat, will continue to do so regardless of their exposure to flight. In the bird examples above, the two types of muscle cells are seperated in the different muscles (A chicken has dark meat on the thighs), but in other animals this is not always the case. Humans have both types (fast and slow twitch cells, or white and dark meat) mixed in their muscles. The proportion of each type seems to be fixed genetically. So theoretically, a sprinter who had a slightly higher proportion of (fast) white cells would have some advantage over a person who had a slightly higher proportion of (slow) dark cells…but that person would theoretically have an advantage in a marathon, everthing else being equal. The proportion of fast and slow twitch muscle cells can be determined by taking a biopsy of the leg muscle, if you are interested. ---
**Author:** ![Skelji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/15 "2003-01-11T04:47:23Z")
As a guy, I’m a mix of white and red, like pork and beef, though mostly red. My head, however, is pure fat. Women are also a mix, like pork and beef, except for that one special spot that’s closer to salmon: nice and pink 😛 😛 😛 ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/16 "2003-01-11T06:17:03Z")
Simple… The answer is: Soylent Green. [Charleton Heston] It’s People, I tell ya! Soylent Green is People! It’s a mad house! A MAD HOUSE! [/Charleton Heston] ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/17 "2003-01-11T06:22:03Z")
I’m more like nicely marbled veal, myself. ---
**Author:** ![Tony\_Montana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tony\_Montana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Montana)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/18 "2003-01-11T06:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sunstone \* > Humans have both types (fast and slow twitch cells, or white and dark meat) mixed in their muscles. So…,I’m like a giant turkey? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/19 "2003-01-11T06:42:48Z")
So an epileptic would be mostly white meat? _I’m going to hell now, aren’t I…_ ---
**Author:** ![Tony\_Montana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tony\_Montana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Montana)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827/20 "2003-01-11T06:53:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tony Montana \* > \*\*So…,I’m like a giant turkey? \*\* Although, I’m told I’m like an over-cooked ham…::boom,boom,crash:: 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-meat-are-we/147827.md?page=2)