Is Forcemeat Healthy? 16 Answers According to Popular Diets

One of the questions I saw when I was researching forcemeat was asking whether forcemeat is healthy. But since “healthy” is such a hotly debated topic, I wanted to ask the question in the context of popular diets/ways of eating. In this article, I answer the question of forcemeat being healthy according to 16 different diets/ways of eating.

Is forcemeat healthy? Yes and no, according to these 16 diets/ways of eating:

Low-fat diet: No.
Dukan diet: No.
South Beach diet: No.
The Zone Diet: No.
MyPlate (the USDA food guide): No.
Canada Food Guide: No.
WHO food guidelines: No.
The Eatwell Guide (Britain): No.
DASH diet: No.
Vegan: No.
Vegetarian: No.
Mediterranean diet: No.
Gluten-free: Yes.
Keto/Atkins: Yes.
Paleo: Yes.
Zero carb/carnivore: Yes.

Now let’s look further into the parameters of each of these diets and ways of eating to find out if forcemeat is healthy or not. Remember that nutritional science is full of BS and this BS influences governmental food guides so beware. As always, it’s important to think for yourself and do what works best for you. Spoiler alert: Forcemeat Academy supports the eating of all forcemeat delights any day and every day.

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor or nutrition professional and I’m not providing medical advice. But I’ll link to a few doctors who give solid nutritional advice at the end of this article.

Bonus infographic included: Forcemeat versus standard dietary “wisdom.” Pâtés, terrines, rillettes, sausages: Are they healthy?

[Scroll down to the end to download your no-strings attached infographic!]

What do we mean by forcemeat when it’s such a huge category?

Forcemeat includes pâtés, terrines, rillettes, sausages, rillons, confit and many other delights. But for our purposes today, we’ll reduce all these forcemeat styles down into their essence: forcemeat is a meat and fat emulsion. Forcemeat dishes can be anywhere from 35 percent to 80 percent fat by calories. 35 percent seems a little low to me, honestly, but this could fit for mousselines which are made with lean meat and cream.

For example, rillettes are on the high end. I calculated the nutritional value of a rabbit rillettes recipe from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie. The main ingredients are 453 grams of rabbit and 135 grams of lard.

Rillettes ingredient	Fat	Protein
453 grams of rabbit	25.2 grams*	90.9 grams*
135 grams of lard	135 grams*	0 grams*
Total fats	160 grams	90.9 grams
Total calories by macro	1440 fat calories	363 protein calories
Percentage by macro	79.9%	20.1%

Rillettes arithmetic

*These figures are from the FoodData Central database from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

[This chart is from my article, 8 Reasons to Eat Rillettes on Keto, Carnivore or Zero Carb.]

Here’s what forcemeat particulars we’ll use to determine if it’s healthy, according to the various diets and ways of eating (WOE):

Medium to high fat by calories.
Contains mostly saturated fat.
Made of meat.

What do we mean by diet versus way of eating?

Diet means what we eat but it’s more common to use the word diet to mean eating-this-way-to-lose-weight. In this article, I’ve put the lose-weight diets first, followed by other diets or ways of eating people use to lose weight, manage health concerns or just live their lives. Of course, people can (and do) try any of the options on this list for weight loss.

Is forcemeat healthy? The low-fat diet says no

The low-fat diet is 30 percent calories from fat. There’s also an ultra-low-fat diet which is 10% calories from fat. If you eat 2000 calories a day on the low-fat diet, that’s 600 calories of fat, or 66 grams of fat. Not much to work with, especially if you’re eating a fattier forcemeat like sausages or rillettes. Perhaps you could sneak in a few tablespoons every once in a while.

So, because forcemeat is so fatty, it doesn’t fit into the parameters of the low-fat diet, except occasionally. Of course, the low-fat diet isn’t about health. As reported on Healthline, “The introduction of the low-fat guidelines seems to have marked the beginning of the obesity epidemic.”

By the way, Healthline also reports that, “Low-fat and low-carb diets are equally effective for weight loss in highly controlled situations. However, in free-living obese people, low-fat diets tend to be less effective than low-carb diets.”

On a personal note, I’ve tried a low-fat (35 percent) lifestyle to support weight training goals but I couldn’t stick to it because it made me sad and there was too much roughage to consume.

Is forcemeat healthy? The Dukan diet says no

The Dukan diet is high protein, low fat and low carb. Meats and dairy products can be consumed but only lean or no-fat varieties. [Fat-free dairy, I’m crying at the thought.]

So, since forcemeat is a high-fat food, it wouldn’t fit into the Dukan diet, except perhaps in the fourth phase of the diet. The stabilization phase lets people eat whatever they want six days a week and have a pure protein day once a week.

While the Dukan diet supporters might not find forcemeat dishes healthy, scientists don’t find the Dukan diet healthy. In their paper, Assessment of food intakes for women adopting the high protein Dukan diet, researchers concluded that, “Many nutritional abnormalities were found in women on the high protein Dukan-diet. Adopting this diet in the long-term may pose health threats through acquiring kidney and liver disease, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.”

Is forcemeat healthy? The South Beach diet says no

A cardiologist named Dr. Arthur Agatston created the South Beach diet in the 1990s. It’s a low-ish carb diet that restricts saturated animal fats. He created the diet back when people thought that saturated fat and cholesterol caused heart disease. But it looks like they’re still operating on this principle. The frequently asked questions page for the South Beach diet says, “The South Beach Diet provides heart-healthy South Beach meal plans that are rich in heart healthy fats and low in saturated fats.” It also allows people to eat processed vegetable oils (like safflower, soybean oil, etc.) which are high in omega-6 fatty acids (which is bad).

Since forcemeat dishes are rich in yummy saturated fat from animals, the South Beach diet would say forcemeat is not healthy.

Is forcemeat healthy? The Zone Diet says no

The Zone Diet recommends you get 30 percent of your calories from fat, 40 percent from carbohydrates and 30 percent from protein. It was invented by Dr. Barry Sears to help people reduce inflammation caused by the food they eat.

According to their website, “The Zone Diet® will help you shed excess pounds and improve your mental and physical performance while living a more fulfilling life.”

As for meat and fat, The Zone Diet recommends low-fat proteins and monosaturated oils, such as olive oil and avocados and almonds (and their oils). Egg yolks are a no-no, but low-fat dairy is acceptable.

The Zone Diet would be scandalized by the amount of saturated fat we eat in our forcemeat dishes. Don’t tell those guys about confit or they’ll have a heart attack!

So, no to forcemeat if you’re on The Zone Diet.

Now, we’ll move onto ways of eating (that can also be weight-loss diets).

Is forcemeat healthy? MyPlate (the USDA food guide) says no

Americans are urged to choose MyPlate as their way of eating. MyPlate is divided into four quadrants: fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. On the side, is a little spot for dairy. According to the Choose My Plate website, Americans should “choose foods and beverages with less saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.”

They don’t mention fat as a separate category but they suggest low-fat or no-fat milk and yogurt. MyPlate recommends varying your protein sources, saying, “Foods including meat, poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs, processed soy products, nuts, and seeds are considered part of the Protein Foods Group.” They recommend eating between two and 6.5 ounce-equivalents of protein each day (and you can see their protein chart here but don’t bother, please find another way of eating instead).

Given MyPlate advocates low-fat dairy, less saturated fat and a tiny amount of protein each day, I can’t see how forcemeat would get the thumbs up. So that’s a no.

By the way, Nina Teicholz, author of The Big Fat Surprise, is the executive director of The Nutrition Coalition, a non-profit organization advocating for evidence-based and scientifically rigorous food guidelines. To learn more about that work, check out The Nutrition Coalition site.

Is forcemeat healthy? Canada’s food guide says no

Canada’s food guide is pretty much the same as the American MyPlate: half fruits and vegetables, a quarter grains and a quarter protein. The Canada food guide, however, doesn’t mention dairy and advocates eating plant-based proteins more often.

But the final nail in the “Is forcemeat healthy?” coffin is the Canada’s food guide position on saturated fats, “Foods that contain mostly unsaturated fat should replace foods that

contain mostly saturated fat.”

Since forcemeat is all about the saturated fat and proteins made of meat, you won’t be eating too many forcemeat dishes while following this way of eating.

And, folks I gotta tell ya … the capitalization of “Canada’s food guide” is taken straight from their website.

Is forcemeat healthy? The World Health Organization (WHO) food guidelines say no

According to the World Health Organization, “Eating a variety of foods and consuming less salt, sugars and saturated and industrially-produced trans-fats, are essential for healthy diet.”

Good for them for telling us to not eat trans-fats! Finally, some solid advice. However, they also recommend eating less fat and lump saturated fat and trans-fats into the same unhealthy category, saying they both “can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.” And finally, the WHO says, “Using unsaturated vegetable oils (olive, soy, sunflower or corn oil) rather than animal fats or oils high in saturated fats (butter, ghee, lard, coconut and palm oil) will help [you] consume healthier fats.”

I’m dying here, reading about a recommendation to use soy and corn oil. In the study called, Health implications of high dietary omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, researchers say that the consumption of omega-6 oils (which is what most vegetable oils are) has increased dramatically in the past few decades. In their abstract, they report, “Coinciding with this increase … are increases in chronic inflammatory diseases such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cardiovascular disease, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).”

Anyway, back to the WHO. They also say keep your fat to 30 percent consumption to avoid weight gain.

So, the WHO guidelines are not aligned to the saturated fatty satisfaction that goes with many forcemeat dishes.

Some mid-article encouragement

At this point, if you’ve found this website by accident, you might be scared off forcemeats like pâté, rillettes and terrines because they’re just so unhealthy! Fear not, dear reader. As those scientists said in their research, modern diseases are increasing and that coincides with the rise of modern nutritional “wisdom.” So, take all this with a grain of salt and keep reading for the ways of eating that celebrate nutrient-dense animal foods. Only four more NO answers until we get to the heck-yeah-forcemeat ways of eating.

Is forcemeat healthy? The United Kingdom’s Eatwell Guide says no

The National Health Service promotes the Eatwell Guide. As you can see from the picture below, it recommends that most of your plate be filled with fruits and vegetables (or veg, as the Brits would say) and starches. The protein section is almost half plant based. Dairy has a more generous allotment than on the Canadian and American guides. Fats are supposed to be unsaturated and in small amounts.

The NHS’s Eatwell Guide is operating on outdated nutritional dogma related to saturated fat and heart disease, unfortunately. The Eatwell Guide says, “Some meats are high in fat, especially saturated fat. Eating a lot of saturated fat can raise cholesterol levels in the blood, and having high cholesterol raises your risk of heart disease.”

They also say if you eat more than 90 grams (cooked) of red and processed meat each day, you should cut that down to 70 grams. That’s 2.4 ounces. They think you should limit the most nutritionally dense food available (red meat) to a measly 2.4 ounces. Ha!

Picture courtesy of the NHS. Source: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/

Since the Eatwell Guide believes saturated fats will give you heart disease, forcemeat is not aligned to this way of eating. What’s pâté? Heart attack on a cracker!

[On a sidebar, my husband and I went to Niagara Falls for a recent wedding anniversary and at the hotel, I watched many episodes of one of Jamie Oliver’s shows (Jamie’s Quick & Easy Food, I think). I was surprised that he was so enthusiastic about low-fat items. Now that I’ve looked at the Eatwell Guide, I know why. Poor Jamie!]

Is forcemeat healthy? The DASH diet says no

The DASH diet stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension. It’s a diet for people who want to reduce their blood pressure to prevent heart disease. It’s a low-salt diet and there’s a very low-salt option. Healthline says this about the DASH diet, “While rich in fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, it restricts red meat, salt, added sugars and fat.”

The DASH diet was created by the National Institutes of Health.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, the DASH diet is recommended and/or approved by:

The National Kidney Foundation.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The American Heart Association.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The fats you can eat are vegetable oils.

You can see how it’s easy to be confused about nutrition when all the authorities say the same thing including terrible advice like eating vegetable seed oil is better than eating animal fat.

So, fatty forcemeat doesn’t fit into the DASH diet. Especially since forcemeat dishes served cold have more salt than dishes served hot. Animal fats and salt = no from the DASH diet.

Before I end this section, let me emphasize that hypertension is no joke. High blood pressure is a serious issue—called the silent killer because there are often no symptoms—and if you’ve got it, please address it. Low-carb diets are known for decreasing blood pressure. Start with this article by Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD on the Diet Doctor website, How to normalize your blood pressure.

Is forcemeat healthy? The vegan diet says no

Vegans want to live a cruelty-free lifestyle which excludes eating or using any animal products. Some vegans believe meat is toxic and unhealthy. But other vegans don’t claim that a vegan diet is healthier than a meat-based diet; they simply don’t want to harm animals.

So, since forcemeat is mostly animal-based, it’s not compatible with a vegan way of life.

But, if you’re hosting vegans for dinner, you can find vegan terrine recipes. I’ve listed a few in my article called, Does Terrine Contain Dairy? Yes and No; It’s Up to You!

Is forcemeat healthy? The vegetarian diet says no

Vegetarians don’t eat meat, but they eat some animal products such as dairy, eggs and honey. Some vegetarians choose this way of eating because they don’t want to kill animals, and some vegetarians choose it for health.

For either camp, forcemeat is a no-no on a vegetarian diet as it’s made of meat.

On a personal note, I was vegetarian for 11 years. A health-food vegetarian. But by the end, I just didn’t feel good anymore and I was cold all the time. My aunt, on the other hand, has been a vegetarian for many years and is one of the healthiest people I know.

Is forcemeat healthy? The Mediterranean diet says no

According to the Mayo Clinic, “Interest in the Mediterranean diet began in the 1960s with the observation that coronary heart disease caused fewer deaths in Mediterranean countries, such as Greece and Italy, than in the U.S. and northern Europe.”

It’s a whole-foods diet that limits sweets and red meat. On the Mediterranean diet, you eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, seafood, poultry, eggs and, in moderation, dairy products. The main fats are olive oil, nuts, seeds and fatty fish. The Mayo Clinic considers this a plant-based diet as meat is an accompaniment, not the star of the show.

About meat on the Mediterranean diet, the Mayo Clinic says, “If you eat meat, make sure it’s lean and keep portions small.”

Most of the Mediterranean diet references I saw didn’t mention pork, so I investigated a little further because pork is the main meat in many forcemeat concoctions.

Oldways, a non-proﬁt that helps people rediscover the “healthy, sustainable joys of the “old ways” of shared cultural traditions,” suggests pork can plan a small role in the Mediterranean diet. In their article, 6 Ways to Fit Meat Into a Healthy Mediterranean Diet, they say, “Use fatty cuts of pork, such as pancetta or bacon, in small amounts to ﬂavor beans, vegetables, soups, and stews. Pork can complement fresh vegetables really well (in a B.L.T., for example), and it can add a delicious dimension of ﬂavor to cooked vegetable dishes, too.”

So, you could eat forcemeat dishes on a Mediterranean diet—if you eat a small amount infrequently. But would the Mediterranean diet say forcemeat dishes—made of meat and fat—are healthy? Probably not.

Transitioning into a different food paradigm

Here’s where we get into the nutritional renegade diets and ways of eating that go against all the mainstream advice. If you start one of these ways of eating, your friends, family and colleagues may suddenly get concerned. They may say things like, “Oh, I could never give up my bread.” They may ridicule you about eliminating entire food groups and tell you with conviction that it’s just not healthy. Please ignore the nay-sayers and go ahead and find the way of eating that works for you and makes you feel your most healthy, robust and joyful self.

Is forcemeat healthy? The gluten-free diet says yes

The gluten-free diet simply eliminates all gluten from your diet. This diet or way of eating is essential for people with Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease. For these folks, gluten causes discomfort and damage to the intestines. People who are sensitive to gluten often follow a gluten-free diet.

Some forcemeat dishes are not gluten-free as they contain flour, bread or breadcrumbs as a binder. But many forcemeat dishes are gluten-free by design. [For more on this subject, see my article, Is Terrine Gluten Free? Ingredients to Watch Out For.]

So, as long as you choose a gluten-free forcemeat dish, yes, forcemeat is a healthy choice on your gluten-free diet.

Is forcemeat healthy? The keto/Atkins diet says yes

In the 1960s, Dr. Robert C. Atkins studied low-carb diets. In 1972, he published his book, Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution. In the 1920s, the ultra low-carb and high-fat keto diet started being used to treat epilepsy before epilepsy drugs were available. According to the Epilepsy Foundation of America, “The typical “classical” ketogenic diet [to treat epilepsy], called the “long-chain triglyceride diet,” provides 3 to 4 grams of fat for every 1 gram of carbohydrate and protein. That is about 90% of calories from fat.”

Both Atkins and keto are low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diets. Atkins allows for more carbs to be introduced over the four phases of the diet. Many keto diets call for under 20 grams of carbohydrate per day so you can stay in nutritional ketosis (which means you’re burning fat for fuel instead of glucose). If you’re interested in the finer points of each diet, have a look at Healthline’s article, What’s the Difference Between Keto and Atkins?

According to Healthline, higher protein keto diets have 60 percent fat (by calories) while standard keto diets have 75 percent fat.

Neither keto or Atkins shy away from meat or fat which means all the forcemeat concoctions (except those with grains and/or starches) are a perfectly healthy part of low-carb eating.

Is forcemeat healthy? The paleo diet says yes

According to the Mayo Clinic, “A paleo diet is a dietary plan based on foods similar to what might have been eaten during the Paleolithic era, which dates from approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago.”

The Mayo Clinic also indicates that on a paleo diet, you eat lean meats, fruits, vegetables, eggs, fatty fish, nuts, seeds and nut and fruit oils (walnut and olive oil, for example).

NPR reports that, “Sometime around 12,000 years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors began trying their hand at farming.” Which means that besides meat, fish and eggs, most of those “paleo” foods (as outlined by the Mayo Clinic) weren’t around for most of the Paleolithic era. Oh well.

Nerd Fitness notes that “ghee, lard, or other animal fats” are also part of the paleo diet and they don’t mention lean when they talk about meat. Instead, they point out how fatty paleo foods are. Now, that’s a bit more caveman, isn’t it? Thank you, nerds!

So, going with the nerd view of what the paleo diet includes, then yes, forcemeat is healthy. Eat up!

Is forcemeat healthy? The Zero carb/carnivore diets say yes

Carnivore and Zero Carb folks eat only from the animal kingdom. Folks who call themselves carnivore in this context eat only meat and fish, sometimes eggs and dairy. Folks who follow the Zero Carb way of eating eat meat, eggs, dairy and limit plant foods to spices for flavouring. [Zero Carb (with the capital letters) got its name from Owsley “The Bear” Stanley, who ate only from the animal kingdom for 50 years. It’s not a great name because there are carbs in eggs, dairy and some meats, but the ZC community kept the name anyway.]

Fatty meats are suggested as this is a high-fat, low-carb, moderate protein diet, just like keto and Atkins.

This a controversial way of eating and studies are scarce. However, anecdotes of radical health transformations are plentiful. I’ve included resources at the end of this article in case you want to learn more about this crazy way of eating (that I’ve done for more than two years now).

Anyhoo, back to the question of forcemeat being healthy.

The carnivore and Zero Carb diets are completely aligned with forcemeats being healthy. Fat and meat, yes please!

Conclusion

Well, if you follow most of the popular diets, I’m afraid you’ll find forcemeats unhealthy. Forcemeat might be the demon that causes instantaneous heart attacks! However, if you follow the low-carb folks, especially the ones that promote nutrient-dense animal foods, you’ll feel great about putting healthy forcemeat dishes on your plate!

Low-carb resources

Here are folks going against the grain to help people feel good and reduce medications with low carb eating and generous amounts of animal foods.

Zero Carb/carnivore communities run by folks who have been eating animal products only for more than 10 years:

Zero Carb Health website

Zero Carb Health Facebook

Zeroing in on Health Facebook

Download the Forcemeat Versus the Standard Dietary “Wisdom” infographic here!

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Forcemeat Academy