How can Cooking Light publish a recipe for beef short ribs? Aren't they one of the fattiest beef cuts? They are indeed. But as we have said before, there are no bad foods. A healthy diet can include any food. It's a matter of balance.

There is, however, a strategy for handling higher-fat cuts of beef. Here's what we did with our Balsamic-Braised Short Ribs. First, we added no additional fat to the recipe. Second, we got rid of excess fat by cooking the ribs, refrigerating them overnight, then skimming the solidified fat from the broth in the pan. This lowers the fat content of the resulting dish significantly, and makes the ribs melt-in-your-mouth tender. Third, our serving size offers a moderate three ounces of meat, a far cry from a typical weighty restaurant serving.

We also paired the short ribs with horseradish-spiked mashed potatoes, which is a great combination in terms of both nutritional value and flavor. The mashed potatoes absorb all of the delicious juices from the meat, and the carbohydrates in the potatoes offset the fat so that the entire meal nets fewer than 30 percent of its calories from fat.

It's unfortunate that many people cut out beef when embarking on a healthier diet. Beef is rich in iron and zinc, two important minerals often lacking in women's diets. Besides, red meat is not the real culprit behind our expanding waistlines; that dubious honor belongs to the excess of calories we consume and time we spend on the couch.

Food is more than just what we eat; it's a fundamental pleasure of life. All foods can be a part of that -- including beef.

Daily Nutrition Guide
Here's a helpful guide to put our nutrition analysis numbers into perspective. Remember, one size doesn't fit all, so take your lifestyle, age, and circumstances into consideration when determining your nutrition needs. For example, pregnant or breast-feeding women need more protein, calories, and calcium. And men over 50 need 1,200mg of calcium daily, 200mg more than the amount recommended for younger men.

The nutritional values used in our calculations either come from The Food Processor, Version 7.5 (ESHA Research), or are provided by food manufacturers.