As you might expect, then, goat meat falls into the same category as beef, lamb or venison.
It comes from a very similar animal and is much bigger than more or less any animal that produces white meat.
There are complex biological reasons for this, so let me do my best to elucidate them for you.
Is goat meat considered red or white meat?
All goat meat is red meat.
You only really need to look at it to be able to tell.
Indeed, you only need to look at similar animals to have a good guess.
Like cows, sheep, deer, even horses, goats have lean, red meat from the myoglobin in their fibers.
This puts them firmly in the red meat category.
I’ll get into exactly what defines red meat vs white meat shortly, but goats are, without question, red meat animals.
In terms of diet, there are actually many benefits to eating red meat like a goat.
Compared with other, commonly consumed meats, goat has more iron, similar levels of protein, and far lower levels of calories and cholesterol.
This is compared with chicken and beef.
Goat is actually one of the most widely eaten meats in the world, and goats are one of the most populous livestock species.
Given that it is a staple for so many, you can rest assured there are certainly benefits to eating it.
Is it healthier than chicken, though?
Is goat meat healthier than chicken?
It really depends what you mean by healthier.
The first thing I would say is to disentangle yourself from the notion that one food is categorically healthier than another.
In moderation, pretty much anything that occurs naturally in the environment can have some degree of benefit.
That said, goat meat does have quite a few advantages over chicken.
For one thing, the basic caloric density is lower, so you can eat the same amount by weight without the same number of calories.
It is also richer in a few essential minerals.
Iron, as I said, is the biggest, but goats also have good amounts of copper in their diet.
The protein profile is quite similar, so you aren’t losing out there, either.
It may be safe to say that goat meat is healthier—but you’ve still got to consider what exactly you’re looking to get out of your food.
What is red meat?
While there are biological reasons for the color of an animal’s flesh, the simplest way to define what we mean by red and white meat is just the color.
Red meat is literally meat that is red when raw and dark when cooked.
We are most familiar with things like beef and lamb, but venison, horse, and of course goat would all fall into this category.
Biologically speaking, meat is red because of the content of myoglobin, a binding protein found in the cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue of many vertebrates.
Beef can be as much as 1% myoglobin, compared with chicken which is only around 0.005%.
It is generally needed in higher concentrations in larger animals—thus, small birds tend to be white meat.
Why is goat meat red meat?
Goat meat is red for the same reason as any other red meat.
Goats have a higher concentration of myoglobin in their blood stream, which turns their flesh red.
Goats need the myoglobin for their muscles to function as they need to.
For slower, more deliberate and considered movement, and to support their bulkier weight.
As I said, you are more likely to find less myoglobin in something like a small bird because they need rapid muscle fibers that can snap instinctively into action to move them away from something.
This is naturally a factor of many birds since their impulse is to fly away from danger.
This obviously isn’t true of chickens, but it once was, and still is of ducks.
Goats, while they need a threat detection system, do not have the same defense mechanism.
They stay out in the open and do their best to detect danger from afar.
Thus, their muscles need myoglobin to hold their weight up.
Goat meat is a red meat, and there are no two ways about it.
Usually, it’s very easy to tell by looking at a meat whether it is red or white.
When you look at raw beef or lamb, it is completely red, and it being bloody is not a problem.
You have yourself a red meat.
Raw chicken, generally, shouldn’t be bleeding so much, and it is white in appearance.
I’ve explained to the best degree I can why goat is red meat, but you only need to look at it to know.