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Looking at 100g chicken breast for example, I see that ~30g is protein and ~4 is fat. What is the rest of the 100g piece made of? Is that all connective tissues? Fiber? Something else?

NoDataDumpNoContribution
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shadesofdarkred
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1 Answers1

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It's essentially just water.

You can directly see this in the full USDA nutrition facts (link is for "Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted"). Per 100g, there is 65.26g of water, 31.02g protein, 3.57g fat, accounting for 99.85g. The rest is probably just trace nutrients and rounding errors.

You'll see the same kind of thing for other meats. Details vary by cut, but for example here's beef chuck eye steak (64.48g water, 18.86g protein, 16.35g fat), pork loin chops (69.7g water, 20.71g protein, 9.03g fat), and Atlantic salmon (64.89g water, 20.42g protein, 13.42g fat).

Cascabel
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    "trace nutrients and rounding errors" You just made my day. – bwDraco Sep 18 '17 at 20:45
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    FWIW, 65% water by weight is about the same as humans ([this Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_water) has 65% average in one study; 50% or 60% (female/male) in another). – TripeHound Sep 19 '17 at 00:15
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    @TripeHound That's why it "tastes like chicken"... ;) – roetnig Sep 19 '17 at 06:31
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    @bwDraco: Rounding errors are yummy! – psmears Sep 19 '17 at 14:09
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    Might be worth putting numbers for other kinds of meat... beef is more like 15% fat I think? – user541686 Sep 19 '17 at 21:34
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    @Mehrdad Depends very much on the type/cut. You can get ground beef anywhere 5% to 30% fairly easily. Added a few, but I think the point here is more that however much fat/protein there is, the remainder is pretty much just water. – Cascabel Sep 19 '17 at 21:47
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    Remember that, after all, cells are pretty much fatty bags filled with water and stuffed dissolved, linked to each other with proteins. – Davidmh Sep 20 '17 at 11:41