WHEN I first moved to England from Australia in 1990 to work in some of London's smartest and busiest restaurants, such as Mezzo and Quaglino's, frankly, there wasn't access to a decent piece of meat in this country - it was very, very difficult even to find a good sausage. Chefs were buying it in from France and Italy; no one wanted to touch British beef. The British public believed meat was expensive, tasteless but, worst of all, tainted with the risk of causing at least one life-threatening disease. After all, if it didn't give you new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD), would its fatty nature contribute to a heart attack? Beef was the bad boy of British culture. But was it? For a 25-year-old Australian who had grown up eating beef daily - and lots of it - this was a big shock and a disappointment. I'd been raised on the stuff - I can still remember my uncle coming home laden with bags of meat, which he would cook on his own specially designed barbecue built in the back garden. We ate platters of it, all the different cuts. I loved it and couldn't understand why Britons were happy to accept their situation. I began to dig into the subject and learn more about British meat, travelling all over the country to meet farmers and discovering small suppliers who did produce excellent quality cuts. In 2000, my love affair with beef culminated in my opening Smith's of Smithfield, a restaurant where you could get good meals using decent local meat. Eight years later, and I know that the public's perception of British beef has come on a long way, thankfully - as it deserves a better reputation.                 - Mail But only last week, the UN suggested that we should all cut down on our intake to help combat climate change because of the environmental impact of livestock production. And, while the danger of BSE may be consigned to history, uninformed consumers still worry that a succulent steak or a large, smoky, well marbled joint of beef may see them carried off to a hospital's casualty department with a cholesterol overdose. Well, calm down, everyone Yes, we are becoming more obese and hardening of the arteries and cardiac disease is as much a concern as how farming affects global warming. But here's the truth: beef is not to blame. We are. Why? Because we eat too much, full stop. Too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt, too much everything. Instead of a small meal at lunchtime, people go for three courses - such as pGtT (which is 50 per cent butter), a large plate of pork chops in a creamy sauce and perhaps a cheesecake with chocolate sauce. We don't need this. How much better to eat a simply grilled piece of well reared beef? If the meat is marbled with fat, rather than the dried-up looking 'lean' beef, then good. The fat will melt through the meat as it cooks, which will make it more moist and tastier, and you won't need to eat so much of it to feel satisfied. There are fewer calories in that than in a pasty or four pieces of toast with lashings of butter. But there are more reasons to eat beef than just the taste. It's chockfull of protein, monounsaturated fats, vitamins such as B12, niacin, B6, and trace minerals such as phosphorus and zinc. Our bodies need these nutrients to keep us healthy, build strong muscles, give us energy and help us fight disease. Vitamin B12, in particular, can be obtained only from animal protein. It is essential in the production of red blood cells and, scientists in the magazine Nature have just revealed, vital for preventing brain shrinkage and dementia. And with two out of five Britons deficient in B12, that's a big concern. Zinc is important, too, for wound healing and it also helps control the appetite. What about the way the meat is produced - is there anything to fear? Well, growth hormones have been banned since 1988, and adding antibiotics to feed to encourage growth was outlawed in 2006. Of course, farmers use medicines when animals fall ill, but a Government veterinary body monitors any drugs that are given to beef cattle. Once an animal leaves the farm where it was reared, it is checked, slaughtered and packed, in a system that is more rigorous in its checks and discipline than the nuclear power industry - and that's a fact. Meat is naturally healthy and it's safe. So how can you make sure that you cook it in a way that will benefit your family's health? First, find a good butcher who really understands meat and can advise you what to buy and how to cook it. Look at the meat - a good piece of beef should be dark red, with fine rivers of fat running through it and a slab of white fat across the top. As for turning it into a delicious meal, well, cook it slowly with a handful of vegetables - that way a kilo of beef should be enough to feed a family of five. And if you're using a recipe book, remember to use your own taste and ideas. You don't have to follow the same recipe slavishly. Add a dash of your personality. My family eats less meat than I used to when I was growing up. My two eldest - Marcel, 13, and Casper, 11 - enjoy a good steak, although four-year-old Jonah and Loulou, two, are probably a bit young for it yet. But we do all follow a fairly balanced diet - if it's a big lunch, it's a sandwich for dinner; if it's pasta for lunch, we have something low in carbohydrates later on. We don't have huge hunks of meat, but we do enjoy a roast. It's all about balance - and not eating too much of anything.