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By Newsweek Editors

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What causes the color difference between a turkey's (or chicken's) white and dark meat? --Merlin Dorfman, San Jose, Calif.

The browner color of "dark" meat comes from a deeply tinted, oxygen-storing protein called myoglobin in the bird's muscles. Since chickens and turkeys rely on their leg and thigh muscles to walk and run around, more oxygen is needed in these parts of the body than in parts where there isn't as much activity, like the wings and breast. Hence, more myoglobin is stored there, giving those sections a darker color. Just something to think about as you finish off those Thanksgiving leftovers.

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