Wild game is the essential free-range, organic meat and provides many health benefits such as high B12 and B6 vitamin levels, niacin, riboflavin, zinc, iron, and a lower fat content than domestic animals. It is a healthier source of protein when compared to the lamb, beef, or pork you buy in the grocery store.
Much of our uncertified store-bought meat contains substances that do not occur naturally in animals, such as steroids, growth hormones, vaccines, animal by-products, and antibiotics.
Game feeds on the natural foods available in the area where they wander about throughout their lives. Their meat is a lean, low-fat protein because of free-roaming wild animals’ higher activity levels and their all-natural vegetation diet.
Due to its lower fat content, the meat from an active wild animal may not be as tender as its farm-raised counterparts’ if not cooked properly, but it contains more flavor compounds because of increased blood circulation.
Published comparisons regarding the nutritional values of farm animals and wild game produce results that vary considerably. No two seem to provide identical percentages.
The following offers a general guideline should you find yourself in a position where you need to depend on the survival food that fishing, trapping, and hunting provides.
A Guide to The Nutritional Value of Wild Game
Why is wild game meat superior to commercially supplied or farm animal meat?
According to several surveys, domesticated animals contain 25 to 30 percent fat, whereas the median fat content of wild game is approximately 4.3 percent. The fat from wild game includes many more polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are beneficial to you, and much less saturated fat, which is not.
Some game meat contains more dietary cholesterol than that of farm animals. However, the combination of a much higher percentage of cholesterol-reducing polyunsaturated fatty acids, less saturated fat, and leaner body tissue makes it a healthier choice. View the comparisons below:
Note
* 100 grams equals about 3 1/2 ounces
** Information from other sources
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Researchers at Purdue University found that wild game – specifically grass-fed Rocky Mountain antelope, deer, and elk – contain an elevated amount of omega-3 fatty acids and a lesser ratio of omega-6. They comprise two parts of omega-6 to one of omega-3 in their muscle meats.
Grain-fed beef contains a five to one up to thirteen to one ratio. Both omega-3 and omega-6 are vital for balanced nutrition, yet too much of either one can cause health issues or chronic disease. Wild game fats counterbalance each other, which may lower cholesterol levels.
We require the high levels of zinc and iron that game meat provides for balanced health. Zinc supports a healthy immune system, and iron is essential for oxygen to reach organs and tissues. White meat, especially wild turkey, offers many benefits since fowl consume green plants, seeds, and bugs.
Related: 12 Potentially Life-Threatening Errors You’re Making in Food Preparedness and Survival Strategies
Consuming wild meat likewise has environmental benefits, whereas industrialized factory farms that produce cheap meat, dairy, and eggs hinder our planet’s health. We see an increase in diet-related illnesses such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in humans and a spread in animal diseases.
Commercial livestock farming produces 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and high waste levels. The relationship between factory farms and climate change is a critical research subject.
Related: Livestock Animals You Should Start Raising For The Upcoming Economic Crisis
Alternatively, wild game meat and fish have a smaller environmental footprint. Penned-raised animals such as wild boar, rabbits, fallow deer, and pheasants should not be regarded as wild game because their diets differ considerably.
Ethical, self-sufficient hunters follow certain principles when harvesting the meat required to keep themselves and others from starving. They know, respect, and treat the game they hunt – and their habitat – fairly. They hunt in a sustainable, considerate, responsible, and safe manner that excludes cruelty to the target and includes protecting the welfare of other animals in the area.
Fish has various health advantages as it is an excellent source of vitamin D, selenium, iodine, thiamine, and omega-3 fatty acids. It increases the good HDL cholesterol levels, so make a point of fishing for the family when possible.
It’s a good idea to eat at least two servings of fish per week as it offers a different set of nutrients than other types of meat.
Myths about Eating Wild Game
Science does not support the idea that meat causes disease or that you can get all the protein you need from a plant-based diet. Meat is the top protein source and contains many of the minerals and vitamins you need. Adults require 60 to 90 grams of protein per day, more if they are physically active.
Elk and venison are two of the best sources for a healthy diet. As is the case with buckwheat, soy, and Quinoa, meat contains the nine essential amino acids you must have to build and maintain muscle.
Many people dislike game because it tastes intense, gamey, or sharp. It tastes like what the animal naturally consumes, and they prefer the subdued flavor of farm animals raised on a different diet. The secret lies in learning how to cook it properly.
Related: How To Prepare And Field Dress Wild Game
The same rule applies to the concern that venison, bear meat, and wildfowl contain worms, parasites, and a variety of bacteria or germs that can make you ill. The same problem may occur with pork if it is not handled and cooked correctly.
You need to know how to deal with venison. Do not eat it fresh. Freeze it to -4 degrees for no less than four days before you eat or process it into sausage or jerky. The process will kill any tapeworms or parasites in the meat.
So will cooking game meat and pork to 160 degrees Fahrenheit internal temperature and wildfowl to 165 degrees. Following these steps make pork and venison safe to consume.
Eat proteins and animal fats regularly to endure the extreme conditions you face in a survival situation. Hunting and nutritional knowledge are essential skills as survival circumstances drain your much-needed energy.
You can readily pursue and harvest small game, fish, and invertebrates such as crabs, lobsters, clams, snails, insects, and earthworms in such a situation. Doing so does not require weapons, and their quantity compensates for their small size.
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Plenty of goose around .
Nothing specific on Canadian Geese ?
The nutritional advice in the article sounds like it was written by some of LCC’s neighbors in the PDRK. Omega 3 and 6 ratios? Fat bad for me? Domestic meat tainted and carcinogenic? Fatty ribeye, burgers made from 80-20 chuck, chicken swimming in cream gravy, butter poached salmon, pork spareribs, some good Texas Vodka and a little bowl of green stuff is what a man needs. Given the choice throughout history no one eats game and foraged plant material if they can get their hands on a cheeseburger.
The most important thing to know about game in a SHTF is how to utilize every bit of fat, marrow, organ, and muscle meat, and how to preserve it. Finding and taking an animal can be very frustrating, and there are bad weather years when the game starves and isn’t fit to eat. It’s hard to do. I don’t hear any of the people in Louisiana whining about no food in the store planning to go shoot a gator or nutria or even collect some of the millions of crawdads that are probably popping out everywhere. Looks like everybody bought a generator but forgot the gas and are sitting all day in gas lines. What I don’t get is why the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service ignored Ida when it was a low pressure wave in the Caribbean. I’ve followed hurricanes and forecasting as a fan for decades and it was obvious a week before landfall a major hurricane was going to cross the Gulf and come ashore in Cajun Country. But they downplayed it until Thursday. Damn Government. There are over 3000 offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, thousands of miles of pipelines, huge LNG loading terminals, tens of thousands of workers. The oil companies employ private weather services instead of relying on the Government fools and they evacuated every worker in the Gulf before the low even crossed Cuba. But nobody prepares even when warned. The NWS did do a good job predicting the snow hit the fan storm that shut us down in Texas, they gave 4 days advance warning that the the whole state would be covered in snow and ice, almost nobody prepared. We were having a party every day feeling amazed (and a little guilty) that so many people were suffering and even dying by scores.
I had black bear steak and wild mushrooms for dinner once at a Hippie commune in North Carolina, one of the best meals I ever had. Note that the chart with the article rates black bear as the highest fat % of all the animals.
Canada geese can be hard to take and difficult to pluck, but easy to cook. Roast a whole bird like a Xmas turkey, but same as a turkey the breast cooks and dries out before the thighs are done. I split the breast, separate the thigh from the breast, marinate in light olive oil with cracked pepper and salt for a few hours, grill the breast to 135, the thigh to 145-160. Of course in a survival situation you waste nothing, there are tasty little pockets of dark meat along the back, bones used to make bone broth, the liver, gizzard and heart can be ground and mixed with pork trimmings to make a wonderful rich sausage.
My dear old Mom was an english teacher and birdwatcher and always wanted everybody to know the plural of Canada Goose is Canada Geese. Apologies…
I’ve often been asked what wild pig tastes like.
Truly, it tastes like pork.
Son & I harvested one in SW FLA when I lived there. Darker than domestic, leaner … and the sweetest meat I ever ate. We were coached to soak all the meat in icewater, in a Styrofoam cooler, which soaks the gaminess out of it.
Feral pork in farm country is good!!! Many years ago around 1985, I had a lease out in west Texas. The farmer who owned the property said kill them all, feed the buzzards and coyotes!!! The hogs were tearing up his crops bad. I spotted 15 hogs and I shot and vacated the brain cavities of four 150 pound (young stupid) hogs and had them processed at an FDA/USDA certified slaughter house in Abilene, TX. I was not exactly sure what kind of meat I was getting when I picked up two huge ice chests of frozen pork a week later.
OMG…the best pork I have ever put in my mouth. My wife said “No more venison!!!”
I had so much pork, I gave my boss and a several friends at work a few pounds each for Christmas…after the holidays, they ALL wanted more. I had way too much pork, so I gave it to them and some others who heard how good it was.
Field dressing feral hogs is risky due to the pathogens they can carry…so I was extra careful.
I also killed a 450 pound Boar that same weekend. He was rank, just told the farmer where it was, after he weighed it, he dragged it off with his tractor. The meat would have made us sick so did not even do that…but I wished I did not take him down with a head shot, his tusks were huge and would have been a great wall mount.
I still love my venison…but I try to bring home a young hog to keep the wife happy.
A friend of mine started working at the Alcoa Plant machine shop back around WW2. He once told me that one of his coworkers cooked a raccoon and brought it in for them to sample. Howard said he took a bite of it and the longer he chewed the bigger that bite of raccoon got. He passed on the rest of it.
Thank you! Doctors are recommending a carnivore diet and game animals are the best. Our ancestors may have started out as vegans but as generations passed, meat was the meal with things made of veggies and grain only treats. niio
What are the asterisks next to racoon and opossum ?
Indicating only eat if Totally Starving?
Peace
MadFab
MadFab clearly you have never visited a Southern Zoo. At both a Northern and Southern Zoo they have information about the animals habitat, what they eat, common and Latin names and so on.
But the Southern Zoo has Recipes 🙂
Not true but :-). Actually the chart says ** Information from other sources
Racoons are edible but like opossum they taste a LOT like their last few meals AND like Opossum you need to know how to remove the scent glands or meat is tainted. Still edible but “gamy taste”. Best in heavily peppered chilis and or used to feed your omnivorous chickens (they can’t get through the fur so cut the Racoon in half) or fish bait for fish traps (Karma for Racoons eh?)
Opossums are very edible but best caught LIVE then kept in a cage for a few days (like catfish in fresh water bucket, changed often and fed cracked corn to clean them out) and fed things like water and cracked corn. Clears out the nasty flavors then they taste pretty good. Like Nutria a swamp rat of amazing size. We even have them here in NH now.
If I had a choice between a live trapped opossum (+cracked corn or wild greens plus water) and squirrels I’d pick possum. Far more tasty meat and plenty of fat (something most survival diets are lacking) for a LOT less work. If you have an unlimited amount of time and 22 ammo go for it squirrel hunters 🙂 I can get them easily enough even trap them with a stairway to heaven loop snare set up but they are thin eating for all that effort.
Remember to plant some eyed potatoes with some care you’ll have a nice staple to go with all this meat, just saying.
Michael,
Yep I missed that in the article. Thanks for the heads up.
I’m not sure I will be able to eat opossum or rats when the world goes to S&@T, Hope that is Never a decision I have to make.
I’ll keep canning and dehydrating meats as long as I can. Thanks again.
Peace,
MadFab
We caught squirrels in rat traps and have-a-heart with peanut butter. We also watched where they buried acorns. They only bury black oak, the high tannin acorns. By spring the acorns were leached and starting to sprout. Man, they made good nut butter! niio
Excellent article with lots of useful information!
Could you do one on game fish next, please?
Many thanks!
may i shoot the ORGANIC IDEA in the foot here? I see many deer in the middle of corn and soybean fields here in south kentucky……….so what are they eating>?
They are eating gmo corn and gmo soy as i never see a stand of heirloom corn being planted by the farmers in areas over a few acres at best.
if u eat gmo then u cant be organic!
John Killen:
Excellent point. Also the omnipresent pollutants in the air and water supply, plus accidental ingestion of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers and other environmental toxins.
However, everything living is being exposed to these chemicals, and if you think that just because the label on your favorite “organic” cereal says “organic” that it’s so, then you’re in for a rude awakening.
Chemically contaminated “Franken-food” is everywhere now, no matter how careful you try to be. At least wild animals are not being subjected to the battery of dangerous medical treatments necessary to keep disease from wiping out commercially raised food animals, or to the miserable living conditions.
Your best bet for the safest meat is from small ranchers and farmers who are more careful about ensuring herds/flocks eat healthier food and are not over medicated and ethically raised. Or do it yourself.
But game is the next best bet, GMO eating deer or not for those reasons, IMHO.
Miz Kitty, true. support your local ag before it dries up. I can get beef from 2 different ranches. Same price, both irrigate pastures to finish Bossy. The one I order from, (name withheld :, down near Cascabel (Rattlesnake village) forgot the last time (to much viva tequila, you ask me). I asked his son, who must have said something to Mom. No, I’m sure she was respectful of his manly dignity but it took a week for the bruises to fade. Even with the biden Depression, they can’t keep up with orders. niio
This is a fantastic essay with a lot of important information!
Could you please do one on game fish next?
Thank you very much!
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