Wild game, fish can be a healthy part of diet

Jeff Helsdon

Advocate Correspondent

In today’s society where the majority of Canadians live in urban centres and no longer have a connection to rural areas, more is lost than just a connection to the land.

Not that long ago, many of the people living in cities were only a generation or two away from rural living. They had parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles, who lived on the farm or were hunters and anglers living in rural areas. If they didn’t know about wild game and fishing, they knew about grass-fed beef, barnyard chickens and the cycle of life.

Fast-forward a few decades and much has changed. To many today, beef, pork or chicken all comes in foam trays in the grocery store, or is processed and boxed. This is also a time when eating red meat is frowned on by many health organizations due to the higher fat content. But there are alternatives.

Wild game and fish is not the same as store-bought red meat. It is lower in fat and higher in important nutrients. I also believe that wild game, and grass-fed domestic livestock, is what humans have eaten for centuries and our digestive systems have evolved to consider that normal.

Science has looked at this topic and backed this assertion. Bruce Watkins of Purdue University and anthropologist Loren Cordain of Colorado State University completed a study that looked at the role of dietary fat and its nutritional analysis in modern food versus what ancient hunter-gatherer societies ate. Using detailed chemical analysis, they looked at the meat people ate 10,000 years ago and compared it to modern livestock fed a diet of oilseed-based feed. Their conclusion was wild game like venison or elk, and grass-fed beef, contain fats that are healthy, and can lower cholesterol and reduce chronic disease risk.

More specifically, a healthy diet should have the right mix of Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats. In the right quantity, Omega-3 can reduce cardiovascular disease, but too much can increase stroke risk. Omega-6 is an essential fat, but too much can contribute to inflammatory reactions from chronic disease.

Watkins said the fatty acid ratio in wild ruminants is similar to the Omega-3 levels in fish that are recommended by the American Heart Association to reduce cardiovascular disease. In other research, Cordain looked at the few remaining hunter-gatherer societies that remain and found heart disease, high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes are rare in those people.

Canada’s Food Guide does not get into the detail that Cordain and Watkins’ study did, but it does recommend lean cuts of meat, and mentions “most wild game, such as bison, caribou, deer, elk and moose.”

Fall is the time of the year when most harvesting takes place for hunters. It’s also the time that anglers may consider cooking more of the fish they have caught over the summer. Proper preparation can be more important with leaner cuts of meat, as it dries out quicker than fattier cuts. The key is not to overcook if it’s on a barbecue, frying pan or oven.

It’s hard to beat venison tenderloin, cut thin and cooked with spices on the barbecue or in a frying pan. For the more elaborate, and slightly less healthy, venison tenderloins or backstrap can be treated the same as filet mignon, and wrapped in bacon. This is definitely barbecue material.

A long user of Fish Crisp for fish, I discovered a superior dry breading material this summer. Taylor’s One Step takes the same concept and improves on taste.

It’s time to enjoy what has been harvested.