Eat Game Meat? Put your mind at ease!

[hare_assassin]

We've all heard it before. Some variation of one or more of the following myths:

- Rabbit/hare meat is a starvation food. You will die if that's all you eat.

- Deer is missing key proteins, so it is unhealthy to eat it all the time.

- Caribou has no nutritional value. You'll die if that's all you eat.

Based on scientific nutritional analysis that is readily available, you can now see for yourself that this is all complete horse shit! A balanced diet is key to good health, but eating any of these wild meats exclusively (along with other food groups) will not do anyone a bit of harm. In fact, compare them to domestic meats and it becomes obvious what the healthier choices are.

For example: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/lamb-veal-and-game-products/4650/2

Use the search function to find the game you like to eat, and then rest easy knowing that all those "wives tales" are exactly that.

[adriaticum]

Lol never heard those myths. Who do you hang out with...

[604redneck]

i have also never heard those myths......

[Mikey Rafiki]

Never heard of those either, but anyone knows you will eventually die if you just eat meat.

You will be so plugged up...... then....... BOOM! you just exploded.

[Gateholio]

i've never heard it either, but it's always good to have more nutritional information available. I've long advocated the nutritional benefits of game meat.

[Casagrande]

i've never heard it either, but it's always good to have more nutritional information available. I've long advocated the nutritional benefits of game meat.
And vast quantities of whiskey!

[albravo2]

I was taught in my CORE (taught my my high school science teacher) in 1981 that rabbit meat is too lean to survive on. He recommended skinning it and making a soup with the whole critter.

I remember it pretty well, I think I decided to starve to death on rabbit meat instead of spitting out poop pellets from my soup.

[Pioneerman]

Les Stroud mentioned the rabbit starvation on a episode where he was pretending as though he was in a small plane crash in Canada and caught a rabbit for food, before finding his way out

[Gateholio]

And vast quantities of whiskey!

Part of the essential food groups

Game meat
Beer
Whiskey

Everythign else is a condiment ;)

[hare_assassin]

Lol never heard those myths. Who do you hang out with...


i have also never heard those myths......


Never heard of those either, but anyone knows you will eventually die if you just eat meat.

You will be so plugged up...... then....... BOOM! you just exploded.


i've never heard it either, but it's always good to have more nutritional information available. I've long advocated the nutritional benefits of game meat.

Since moving to Kamloops a few years ago, I have heard several variations of this nonsense. It always comes from someone who is pretty good at sounding like they know something others don't know.

Despite knowing intuitively that they are wrong, I am glad to have somewhere to point them for the truth, rather than arguing with them about it (or laughing at them).

[Jimsue]

Here is an interesting read, google GREASE AND GUTS.............

[Stéphane]

Well, I just had to verify the rabbit theory, and here's the truth about it. According to the SASS Survival Guide, there was a case recorded by the Hudson Bay company were trappers who ate ONLY rabbit ended up dying of starvation. The reason being the body used up its own vitamin and minerals to digest the meat. (Scurvy?) Anyhow, simply eating vegetation would have ensured their survival (SASS - Rabbit Starvation)

[Foxton Gundogs]

I to have heard the starvation myths. In a survival situation all you have to do is eat the stomach content from game animals to ensure you get a "balanced" diet. Gross maybe but being dead is way more gross.

[hare_assassin]

I to have heard the starvation myths. In a survival situation all you have to do is eat the stomach content from game animals to ensure you get a "balanced" diet. Gross maybe but being dead is way more gross.

That is a fantastic tip! Once cooked, it would be like stuffing/dressing of some sort. Makes me want to include some sage and thyme in my survival kit! ;) :D

[hare_assassin]

Here is an interesting read, google GREASE AND GUTS.............

http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional-diets/guts-and-grease

Excellent! Thanks!

The points about "Rabbit Starvation" in that article are interesting, however in the modern world highly unlikely.

[BuckNaked]

snipped from wiki.

Rabbit starvation, also referred to as protein poisoning or mal de caribou, is a form of acute malnutrition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malnutrition) caused by excess consumption of any lean meat (e.g., rabbit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit)) coupled with a lack of other sources of nutrients usually in combination with other stressors, such as severe cold or dry environment. Symptoms include diarrhea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diarrhea), headache, fatigue, low blood pressure and heart rate, and a vague discomfort and hunger (very similar to a food craving (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_craving)) that can only be satisfied by consumption of fat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat) or carbohydrates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate).

basically its a combination of factors that include a lean meat, low fat diet. Not to say that if you were doing this when other factors such as extreme weather do not play a role, its effects would be less severe.

[mud-dog27]

snipped from wiki.

Rabbit starvation, also referred to as protein poisoning or mal de caribou, is a form of acute malnutrition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malnutrition) caused by excess consumption of any lean meat (e.g., rabbit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit)) coupled with a lack of other sources of nutrients usually in combination with other stressors, such as severe cold or dry environment. Symptoms include diarrhea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diarrhea), headache, fatigue, low blood pressure and heart rate, and a vague discomfort and hunger (very similar to a food craving (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_craving)) that can only be satisfied by consumption of fat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat) or carbohydrates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate).

basically its a combination of factors that include a lean meat, low fat diet. Not to say that if you were doing this when other factors such as extreme weather do not play a role, its effects would be less severe.

Ya beat me to it, As the rabbit one is the only "myth" ive heard before and i think OP was either misinformed or misunderstood. Its not that you will starve(however hunger like feeling is a symptom of protein poisoning....meaning you would maybe want to eat more) , but if you were to eat nothing but rabbit a very lean animal the high protein content would cause problems with your liver and kidneys which can result in you dieing.

[Brambles]

never heard that BS before.

[oldersniper]

"Wild Game" seems like an oxymoron to me... if it is "game" it has to be wild. Farming animals changes a lot of things. Add in this ... "gamey" taste is sooooo silly. So now pork is "swiney" beef is "boviny", referring to the specific animal helps educate city folk .. ie venison, moose

[hare_assassin]

Ya beat me to it, As the rabbit one is the only "myth" ive heard before and i think OP was either misinformed or misunderstood. Its not that you will starve(however hunger like feeling is a symptom of protein poisoning....meaning you would maybe want to eat more) , but if you were to eat nothing but rabbit a very lean animal the high protein content would cause problems with your liver and kidneys which can result in you dieing.

I was neither misinformed nor did I misunderstand. It is many others that I know or have known who are the misinformed, which is what I stated.

For example, there are 5 people off the top of my head that I could call right now and ask "Hey, remember you were telling me something about caribou (deer, moose, rabbit, whatever) meat a while back... what was that again?" And they would respond "Yep, it's missing a key protein..." or "Yep, no nutritional value, everyone who knows anything will tell you the same".

It's funny, because some of them are even people who I would consider to have above-average intelligence.