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“In 1986, we published our findings on purslane,
indicating that it is the richest source of Omega 3 fatty acids of any
green leafy vegetable yet examined... On the Ampelistra farm in Greece,
purslane is plentiful and grows wild; the chickens make a feast of it,
along with insects and lots of fresh green grass, supplemented with
fresh
and dried figs, barley flour, and small amounts of corn. We were
therefore
interested in the Omega 3 fatty acid content of the eggs from these
hens.
As we expected, the eggs contained substantial amounts of Omega 3 fatty
acids.”
Dr. Simopoulos and Dr. Norman Salem, Jr.in an article in The
New England Journal of Medicine.
Substantial amounts in fact! The Greek egg had an omega-6 to omega-3
ratio of 1.3 to 1, whereas a “supermarket egg” had a ratio of
almost
20 omega-6 to 1 omega-3.
The question remains, do eggs have a very high omega-6 and low
omega-3
ratio because of the high omega-6 content of some of their feed
components
and the lack of acccess to insects and herbage? Common sense says they
do. Eggs contain some of the beneficial 'conjugated linoleic acid' that
is found in grass fed meat, but do they contain as much as wild jungle
fowl eggs do? These questions are almost totally irrelevant to feeding
the masses; but very relevant to human health. Guess you can't have
both?
That's what these pages are about!
Our ancestors did not agonize over the 'cholesterol content' of eggs.
They simply wolfed them down before some other family member demanded a
share! The modern egg/cholesterol scare was started by a flawed 1965
study.
Cholesterol expert Dr. John Allred, professor of nutrition at Ohio
State
University, points to the many clinical studies done on humans in the
last
ten years which have demonstrated that cholesterol in eggs has very
little
effect on a normal healthy person's blood cholesterol levels.
Uncooked hen's egg white contains conalbumin, a protein which binds
to iron. In a diet including red meat, this is no problem. Raw egg
white
also contains 'avidin', which binds to the B vitamin biotin, and can
interfere
with the metabolism of other B-vitamins. But it has been estimated that
you would need to eat 20 raw eggs per day (!) for several weeks
to create a biotin deficiency. Again, no problem.
Most natural modern production methods:
Organic chicken: In some countries, such as the USA, it is
currently
illegal to put a label on a dead chicken saying it is 'organic'. In the
case of the USA, this is because the US Department of Agriculture want
to regulate (regulate means 'make regular'- some uncertified 'organic'
products are decidely irregular in the view of official 'organic'
certifying
bodies!) the use of the word 'organic'. So it has to decided to define
what 'organic' means-which may not be what the 'organic' movement,
whose
word it is, says it means!(see our
opinion on this issue). Farms themselves, however, may be
certified
as being 'organic'. The certifying is done by the relevant organic
association
or organisation of the country. So chicken or eggs from a certified
'organic'
farm may be regarded as 'organic' chicken or 'organic' eggs. Typically,
this means no chemicals are used on the farm, feed grain is organically
grown (i.e.free of all chemical residues), the diet is often
supplemented
with mineral rich seaweeds and naturally occurring mined minerals. So
'organic'
will often mean the environment and feed is free of all chemicals, and
antibiotic 'growth enhancers' are not fed. These are food safety
issues,
and the fat profile is not necessarily any closer to the wild animals
fat
profile than any other broiler house chicken. But, all things being
equal,
it is more likely to be. The 'organic' belief system seems to
include
a wider concern for 'more natural' conditions. Accordingly, broilers
are
more likely to have access to pasture and sunlight (industrial broilers
in temperate and warm temperate areas usually see direct sun twice-once
as they are wheeled into the sheds as hatchlings, and once when they
are
transported to the slaughterhouse. Otherwise, lighting is artificial
and
subdued, to keep the animals quiet and not waste energy).
So called 'organic' chickens may-or may not-be additionally 'free
range'
or 'free roam'.
Free range chicken: This is a highly variable term. The essence
of it is that the chickens walk around outside on pasture. The
variables
are:
How often do they 'free range outside the shed? Every day? Once a week?
For how long? One hour? Four hours? Half a day?
How many chickens actually manage to get outside? How many egress holes
are there for how many (thousand!) chickens? How big is the pasture
yard
they are all trying to fit into? Practically, how often would any one
bird
get outside? And for how long?
What are they free ranging on? A post rain mud yard? Pecked over, dung
supressed grass? Fresh pastures? Mixed grasses and pasture 'herbs'?
Again, there is no carefully written and regularly enforced standard.
Again, the purview of an official 'organic' certifying body has become
the de facto mechanism to tend towards meaningfulness when a grower
claims
to sell 'free range' chickens.
Free roam chicken: In relation to broiler
chickens, this is, in my opinion, a wonderful piece of euphimistic
'marketing speak', designed to allay the concerns of animal welfarists.
It usually means the chickens "are free to move about in the building".
Well, so long as the lights are on, of course they are free to move
over
to the feeding and watering stations. But they grow so rapidly that by
the time they are ready to be harvested, they have very little room
indeed
to 'freely' move around. Whether you think there is anything wrong with
that is your own value judgement. But in the normal commercial broiler
shed context, do not necessarily infer that the chickens are wandering
around in spacious surrondings or have access to pasture. 'Free roam'
for
broiler chickens is not a useful term...
Eggs, free roam
...but for egg producers, it is. Most eggs are produced by 'battery
hens' in fairly small wire cages. There is some strongly held opinion
that
such conditions are cruel. Whether or not battery egg production is
cruel,
most reasonable people would agree that enabling hens to freely roam
within
a building is better. However, this is an animal welfare issue, and
makes
no real difference to the nutrional value of the eggs. Hens eggs from
farm
yard chickens generally have a rich orange yolk, due to the natural
carotenes
they derive from the grass, herbage and clover they eat. Commercially
produced
eggs have to have some of the same nature identical chemicals added to
the feed to create the same color. Is the battery hen's egg any less
'natural'
in composition than the farm yard one? No one has done an analysis of a
jungle fowl self feeding in the wild vs. a battery hen egg, but if
there
is any significant difference, I suspect it won't be great. But I may
be
wrong.
Eggs, hens, free range
'Free Range' is evocative of hens wandering around outside, and coming
into a shed to lay eggs with naturally richly colored yolks.There are
very
few commercial egg producers that operate this way. Again, 'free range'
can mean many different things on a sliding scale of 'freedom'. To
produce
eggs on a commercially viable scale, free range hens are more usually
kept
in large houses of around 8,000 birds, fed inside, 'debeaked' (a small
portion of the upper beak is clipped when still a chicken) to prevent
pecking,
and only allowed limited access outside. If all the birds had unlimited
access at all times, under this version of free range, then the pasture
would quickly become a quagmire. As with battery egg production, the
sheds
are lit to stimulate the secretion of egg laying hormones. There is
insufficient
green material available to the birds to allow a natural carotene
coloring
to the yolks, so carotenes still have to be added to the feed to
produce
a nice deep yellow or orange yolk. Do the hens have a more natural way
of life? Definitely. Do the eggs they produce have a more natural
nutritional
profile? Personally, I doubt it..
Commercial
Broiler Chicken Production in USA J
An outline by the USA humane society, so somewhat partisan, and
doesn't discuss feed components directly.
http://www.hsus.org/programs/farm/chickens/chickcontract.html
Sheep Ovis aries
lamb
(from birth to weaning at about 3 and a half months), hogget (a weaned
lamb until about 1 year old, male or female), wether (a male animal
whose
testicle have been removed), ram, ewe, mutton (a sheep past hogget
stage).
The ancestor of the domestic sheep is the South
West Asian mouflon, or Urial, Ovis orientalis. The mouflon
sheep,
Ovis musimon, once thought to be the ancestor, is considered to
be an early primitive domesticate that has returned to the wild. Other
wild species, such as the bighorn, Ovis canadensis in western
North
America; and Dall's sheep, Ovis dalli in northern Canada and
Alaska,
have never been domesticated. If the dometicated Ovis aries had
not been introduced to North America, then chances are the native
bighorn
and Dall's sheep would eventually have been domesticated by the
indigenous
people. The urial, Ovis vignei of Afghanistan and Pakistan; and
the argali, Ovis ammon in eastern Asia have not been
domesticated
in themselves, altho' it is possible they may have contributed to the
genetic
makeup of some domestic breeds.
We first domesticated this wild animal about 10,000 years ago (400
human generations ago, if you count a new 'generation' as occuring
every
25 years), possibly in the uplands of present day Syria or Iraq. With
the
pig, this is probably one of the very first animals the human animal
domesticated.
Domesticated sheep are smaller than their wild ancestors, most have
lost their horns, and there have been changes in wool, color, ear shape
and size, and so on.
Evolutionary suitability to human nutrition:
We have been eating sheep ever since some of us migrated out
of Africa. The ancestral sheep were probably not restricted to
mountainous
areas, and because of the sheep's ability to survive dry conditions,
mountain
and plain, heat and cold, we would have found it wherever we radiated
to.
Some people claim sheepmeat to be the least allergenic of all meat (for
those very small numbers of people afflicted with food allergies). This
may - or may not - be linked to our very long association with sheep.
Most natural modern production methods:
Organic Lamb: Grass fed animals that are not dipped, sprayed,
or dermally dosed with insecticides are the closest to the animals our
ancestors hunted. There is no one phrase that encompasses such a
production
method. The closest to it is certified 'organic' meat.
This
goes beyond simply not applying insecticides, or giving medicines, it
includes
a philosophical regime prohibiting the use of 'artificial' fertilisers
on the pasture.
Natural Lamb: The next best class would be soley grass fed
animals
that are not given insecticide dips. In many countries sheep can be
attacked
by blow flies hatching their maggots in the wool, especially near the
rump.
These 'fly struck' animals must be sprayed or dipped with insecticides.
In the production of 'Natural lamb' these animals would be removed from
the flock once treated. Very often 'natural raised' animals will also
be
refused medicines such as worm medicine, and will be removed from the
flock
if they need to be treated with antibiotics, altho' there is no good
human
health reason for this to be done. Growth promoting hormones are not
used
on sheep. Again, 'natural lamb' can mean different things according to
who is producing and promoting it, as there are no universal and
defined
standards. Commonsense would suggest grass fed lamb, vaccinated against
disease and treated against worms if required, but not treated with
insecticides
and not fed grain rations, would most closely mimic the qualities of
the
meat of wild living mouflon.
Grass fed Lamb: This is a bit of an tautology, as almost all
'lamb' is grass fed. Generally, once a lamb is weaned, and until it is
one year old it is still regarded as being a lamb (altho' called a
'hogget'
in Australasia), albeit a 40kg/88lb lamb! In parts of the USA, lambs
that
don't make sufficient weight to be marketed may be grain fed to bring
them
up to marketable size. The same is true of other countries when there
are
adverse conditions, such as prolonged drought. The marked flavor of
sheepmeat
doesn't develop until the animals start feeding on grass. People unused
to sheep meat often modify the flavor with strong herbs such as
rosemary,
Rosmarinus officianalis, but once accustomed to the excellent
sheep
taste, no longer bother.
Milk fed Lamb: lamb until it is weaned at around 3 months or
so. Those used to eating sheep meat regard animals killed at this stage
as having no flavor!
Bits
Muscle meat
The sweetest sheep meat is said to come from the 'suffolk' breed.
Flavor
is influenced by the protein content of the pasture
(excess protein causing stronger and 'off' flavors), the kind of
pasture
(the grass 'cocksfoot' Dactylis glomerata giving the most
neutral
and nicest taste, 'canary grass' Phalaris sp. pastures tending
to
strong flavors) and the breed. There are also sheep grazed on salt
brush
and salt marsh (usually Merino) which give a particular and highly
desirable
flavor to the meat. This is usually marketed as a premium meat at a
premium
price.
Ground lamb (USA), Lamb Mince (UK, Australasia)
Rarely found, but as grass fed lamb is so high in CLA's, and grilling
causes CLA's to increase manyfold, 'lamburgers' may be one of the most
healthful meats!
Testicles
Unobtainable unless you know a farmer-and help with the castration
of the male lambs-'mountain oysters' are a rare connoisseurs treat,
and,
like most organ meats, highly nutritious.
The
Natural History of North American Mountain Sheep JJJJJ
An excellent and comprehensive page by the
Canadian Wildlife Service describing the species and sub species of
mountain
sheep, their life history, feeding habits, distribution and history,
and
future in conflict with man.
http://www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/hww-fap/mtnsheep/mtnsheep.html
Pig Sus scrofa
Porker (younger pig producing the tenderest meat), baconer (older pig
with
bigger back legs producing good sized hams)
The ancestor of the domestic pig was the wild boar which ranged from
North Africa through Eurasia. We have not made the wild boar extinct,
and
are unlikely to. The wild boar was independantly domesticated in China,
Western Eurasia, and possibly in other areas as well. We first
domesticated
this wild animal about 10,000 years ago. (400 human generations ago, if
you count a new 'generation' as occuring every 25 years). No other wild
pig (peccaries in South America, Warthog etc in Africa) has been found
to be domesticable; with one minor exception. The Celebes Wild Swine, Sus
celebensis, was domesticated in a small way in Sulawesi, Indonesia,
and progeny from the hybrid of S. celebensis and S. scrofa
was the main ancestoral line of the domestic pigs of Papua New Guinea.
The pig, like us, is an omnivore. It could be left to grow on a
combination
of human provided scraps, and self foraging in the local area. Pigs can
use food sources such as acorns, fern roots, grass, earthworms, and
rotting
meat that are unavailable or unattractive to humans. So there was
little
competition between us two omnivores. Even today, some pigs are fed
'garbage'
- food scraps from restaurants and institutions, past the 'use by
date' dairy products, nuts, and bread from supermarkets, and like foods
(the food scraps suitably sterilized by boiling, of course).
The same applies to chickens and pigs. Very few chickens and pigs have
access to grass, and their fat profiles tend to reflect the grains and
fats included in their feed.
The wild boar is a hard living animal, and it can become very lean
when times are bad, and when the sow is feeding her litter. Wild boar
in
temperate forested areas do best and lay on most fat in autumn when
nuts
such as acorns are falling. Wild boar meat is variably lean, depending
on the season. The overall average fat content of the muscle meat is
about
4%. The average fat content of barn raised pig muscle meat (untrimmed)
is 35%. Pigs are good grazers. It would be reasonable to assume
pastured
pigs (even with supplements) would have an internediate fat content. If
you can get it/afford it, grass raised pork is the closest we can get
to
the wild animal. However, grass fed pigs is effectively non-existant,
because
while the pig is a very good grazer, it is an omnivore, and needs more
concentrated sources of protein and carbohydrate than grass alone can
provide.
Evolutionary suitability to human nutrition:
We have been eating pig species in Africa (in the East African
uplands there was the 'forest bush pig', Potamochoerus porcus,
and
the woodland warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus, for example) and
'out of Africa' since our evolution as a species; altho' it is
questionable
how successful we would have been hunting a relatively small, but fast
moving and dangerously tusked animal.
Most natural modern production methods:
Organic Pork: The closest to wild pork is certified
'organic' pork. This goes beyond simply not applying insecticides, or
giving
medicines, it includes a philosophical regime prohibiting the use of
'artificial'
fertilisers on the pasture, and is hard to find. Any pigs, grass fed
(which
often goes with the organic concept) or not, will have been fed
concentrates.
In the case of 'organic' pigs, the meal would have been prepared from
organically
raised grains. The fat compostion of pigs can be changed perhaps more
than
any other animal according to it's food source. In the old days, pigs
fed
almost exclusively on whole maize often ended up with a very soft body
fat, and had to be fed other grains for a period before slaughter to
harden
up the highly valued lard.
Discussion: Like all meats, pork is a good food, but as it
cannot
be soley grass raised, maize and soya beans in the feed may create an
'over
abundance' of omega-6 fatty acids, and a relative undersupply of
omega-3
fatty acids relative to the ratio best suited to humans. The problem is
solved by using lower fat cuts, fat trimmed cuts, and supplement with
omega-3
tablets or fish with high levels of omega-3, such as sardines.
African and Asian Wild Pigs descriptions and notes
The following further references are to pages on Brents Huffmans
excellent
'Ultimate Ungulate'
Site:
South East Asian Babirusa Babyrousa babyrussa
http://www.pathcom.com/~dhuffman/babirusa.html
South East Asian Bearded Pig Sus barbatus http://www.pathcom.com/~dhuffman/beardedpig.html
African Red River Hog Potamochoerus porcus http://www.pathcom.com/~dhuffman/riverhog.html
Eurasian Wild Boar Sus scrofa http://www.pathcom.com/~dhuffman/wildboar.html
Turkey Meleagris
gallopavo
First domesticated in MesoAmerica from the flocks that roamed the North
American continent and Mexico.
Evolutionary suitability to human nutrition:
All birds, and most probably particularly gallinaceous birds, have
been, and are, prey to the human animal.
Most natural modern production methods:
All the comments applying to chickens can be applied to turkeys, as
they are raised essentially the same way. We don't regard the turkey as
an egg producing bird, however. Presumably for historical reasons.
Rabbit Oryctolagus
cuniculus Cony, ( Also Nesolagus sp., Pronolagus
sp.,
Caprolagus.sp) Hare Lepus sp.
The domestic meat rabbit is derived from the common European and north
African rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus. In South Africa, our
ancestors
may well have hunted the greater red rock hare, Pronolagus
crassicaudatus,
now found only in the Natal and Cape Province, as well as the still
widespread
Cape hare, Lepus capensis, and scrub hare, L. saxatilis.
Obviously, when we radiated out of Africa and turned left into Europe,
we found our familiar rabbit and similar hare (the European hare,
L. europaeus, the largest of the hares). When we turned right
into Asia we again found rabbits. There was an Asian rabbit, Nesolagus
sp. (recently re-discovered and species yet to be assigned) in the
forests of South East Asia, the related Sumatran short eared rabbit, N.
netscheri; the Assam rabbit, Caprolagus hispidus, and
others.
No doubt Homo sapiens ate them all, as we diffused thru' the
region.
Evolutionary suitability to human nutrition:
The rabbit is the only rodent we in the West eat regularly (hares are
extremely rarely available in the market). Yet bush rats and various
savannah
rodents would have been far more likely to have been caught and
consumed
(along with other small game) by our ancestors than the prestiguous
'big
game' animals. Accordingly, rabbits ought to be a prized component of a
re-constructed 'evolutionarily correct' diet.
Presumably because they were so abundant in the wild (thus the saying
'breed like rabbits'), rabbits were not domesticated for food until the
middle ages.
Rabbits have extraordinarily little fat on them, about 2%. While
domesticated
rabbits are twice as fat, at about 5%, they are still lean eating.
Most natural modern production methods:
The only commercial meat rabbits are those that are caged and fed
pellets.
As the rabbit is an herbivore, the pellets are comprised chiefly of
plant
material, particularly alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and grains. As
the rabbit is so extraordinarily lean, there is unlikely to be much
compositional
difference between the wild and the farmed versions.
Curiously, altho' rabbits can be in plague proportions in the warm
temperate and temperate areas of Australasia, they are shot and
poisoned
rather than harvested for food.
Rare
South East Asian rabbit JJ
pictures and history of the recently discovered South East Asian rabbit.
Ducks
Ducks have been domesticated with less enthusiasm than jungle fowl,
probably because they are 'tied' to water, and because harvesting wild
ducks is relatively easy compared to keeping them. The Chinese were
probably
the first to domesticate ducks, but the date is uncertain. The
domesticated
duck is largely derived from the mallard Anas platyrhynchos.
The
large and rather strongly flavored South American muscovy duck, Cairina
moschata, was domesticated by the Aztecs.
Evolutionary suitability to human nutrition:
There is little doubt that our ancestors exploited the 100 or so duck
species of the world, whether through taking eggs or adult birds. The
duck
has good amounts of nutritious yellow fat at the right time of year,
and
a substantial amount of protein in it's breast meat.
Most natural modern production methods:
Young ducks are grown for the market in a somewhat similar fashion
to broiler chickens; and like chickens, they can have quite a high fat
content, especially under the skin. Again, the fat content (with a
ratio
of omega-6 fats to omega-3 of about 12:1) may not have the same fatty
acid
profile as the wild duck, but it is of no consequence as duck is such a
passing small component of the average person's diet. Many people in
North
America and Australasia are more likely to eat wild duck than
domesticated
duck anyway.
Quail Coturnix sp.
These small birds range right across Europe and Asia, South East ASia
and Australasia.
Evolutionary suitability to human nutrition:
They will long have been food for humans (when they can be caught)
as some of us radiated out of Africa. These birds are so small that
they
don't make much of a meal ( compared with their larger cousins, the
partridges),
but because they often form quite large groups, any effective trapping
techniques may have caught useful numbers. Some species are migratory,
and it is known that North African people have found birds recently
arrived
from Europe an easy prey. In fact, some exhausted birds literally fall
out of the sky. A seasonal harvest for our North African ancestors.
Farmed quail have significantly more omega-3 fatty acids in their fat
than farmed Turkey or Chicken, which makes them particularly desirable.
Whether wild quail have even more omega-3 is a moot point, but quail,
wth
their predominant monosaturated fats, and their superior omega-3
content,
are a bird of choice-for those who can afford them.
Eggs
The comments about chicken eggs largely
apply, except that quail eggs are usually available only as pickled
eggs.
Of course, these can only be an occasional item of comestation (like
that
word?!), partly due to espense, and partly due to the inadvisability of
eating large amounts of pickled anything. Quail egg shells are too
small,
too erratic in prodution, and too thin shelled to appear as a regular
grocery
item. Too bad. A female Japanese quail will lay around 300 eggs a year.
Most natural modern production methods:
Quail can only be farmed in low cages, usually stacked in tiers in
a warm building. This is partly due to the need to maximise the number
of birds per square metre, given their tiny size, and partly due to the
fact that quail that are disturbed have a defense mechanism of flying
straight
up-at speed. Birds raised in a high roofed outside enclosure tend to be
able to pick up enough speed to scalp themselves when they hit the roof
netting. Quail are fed compounded feed, as are broiler chickens, with
the
adults needing more vegetation (such as alfalafa) based feed than the
young.
Overall, farmed quail can probably be regarded as not veru far removed
in lipid profile from wild quail.
Geese Anser anser
and
Cygnopsis cygnoides
The breeds of domestic gooose in the West are probably derived from
the wild graylag goose, Anser anser. The large Chinese
domestic
goose is probably derived from the Chinese wild goose Cygnopsis
cygnoid.
Domestication dates are hazy, with the timing being "at least from
Neolithic times".
Evolutionary suitability to human nutrition:
Wild geese are fatty, especially in the autumn season, but nothing
like as fatty as domestic geese. The reason, in part, is that most wild
geese are migratory, and burn off the fat in their epic journeys. Our
ancestors
would have been as fond of geese as of duck; and goslings are both fat
and tender, in contrast to the adult bird, which is generally tough.
Because
of their grass grazing habit, it is quite possible that their fats will
include useful amounts of both omega-3 fats and possibly the healthful
'conjugated linoleic acid'.
Most natural modern production methods:
There is effectively no commercial production of geese. They are a
bird of a fast disappearing peasant farming lifestyle. They are
efficient
converters of grain to meat, but most importantly, they are grass
grazers.
They can grow and fatten on grass and the insects they find for
themselves,
without any supplementary feed. Apart from the geese force fed on
grains
to create the fatty liver ('foie gras') beloved by gourmets (with deep
pockets!), most geese will still be grass fed with some supplemental
grains.
Accordingly, they are likely to have a similar nutritional profile to
the
wild geese our ancestors ate. Again, many people will never eat geese
unless
they shoot a wild one themselves, or know a hunter.
Beefalo Bison bison
x Bos primigenius (Plains Bison/domestic cattle hybrid)
Evolutionary suitability to human nutrition:
Our ancestors killed and ate both the wild Aurochs and the European
woodland bison (which was once widespread over all Europe - including
parts
of England- and Russia). Beefalo are a hybrid of the plains bison and
cattle.
The plains bison evolved from an ancestral European species (Bison
priscus,
the Steppe bison of the mid-Pleistocene - around about 800,000 years
ago)
which gave rise to the European woods bison, Bison bonasus, and
which (B. priscus) also crossed the Bering Straits landbridge in
ancient times to establish the Northern Forest and the well -known
Plains
bison lineages. They are therefore as natural a food for humans as the
species from which they are derived.
Most natural modern production methods:
The comments under 'Cattle beasts' apply equally to beefalo. Beefalo
are also 'grain finished' in many cases to lay down intermuscular fat
for
tenderness. For bison, grass fed bison have a ratio of Omega 6 to Omega
3 of 4, where 4 or less is considered ideal ( Simopoulos, A. and
Robinson, Jo. 'The Omega Plan'. Harper Collins, 1998 ). Grain fed bison
can have a ratio of 23.4. Clearly, grass fed is to be preferred where
it
is available.
Beefalo
JJJJ meat from a hybrid
between
bison and cattle is significantly different from beef. This page from
the
Greater Michigan Beefalo Association has some interesting comparisions
- including the claim that beefalo muscle meat contains vitamin C,
where
other domestic meats don't.
http://www.virtualcities.com/trade/f/bf/8/tfbf8612.htm
Buffalo,
hunter gatherer preparation JJJJJ
An excellent exposition of how buffalo were harvested and eaten,
down to the last detail. This way of eating is likely the natural way
of
our ancestors, whether European or American Plains bison or other large
grazing animal; no matter how revolting we urbanised peoples find it.
Not
suitable for young children.
http://www.nativeweb.org/NativeTech/essays/buffalo.html
European
Woods Bison, Bison bonasus - JJJJ
very good photographs of the herd in Bialowieza Primeval Forest,
Poland.
http://bison.zbs.bialowieza.pl/puszcza/zubry.htm
Horse muscle tissue has substantial stores of glycogen, an instantly
available form of carbohydrate energy. Presumably this is needed to
power
the horses flight reaction - it may run at speed for many kilometres to
escape a predator. The result is that the flesh is both slightly
sweetish
in taste, and possibly a useful energy source. Apart from it not being
as dangerous an animal as the Auroch, it was possibly easy to kill by
panicking
it over cliffs, or into pit traps. No wonder we seem to have preferred
horse.
While the domestic horse derived from a undetermined wild ancestor(s)
has thrived, the only still extant true wild species (i.e.not feral
domestic
horses), the Asian 'Przewalski horse', almost went extinct in historic
times.
In spite of it's leaness, excellent nutritional value, and our long
evolutionary history of eating this meat, very few Western people eat
this
ancestral food animal. In Europe, horse meat is only relatively common
in Belgium, and to a lesser extent, Sweden and and France (where
specialist horse butcher shops were once common - the meat was
primarily
bought for its 'health giving properties', and was quite expensive.
'Healthful'
or not, horse meat - like pig and bear meat - can carry the parasite
that
causes 'trichinosis' (Trichinella spiralis), and therefore it
ought
not be eaten raw).
Most natural modern production methods:
Grass fed horse meat would most likely have the evolutionary correct
fat profiles. The wild horse ate grasses and bulbs, and lived in a
fairly
marginal environment, so it was probably only seasonally fat. When
horse
meat is available, it may have had some grain feeding, chiefly oats or
similar high carbohydrate food, but probably was still chiefly grass
fed,
except where old or 'broken down' racehorses are used - often fed
grains
and pellets. Soley grass grazed horse meat would have the most natural
biochemical composition of fats, but even in France, where horses are
still
sometimes raised as a meat animal, they may be 'fattened' off grass
before
slaughter. Some of the Belgian and French horsemeat is now imported
from
horse 'feedlots' in USA and Canada.
Przewalski Horse,
JJJJ the wild species
from
which domestic horses were once thought to have arisen. This was the
predominant
source of meat for our European ancestors in part of our evolutionary
history.
Few people eat this meat animal today. One page fact sheet giving
history,
description, and prospects for the future. Some nice photos.
http://cyberfair.gsn.org/dshs/horse.html#bre
Przewalski
Horse, from the Oklahoma State University 'Breeds
of
Livestock' site. Very good information on the history of the discovery
of this breed, and information on it's genetic relationship to the
domestic
horse. Some very good pictures, as well.
http://pc200.anmsci.okstate.edu/BREEDS/HORSES/PRZEW/index.htm
Paper Reading-list
of books & scientific papers to buy or find at the library
(links
to internet sources of the book or paper are included where available)
Koizumi, I., Y. Suzuki, et al. 1991. 'Studies on the fatty acid
composition of intramuscular lipids of cattle, pigs and birds.'
Journal Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo) 37(6): 545-54.
Wendorf, F.; Schild R.1994. 'Are the early Holocene cattle
in the eastern Sahara domestic or wild?'
Evolutionary Anthropology 3(4): 118-128
Corrections and comments please! This information is derived from a
variety of sources, and where there are errors of fact, I would
appreciate
being told! email to meat corrections
The author rejects any
responsibility
for any decisions about life, diet, or anything else other than his
own.
Any action you take after reading the material here is solely your
responsibility
- seek advice from others, read critically and widely, don't accept
everything
you read here. You have been warned! Question everything.
Form your own opinion on
these matters after reading widely and consulting appropriate
professional
advice, including advice of medical practitioners and professional
nutritionists.
Remember, there are many
'crackpot' sites on the Internet, and, although I don't believe this is
one of them, it is only my opinion!