From a November 18, 2007 column in the Morgantown Dominion Post
I’ve been eating deer meat all of my life. My dad was a public school teacher and mom a part-time secretary. Needless to say, with four children, that deer meat was extremely important to our family. We didn’t eat it because it was healthy, although it was. No, we ate deer meat because it tasted good, was inexpensive, and it filled the freezer.
In my later years finances have not been anywhere near as bleak as in my youth, but we still consume one-two deer per year. Yes, it still tastes great, but we also eat deer meat because it is healthy. There have been a number of studies documenting this and I want to summarize a few.
At Kansas State University they compared 3.5 ounces of beef to the same amount of deer meat. Deer meat had 158 calories, but the beef contained 40 percent more. Deer meat had 1.25 grams of saturated fat and 112 mg of cholesterol. Beef contained 223 percent more fat and 125 percent more cholesterol. Lean beef did a bit better with 31 percent more calories, 189 percent more fat, and 118 percent more cholesterol. From this one comparison, it is quite obvious that deer meat is healthy food. Oh yes, though this study did not mention it, my guess is that there were no chemical additives in the deer meat. Hmmm....good.
From the following table, you can see how deer meat compares to beef, pork and other wild game. This North Dakota State University study also showed that deer had much lower amounts of fat. Elk, moose, caribou and antelope did too. Saturated fat in all wild game was far lower than for beef or pork. Same for the caloric content. Although not shown in the table, deer, elk and moose also had a tad more protein than beef, but in this study, the cholesterol content of deer meat was about one-third higher than beef. Interestingly, elk and moose meat had about the same amount of cholesterol as beef. I love elk and moose meat. You would too.
Nutrient comparisons of various big game animals and beef and pork in 3 ounces per serving.
Species Calories Total Fat (gms) Saturated Fat
Beef 259 18 7
Pork 214 13 5
Deer 134 3 1
Elk 124 2 1
Moose 114 1 0
Caribou 142 4 1
Antelope 127 2 1
A study done at the University of Missouri provides even more reasons to eat venison. In a 3 ounce serving of beef, there were 184 calories, 3 grams of saturated fat, and 73 mg of cholesterol. Pork was almost identical in content to beef as was roasted chicken. Roasted deer meat had 134 calories, 1 gm of total fat and 95 mg. of cholesterol. For all you wild turkey hunters, 3 ounces of uncooked turkey had 121 calories, no saturated fat and only 55 mg of cholesterol. Michigan State University research was the same. Fewer calories, much less total and saturated fat, and just a bit higher in cholesterol.
So, what is the bottom line here? Clearly, heart doctors would love for all their patients to switch to wild game diets. Indeed a study done at Colorado State University looked at blood from people who ate big game meat for six weeks. Before and after comparisons showed lower total cholesterol, lower proportions of good and bad cholesterol (interesting since the content is a bit higher in deer meat), and much lower triglycerides. This sounds like healthy food to me.
Vegetarians often talk about the unhealthy impacts of meat in their diets. Maybe so, but from all studies I found (and the results were quite similar in all those studies), it would appear that indeed, eating wild meat is just plain good for you. In many states, including our own, hunters donate thousands of pounds of deer meat to homeless shelters, soup kitchens etc. Minnesota just passed a venison donation law wherein deer hunters there will be asked to voluntarily donate $1, $3, or $5 , when they buy a hunting license, with the proceeds going to pay for butchering donated deer. If you are a non-resident hunting in Minnesota, you automatically pay a $5 surcharge with funds going to the same fund. They expect that this surcharge alone will raise over $100,000 a year to butcher deer. What a great idea. And non-hunters will help because the first year $160,000 extra dollars will come from general revenues. After that, all bonus deer tags bought by hunters (cost $13 each) will have an added $1 surcharge. My guess is that hunters will not complain about this at all.
The animal rightists can scream and holler all they want about hunting and I’m the first to admit that there are some things about hunting and a few hunters that bother me. But these meat donation programs, largely funded by hunters, are just another example of the way hunters step up when it comes to saving habitat, managing wildlife, and putting healthy food on the plates of the less fortunate. Over the next months, half the homes in West Virginians will consume a lot of deer meat. Tasty, and it sure helps to keep the ole heart beating.
