



All men are created equal – but are animals? A discussion that comes up almost weekly on the Joe Rogan Experience: Wild animals are more nutritious than farm raised animals, and of course mass-produced meat. It seems logical – Wild game can roam mother nature freely and is not fed chemicals or medication. They don’t seem to be affected by epidemics, like the swine flu, either. But what does the scientific community say: Is venison healthier than beef?





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Who doesn’t like the taste of rabbit, elk or venison? Sometimes Joe’s podcast becomes more of a cooking show on how to best prepare elk. Joe readily explains how he feels better after eating game meat, and how it is clearly more nutritious – a bold claim.

Venison vs Beef

So how does venison stack up against beef?





Venison has more protein than beef / 100g. True, but if you are living in the developed world, it is unlikely that you suffer from protein deficiency. If you are trying to gain muscle mass, however, this might be important to you. Although numbers vary, approx. 2g of protein /kg/day seems to be the maximum the body can absorb. A potential downside of eating too much protein includes activation of the mTor pathway, which could increase your risk for cancer – prominently discussed in JRE#1175 and JRE#123.

Venison is lower in fat. This is true, but also the point where cognitive dissonance sets in for most Joe Rogan fans (like myself). On the one hand, less fat is good. On the other, I drink butter in my coffee and supplement with fat to stay in ketosis. (Plus the midnight cravings for a cheeky bite of Kerry Gold.) As you can see, this one is a bit of a mixed bag. At least venison contains more Omega-3 and less Omega-6 fatty acids compared to grain-fed cattle. The scientific opinion is changing on Omega-3’s beneficial effects on cardiovascular health, but there is good evidence for it ameliorating neurodegenerative diseases.

Venison is higher in lead. It’s hard to believe, but if you are deficient in lead, wild game might just be the thing for you. Lead residue from ammunition in game meat (sorry bow hunters!) has actually been studied and the amount taken up by your body will depend on its preparation. However, unless you are part of a hunting community and excessively consume game meat, it is unlikely to affect your lead blood levels.

Wild venison vs farm-raised venison

Venison suggests imagery of freely roaming animals through the forest. But as the demand for it increases, so do commercial livestock farms. Castration and the use of growth stimulants already takes place in deer farming, and vaccinations, artificial insemination might be next. This would certainly change the image of venison being a more ‘ethical’ meat.

So, venison doesn’t always equal venison – but do they differ in their nutritional values?

An excellent review from Kudrnáčová et al. concluded that free-roaming deer mainly differed in colour from farm-raised animals, but was similar in all other aspects. A bit anticlimactic, but let’s go into more detail.

Let’s start with the differences:

Wild grass-fed animals have darker meat than their farmed counterparts. Myoglobin, hemoglobin’s distant cousin, binds iron and oxygen in muscle and is the main contributor to its colour. Potential causes for an increase in myoglobin in wild deer could be due to different feeding regimes. Wild game also appears to be physically more active, influencing metabolism and leading to higher concentrations of myoglobin.

On to the similarities:

The more myoglobin the darker the meat. Similarly, the more myoglobin in your urine, the more coca-cola like it becomes. Rhabdomyolysis obviously being one of Joe’s favourite words .From Wikimedia Commons.

No trend can be seen when comparing cholesterol contents between wild and farm-raised animals. Rather, cholesterol concentration appears to correlate with the animals’ diet and fatty acid intake. However, younger animals may have lower cholesterol levels (a bit like humans in that regard).

Fatty acids contribute strongly to the flavour and odour of meat. This is due to differing chemical properties, such as melting points, which in turn lead to different oxidation products during cooking. Wild deer have increased concentrations of poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from natural grazing, causing a ‘gamey’ flavour. In contrast, grain-fed deer will taste more ‘beef-like’. Intake of quality fatty acids has long been the subject of cardiovascular research and PUFAs are generally regarded as beneficial.

Speaking of feeding, wild animals are exposed to higher amounts of heavy metals in their ecosystem, due to industrial and other human activities. These will accumulate especially in older animals’ kidneys and livers. The levels don’t pose a health threat, but will be increased compared to farmed deer.

Interestingly, the overall chemical composition of muscle barely differs between the two.

Conclusion: Is venison healthier than beef?

By many measures venison can be considered healthier than beef. Comparing wild and farm-raised venison revealed few differences. The most interesting one being increased concentrations of poly-unsaturated fatty acids in wild animals, which are thought to be superior to saturated fatty acids. The observed differences likely come from different feeding, so you want to make sure you are getting quality meat, especially when buying farmed.

On the podcast:

JRE MMA Show #30 with Sean O’Malley & Tim Welch.

JRE#1202 Fred Morin & David McMillan: Grass-fed vs corn-fed beef.

JRE#1154 Doug Duren & Bryan Richards: Chronic wasting disease in deer.

Are you more likely to eat venison after this article or do you prefer beef? Let us know in the comments.