Meat as a source of protein is important to build and maintain our bodily cells such as hormones and enzymes. Without meat also, we won’t be able to get a decent supply of energy, hence making us weak for everyday activities. Nearly all of us obtain protein from nuts, egg, or meat. While then for meat, among the most common choices are chicken, fish or seafood, beef, lamb, pork, or duck.
However, those meat choices are only a few of all types of meat consumed in this world, as there are also extreme meat choices for consumption, such as bear meat! What are actually bear meat? And what are the health benefits of bear meat?
Bear as a Source of Meat
Bear meat is considered an exotic delicacy due to the fact that it comes from wild bears and almost exclusively consumed in cold regions such as Europe and North America. Indeed, for the Inuit tribe of the Arctic, bear meat is their primary source of protein, particularly polar bears.
Instead of being raised in a farm, bear was hunted for its meat, especially its prized bear paws. A lot of consumers gave testimony that bear tastes quite a lot like pork, with rich fat contents. Back to polar bear meat, it is always served in soup or stews, never raw. The coarse, greasy but sweet flavour of bear meat require thorough cooking because it potentially carries the lethal parasitic ring worm infection known as trichinella. Trichinella is also the main trigger for trichinosis, which is none other than trichinella-caused infections inside our body.
Meanwhile, the flavour of bear meat is dependent on the age and dietary habit of the bear itself. Many consumers claim that two-year old bear taste best since they mostly feed on fruits, whereas older aged bears primarily prey on fishes.
Bear Meat’s Nutritional Facts
- Protein – 20.1%
- Fats – 8.3%
- Calories – 163 kCal/100g
- Cholesterol – 98 milligrams/100-gram portion
- Iron – 10.73 milligrams
The data presented above are sourced from livestrong.com as well as Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
What are its Health Benefits?
Here are the health benefits of bear meat:
- Bear Meat is High in Iron
The data above shows that bear meat has 10.73 milligrams of iron. Iron is a beneficial yet crucial component of haemoglobin, a substance in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs into the rest of the body. If you lack iron, you lack red blood cell supply and oxygen, which ends you up in iron deficiency anemia. Bear meat consumption can fulfil your iron needs by roughly half of its daily recommendation value.
- Bear Meat has Pretty Low Cholesterol Levels
Similar to health benefits of lean chicken, bear meat has the lowest cholesterol levels compared to elk or buffalo, with bear possessing 98 mg/100g of cholesterol. For your information, elk and buffalo has 67 mg/100g and 62 mg/100g of cholesterol respectively. The data is sourced from Alaska Department of Fish and Game.Â
- Bear Meat has More Protein than Lean Ground Beef
Bear meat has 20.1% of protein content, compared to lean health benefits ground meat with just 17.7%. More protein content means enhanced growth and maintenance of bodily tissues and cells, hormones, enzymes and so much more. These components make part of vital body parts such as bones, blood, muscles, skin as well as cartilage.
- Bear Meat is Indeed Leaner than Farmed Meats
In relation to the data above, bear meat is much leaner also because wild animals walk, run free around their habitat every single day unlike farmed animals. With lean meats, you can reduce your calorie intake while increasing your protein intake at the same time.
- Bear Meat has Nearly Zero Antibiotics or any Medical Substances Injected
This health benefits of bear meat may seem surprising, but then it turns out bear meat has no antibiotics, hormones, or any medical substances injected to it considering its nature of being hunted. Synthetic hormones in meat in general can alter the natural growth of your hormones and in the long run causes cancers such as prostate, breast and colon cancers.
- Bear Meat may Contain Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)
Conjugated linoleic acid or CLA works by reducing body fat deposits and improving immunity in general. Aside from that, they also specifically treat high blood pressure or hypertension as well as obesity. They are most commonly found inside beef, health benefits of goat meat as well as other forms of dairy product.Â
- Bear Meat may also Contain Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids primarily found in fishes, nuts and seeds. The omega-3 fatty acid found in bear meat are somewhat similar to the ones found in anchovies, mackerel, tuna, salmon, as well as sardines.
Omega-3 fatty acids bring a lot of health benefits, such as lowering triglyceride levels that pose risk to your heart health, treat rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, supports infant development, to treating neurological problems such as depression, ADHD, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
- Bear Meat Helps to Reduce your Carbon Footprints
Factory farming is one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gases as well as global warming. Some of its environmentally-unfriendly track records are proliferating bacteria that are antibiotic-resistant, destroying aquatic ecosystem through liquid wastes, releasing pollutants to the air and soil, and so much more.
To make things worse, among the pollutants being released are heavy metals, phosphorus, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, methane and so much more. Since bear is hunted for their meat, carbon footprints can be minimized as you no longer need food processing.
These are the health benefits of eating medium rare steak plus health benefits meat poultry fish.
Those are the health benefits of bear meat. Despite the information above, you should take note that consuming bear meat may be unethical in some way because of its status as an endangered animal in several territories or merely for the morality of hunting. So, the decision to consume bear meat depends on yourself.