Steven's Survival Meat Challenge

You are lost in the wilderness. You have no food and very little water. Starvation is soon to set in and you know that you cannot survive on the stores of glycogen in your liver forever. It is necessary to find something that will satisfy your hunger and provide the best nutrition for continued survival. In the forest there are deer, moose and bears. Which animal will provide the best nutrition for survival? Venison steaks are lean and hearty, moose steaks are nearly pure meat with little to no fat and bear steaks are heavy will calories and fat.  My hypotheses before doing any research was that bear meat will be the best for survival. Bears are natural born survivors and masters of the wilderness, their meat must provide the best wilderness survival nutrition.

The opposite is in fact true. Bear meat is the worst of the three meats for continued survival. It contains the highest levels of protein (32.42 g) of all the meats but it also has the highest amounts of fat at 13.39 g per 3 oz or 85 g serving. In a survival situation the longer term energy provided by lipids would be necessary as well as the protein which is needed for its essential amino acids and proteins provide the building blocks for things like enzymes. However too much fat can be a very bad thing. 50.07% of all the calories of bear meat come from protein, the rest is from fat. That is unhealthy in normal circumstances and in a survival situation having that much excess calories will get you killed. The USDA MyPlate lists that foods high in saturated fats raise blood levels of LDL or “bad cholesterol”. Bear meat has the highest amount of saturated fats with 3.54 oz.  There is simply not enough beneficial calories in bear meat. Too much fat and not enough protein.

But now the question still remains: which of the meats is best for continued wilderness survival? Having already proven that bear meat is not going to be helpful, that leaves venison steak and moose steak. The two meats total in with a very similar amount of protein in 3 oz or 85 g servings. Venison has 30.21 g of protein while moose has 29.27 g of protein. The bigger difference between the two is their fat content. Venison is fattier with 3.19 g of fat as compared to moose’s .97 g. The total calories for each meat are 158 kcal for venison and 134 kcal for moose. So far it appears that venison is the better choice for survival; it has more protein and more fat, but not too much. Continued research supports this. Venison has higher levels of both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats or the “good fats”. Venison also has levels within the USDA MyPlate health guide lines of saturated fat and cholesterol. Ultimately the deciding factor is whether or not venison meat or moose meat will better benefit a person in a survival situation. Moose meat is much leaner with 87.37% of all its calories coming from just protein. Venison meat is somewhat fattier with only 76.48% of calories from protein. The USDA MyPlate guide lines specify that meats 85% lean and above should be eaten as part of a regular diet for someone who gets less than half an hour physical activity in their daily routine. However, this is a survival situation. You are lost in the wilderness with no food. In order to survive you need all the protein and healthy fats you can get. Venison steak would be the best meat for continued survival.     

Of course now you just have to find a way to hunt, kill, gut and cook a deer. 

Steven Margolin

Source of Data: USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (2005)