Get connected to your food
Take a minute to contemplate where your food comes from. Whether it be the food in your fridge, the cafeteria at your place of work, or maybe the restaurant you plan to dine out at, think about where this food is coming from. I think most people who live in westernized countries often forget just how absolutely incredible the modern food system is. For thousands of years, humans were restricted to the foods they could hunt, forage, or grow. Today however, if you reside in a westernized nation, especially the United States, you can walk into just about any grocery store and have immediate access to food from around the planet. Even getting fresh fruit if you live in the northern part of the U.S. is a relatively new phenomenon.
How lucky are we, that we can simply walk into a grocery store and have access to a variety of food without having to even get our hands dirty? We don’t have to brave the elements to hunt for the meat that comes conveniently pre-packaged and air-chilled, or forage for berries and mushrooms, or even spend the countless hours it takes to grow produce.
This, in my opinion, is a double-edged sword. In many ways, we have become victims of our own success. Because most people no longer need to harvest their own food, they have become disconnected from one of the most basic aspects of human existence. When we no longer hunt, forage, and grow food, we forget just how much hard work goes into simply nourishing our bodies.
What a strange time in human history. Now, instead of spending time in nature, where we evolved, moving our bodies to harvest food for our survival, we waste away in temperature-controlled homes, vehicles, and office buildings where we “work” so that we can make money to buy food. Now, I’m not saying this is all bad. I am simply making an observation. There are a lot of benefits to modern living. However, there is no denying that modern living has made us soft.
Today, so many people are sedentary and have the financial means and available resources to buy more food than they could ever need. To make things worse, most people do not have a sufficient understanding of basic nutrition principles. The result? Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, the list goes on and on. It doesn’t have to be this way! I firmly believe that with a basic understanding of nutrition and a firm connection to food, people in general would be far more healthy, capable, and happy.
That is where hunting comes in. For those of you who are not hunters or did not grow up with people who hunt, this topic may seem very foreign and even somewhat controversial. Hopefully by explaining my personal philosophy regarding hunting, you will at the very least have a better understanding of the practice and why us hunters do what we do.
I would like to begin with a point raised earlier in this post. Pre-packaged meat from the store. How often, if you eat meat, do you think about the process of bringing that protein source to the store shelf for you to purchase? Do you think about the animal whose life was sacrificed so that you could nourish your body? Do you think about the butcher(s) that went through the trouble of cleaning and processing the meat into individual cuts? This process is intense and something that every hunter is fully aware of. When you take the life of an animal, it has a profound impact on you. You experience a flood of different emotions. Highs and lows. For me personally, I am overcome with a deep sense of gratitude because I know that the animal I harvested lost its life so that I could nourish my body and maintain my own existence.
Before you even get to the point of killing there is typically a considerable amount of physical energy and time spent in preparation. From the blistering heat of summer to the fridged temps and deep snow of winter, hunters brave the elements to scout, stalk, and ambush their prey. These austere conditions help build resiliency and make the meat from your harvest that much more rewarding, adding to the experience when you finally get to prepare and eat your harvest. Additionally, at least in most cases, you move your body a considerable amount when you hunt. This movement is good for the body and the soul.
All of this hard work hopefully culminates in the harvesting of your quarry. This is where the real work begins. The animal must then be field dressed, packed out, and fully butchered and packaged before you end up with something that resembles the convenient store-bought package of meat I described earlier. This is hard and dirty work.
Because I, like most people, exist in the modern system and have a modern career, I cannot spend all of my time harvesting food, as much as this idea appeals to me. I harvest the majority of meat that I eat but do still purchase some from local farmers or our local grocery store and also order meat when I dine out. The point I want to make is, through my experiences hunting, I don’t take for granted the meat I purchase, and this is something that most hunters I think can relate to.
From a system perspective, by harvesting and processing my own wild game, I know exactly where my protein comes from and how it was handled from field to freezer. From a nutritional perspective wild game is essentially a super food. Unlike most farm raised animals, wild game tends to be extremely lean. So, in a gram-to-gram comparison between wild game meat, say venison, and farm raised meat, say beef, the wild game has a higher protein content. Being that protein is such an important macronutrient, wild game is hard to beat when it comes to nourishing the body. Additionally, because wild game tends to be so low in fat, more specifically saturated fat, it makes hitting my macronutrient distribution targets much easier, and allows me to meet my dietary fat targets with more healthful mono- and pol- unsaturated fats such as extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds.
For those who do chose not to hunt for ethical reasons, I challenge you to consider the total loss of life that occurs in modern produce farming, including small organic farms. Aside from rodents being eliminated by farmers directly, vast numbers of small rodents such as mice, voles, and moles die when fields are tilled, and crops are cut. Even large animals are occasionally killed by large farm equipment. The point is, there is no such thing as a bloodless diet. For me personally, I find the most ethical thing I can do is be fully aware of the true implications of my diet, and the numerous living things that must perish for me to sustain each breath I take.
I do not expect everyone to go out and hunt for their own meat, rather I encourage you to just think about where your food comes from. Be grateful for it. Be intentional about your choices. If you are unable or unwilling to hunt, but still wish to consume meat, maybe look into buying sustainably raised local protein such as beef, pork, and poultry. This not only helps support your local farmers, but will allow you to be more connected with the food you put into your body.
The standard American diet (SAD) is unsustainable and unhealthy. Period. If you want to take control of your health and nutrition, start by focusing on whole foods. Wild game is just one example. This topic is something I will be speaking about regularly because our connection to what we eat and drink plays a big part in how we view food and ultimately what we end up putting into our bodies.