ELK AND THE PALEO DIET

ELK AND THE PALEO DIET

We all know about elk but what’s this Paleo Diet business. The Paleo Diet or the “Cave Man” diet
Is based on the way our distant ancestors are thought to have eaten. The Paleolithic Era began 2.6
million ago with the use of primitive stone tools and ended with the start of the agricultural revolution
10,000 years ago. To put this into perspective, 333 human generations ago (30 years x 333 = 10,000),
people had to eat differently than we do today. There were no supermarkets, no industrialized farms,
no electricity, no hospitals, no McDonald fast food restaurants to go to. You get the idea. The people
were hunter-gatherers. They spent the day hunting wild game and gathering fresh fruits and vegetables
to eat for their evening meals. Three meals a day were probably unheard of.

It’s believed that the people were very, very healthy because their genetic make-up was adapted to
their food sources. Processed foods and refined sugars did not exist. There was no diabetes, no high
blood pressure, no high cholesterol, no cancer and no hospitals to go to. Numerous studies have been
done using the Paleo Diet which consists of no dairy, no cereals, and no refined sugars and its found that
waistlines are reduced, weight is lost, blood pressure is reduced, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood
glucose and HDL and hemoglobin A1c are significantly improved. The modern day Paleo diet
approximates 55 percent of your calories coming from lean meats, organ meats, fish and seafood, with
the balance coming from fresh fruits, fresh vegetable, some nuts and healthful oils.

But it’s important that the lean meat come from “grass fed” animals (such as our elk!) as opposed to
feedlot fed animals. Here’s why. The nutritional content of the meat is determined by the animal’s diet.
Grass fed animals accumulate more heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids in their tissue. The reason for this
Is pasture grass is 10-15 times higher in alpha linoleic acid (ALA), a precursor of omega-3 fatty acid, than
grain or feedlot concentrates fed to beef cattle. In the animals stomach, ALA is mostly broken down, but
sufficient amounts escape the rumen and are converted by the liver to Omega-3 fatty acids, which are
then deposited into muscle and other tissues. “Grass fed” elk is high in heart healthy omega-3 FA’s
because of this.
Elk meat is also healthy because it is an excellent source of protein and is low in fat. The Paleo diet
recommends high protein, low fat meats. A high protein diet helps you loose weight by increasing your
metabolism and reducing your appetite. Also high levels of low fat protein help lower your cholesterol,
reduce triglycerides and increase HDL cholesterol (Highly Desirable Lipid), reducing your risk of high
blood pressure, stroke and certain forms of cancer. When combined with sufficient amounts of fruit
and vegetables, high protein diets protect you from osteoporosis.

Dr. Loren Cordain, Ph.D., a professor in the Health and Exercise Department at Colorado State
University has, along with many other people, done many years of research on the Paleo Diet and is
Considered the founder of the modern Paleo movement. He is know for the books “The Paleo Diet” and
The “Paleo Diet Cookbook” among many other books and research articles.

To summarize, there are numerous health benefits of the Paleo diet and elk is an excellent fit for this
diet. So when you think Paleo, think elk. When you put these 2 together, you are thinking health

Brian Wolf

January 27, 2016

Categories:Newsletter

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