Buffalo meat has carbs?

(Diana) #1

Hi there. Someone help me understand this. The package appears to be pure ground buffalo meat. So why does it say 5g carbs per serving!!!

I tried attaching the image but says too large. The brand is wild idea Buffalo company.

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(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

The carbs in meat come from the residual glycogen stores in the muscle. I wouldn’t even bother to count it.

(Diana) #3

But then wouldn’t ground beef have it too? This is nuts.

(Eric) #4

I buy a grass fed wagyu ground beef that lists carbs as well. Its from New Zealand so not sure if that is why they include it when other ground beef I buy in the US don’t list carbs

#5

The same nutritional label is on their 95% premium ground product too.

When the burger says 100% grass-fed does that mean the actual burger is 100% ground buffalo too? Sorry I’m clueless with meat, it doesn’t look clear to me and I don’t see an ingredient list.

#6

But it seems too high and the label says it’s mostly not sugar and of course, zero fiber. But buffalo meat can’t have starches… I don’t think it’s sugar alcohol either ;). What on earth could it be?
It doesn’t seem just meat. Or did I miss something?

I personally would be interested only in the info about ingredients, if it’s only meat, I just wouldn’t care. Egg and meat sugars never felt bad to me while I can feel a pretty small amount of sugar from plants…

#7

I had a similar epiphany about shellfish/oysters. Not 0 carbs as you’d expect, because of the glycogen. Who knew. But, like Paul said, didn’t think twice about it as it’s negligible.

#8

Could also be a labeling error as I’m seeing many references that buffalo meat has 0 carbs. Even more of a reason to ignore…

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #9

All muscle meat has some amount of residual glycogen. Ignore it.

Also, some of those databases give amounts for things that are based on assumptions, rather than on an actual analysis.

(Diana) #10

Right. Whenever I google it says it’s just pure buffalo meat and that in general it’s <1g carb. So it makes literally no sense how this could be 5g per serving. That’s like eating nut butter!

(Diana) #11

It’s pure meat. It makes literally no sense. I mean even if you ground up liver into it it wouldn’t have 5 carbs.

#12

Paul and Brian got it.

(Diana) #13

But 5g!? That seems so high. I’ve emailed the company as now I’m just curious as to how it can be this high….perhaps it’s the parts of the buffalo that was used? Maybe it has organ meats?!

#14

that is definitely possible cause all meat is pure from the animal, but pure what? muscle meat only? maybe some organs in it? be interesting to see what they say.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #15

@Finishingtouches Interestingly, I just looked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Data Central, and “bison, ground, grass-fed, raw” has 0.05 g/100 g of meat. “Game meat, bison, raw” shows 0 g/100 g. “Game meat, bison, separable lean only, raw” also shows 0 g/100 g, as do a few other entries.

Obviously, the producer ought to know what’s in their meat, but I still wouldn’t worry about it.

(Diana) #16

So Paul and Brian were right. Here is the official response for those interested :slight_smile:

Thank you for reaching out! Great question - we wondered the same thing!

Nothing is added to the meat. After harvest, the carbohydrates (glycogen) in the animal turns to lactic acid. Glycogen is stored in muscles and the liver typically as a reserve for carbohydrates when the body has an excess and is released when blood sugar levels fall low.

The lactic acid makes the animals become firm (like rigor mortis) but is also required to produce tasteful and tender meat, as well as give it the rich red color.

During a typical slaughter of an animal, they use up most or all their glycogen due to being stressed out and the lactic acid levels in the meat become lower. This will for obvious reasons change the quality of the meat like, tenderness and color as well as flavor.

When our animals are being field harvested, they are under little to no stress at all, meaning they have not used up any of that glycogen. So, when we had it sent in and analyzed for nutritional info, they detected the stored lactic acid in the meat.

Obviously, everyone is different, but 5 grams of carbs is typically about 2% of what someone needs to intake daily and has higher protein than your average meat from the store.

#17

Oh, it;s informative. But I still don’t understand why it’s so low sugar but “high” (for a meat) carbs… It should be sugar…

But this is just curiosity. Eating wise it’s enough for me that it’s pure meat! :smiley:

#18

If an animal eats carbs it will break them down for glucose and glycogen. So it makes sense that some will be left in the muscle even if the blood has been drained.
We store glycogen in the muscles in the form of atp.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #19

Okay, this may be right, in that most of their customers “typically” take in 250 g of glucose daily, but the word “needs” is not right, as we know from experience. If ketones are abundant, the human body “needs” no glucose (carbohydrate) intake, at all, since the liver is capable of making enough glucose for all the organs that need it.

Forgive some nit-picking, please. ATP is the molecule that provides the energy the body needs to do anything. It is by no means the same as glycogen. Glycogen is the storage form of glucose, and the muscles convert excess glucose into glycogen in order to store it for later use. The liver also stores glucose from gluconeogenesis in the form of glycogen. Unlike muscle glycogen, which is trapped in the muscle that formed it, liver glycogen can leave and be shared throughout the body. Thus, when we have a sudden need for explosive power, it is ready to distribute to the muscles that need it.

Some trivia that people might want to skip:
The process of converting glucose into ATP is called “glycolysis,” which is another word for glucose metabolism. The equivalent process of converting fatty acids into ATP is not called lipolysis (that term being used to refer to the breakdown of triglycerides into fatty acid and glycerol), but is instead called “fatty-acid metabolism.” (Sorry for the asymmetry in the terms.) I don’t know the technical term for the process of forming glycogen out of glucose, but the reverse process, converting glycogen back into glucose, is called “glycogenolysis.”

#20

No forgiveness required Paul. I always welcome good information.
I will remember that for a few short minutes but I will always remember that I need to look it up.:grin: