Not eating 100 percent wild, a psychological fear I'd like to overcome


(M) #1

One thing I’m afraid of is anything that’s not 100 percent wild. With my fish I know it is wild, and I don’t worry what it was fed, or how it was raised, I just hope it doesn’t have too much mercury. I can’t sustain my nutritional needs on just seafood though due to the mercury. It’s also hard to get enough fat in. I don’t like to take supplements. One thing I test consistently for is low vitamin A and iron. I turned to the bison liver for this and it was fine at first. I only ate .5 of an oz. However after awhile I started getting nausea and feeling unwell from it. My vitamin A is still low so I don’t think it could be an overdose. I’m not sure the cause. Grass fed, field harvested bison felt like the closest I could get to wild unless I learned how to hunt. So now I guess I will try pastured corn/soy free chicken or turkey liver and see if that does better. Chicken liver seems to be all that’s available. I am just looking for a little support in eating food that isn’t a hundred percent wild or grass fed. I know that sounds ridiculous probably but I actually have a fear of it I would like to overcome.


(KM) #2

I do sympathize. It’s an issue I’ve been turning over myself with great frustration as I try to eat out in the world with other humans, and discover that pretty much every pie has a man-made finger lodged in it.

My somewhat grudging compromise is to eat the cleanest food I can imagine at home, and then accept the fact that I will be eating some version of what everyone else considers healthy, when I am in public.

For me, grass-fed, ideally regeneratively pastured animals are probably as close as I will get to a natural animal food. I try to ask myself how close this animal would be to what my ancestors would have eaten. Unfortunately sometimes that answer is not all that close, but honestly, other than starve to death, I don’t know how to resolve this. Good luck on your journey.


(Joey) #3

Don’t mean to sound unempathetic, but if we were actually living in the wild we’d all have far more pressing things to be afraid of than not eating 100% wild. :wink:


#4

I had this thought myself. I can eat how I eat on good days, I can eat worse - or I can die of hunger. The choice is easy.
But it doesn’t make worries go away if one has them in the first place. I don’t, my life is bad enough without that and my body is elated if I eat extreme low non-animal net carbs and enough protein and fat…

I am so super far from @KetoPescatarian’s mindset that I can’t help any :frowning: But it must be tough :frowning:
Even if the vast majority of humanity has it way more tough eating wise (even if it may be easier on their mind). Like, not having enough to eat or not having enough protein, protein isn’t so cheap. It doesn’t make me any less choosy either, I merely think about them sometimes.

That’s completely true… It may not be enough to help enough when one have these fears, sadly but it’s true nonetheless.


(Geoffrey) #5

I don’t necessarily understand the fear you have but I can definitely understand having a desire or even a need to have your meat clean. I wholeheartedly support this.
All of the meat in my freezer is either something I’ve raised, caught or hunted. I prefer game meat above all. My beef and lamb are raised by me so I know exactly what’s gone into them.
With all of that being said, I have no issues with eating a steak that was bought at a store or a restaurant. Because there is just so much one cow can provide, I find myself having to buy brisket and ribs throughout the year if I want them more that once a year. No problem, it’s all good and doesn’t hurt my body one bit.

If it’s something that really weighs heavily on you then there are farms that sell online that produce good grass fed beef and your local butcher shop may be able to help you also. Could they lie to you? Yeah, they could just like the fish producer may lie about the fish being wild caught. Sometimes you just gotta have faith.
Otherwise your right, learn to hunt or raise your own. I must admit, there’s something very primal and satisfying about taking down your own game, butchering it, utilizing every part you can and eating it.
I feel very fortunate.


#6

Unless you shoot it, you’re not eating that now. You’re eating something that was commercially harvested, processed, packaged, shipped on multiple trucks and stuck on a shelf. You’re eating marketing and mind games all on the hope that step one wasn’t lied about. That’s about as useless as the “Organic” label or better yet, the 100% Organic label, which still doesn’t mean what it says! Don’t think the fish is any different!

How do you know that? Writing on the package? You know the waters are contaminated, so how can you say you’re not worried about what it was eating? Fish move around, as do the things they eat. See the broken logic? That’s why farmed fish are popular, still in real ocean waters, but penned and constantly tested and (somewhat) controlled and no worries about mercury.

Not saying not to care about food sources or quality, I do, but you gotta be real, there’s very little difference in the end, again, unless you’re shooting and fishing them yourself.


#7

How about hatching chickens, raising and dispatching yourself?


(Joey) #8

This has also been my (assumed) take on the fish business.

The “wild” sourcing of fish may sound attractive on one level, but the well-documented mistreatment of enslaved fishing crews might give you pause. Pick your poison. Mankind is a doozie.


(B Creighton) #9

I have thought about raising rabbit, but I would have to have much better fencing to keep out the neighborhood dogs and a pen to protect them from racoons and hawks. I have never been a hunter, but this year, I have seriously begun to think about it. However, for the time being I have placed an order for grass fed beef from a local ranch I am picking up at the end of the month - at a very competitive price I might add. Let’s face it, these cows probably don’t run much, but they are the closest thing I can get to wild unless I hunt.

When I need a quick meal, I now eat Wild Planet sardines - a fairly sustainable and natural source of fish - they can it whole with the skin on, and pack it in EVOO. My local Costco carries it now. There is very little mercury concern here. I believe it is a great source of omega 3s.


(Joey) #10

Fine for just a snack, but rabbits multiply like bunnies. :rabbit2: :rabbit2: :rabbit2:
So just be aware …


#11

Home-raised rabbits do have fat (at least the ones I eat have it :slight_smile: not much but there is visible fat, cute. sometimes more than other times) but anyway, it doesn’t matter if we eat rabbits or not, protein toxicity is protein toxicity. Rabbit starvation is another level with barely any fat, we can get protein toxicity or whatever is the correct term (I googled quickly, it seems it’s what I mean) with lots of fat but way too much protein. Not many of us reach that though. But hopefully everyone on this forum is aware that fat is essential…

Rabbits are pretty innocent in both quite rare problems if nothing forces us to eat only them, wild and super lean.
Whenever I eat rabbits, I still eat high-fat. Even “fatty” home-raised bunnies need some extra fat to make a decent meal (for most of us, at least) :slight_smile: and there are my other dishes in the day.

Rabbits (the not wild kind, I never even ate that) are nice though mild - but not a food I could base my day on. It’s like chicken, not substantial enough. It is individual, of course.


(Geoffrey) #12

Pens and shelters are easy to build. I had a friend who raised meat rabbits and when he’d butcher them he’d have a big bbq. They sure were good eating. There was a poor time in my past when I fed my family on wild rabbits for several months. Got old fast.
Your profile doesn’t say where you live but if you were close to me I could help you get started hunting.