How Stress Impacts the Quality of Raised and Game Meat?
Why Deer Keep Running After Being Shot, Even in the Heart?
Most people may not realize that the quality of meat you buy in the store or even the quality of game meat you hunt is heavily impacted by the stress and treatment of the animal prior to death? This article will share some education on the matter.
It's now the bow hunting season in our county. We are not into hunting (we are regenerative vegetable farmers) but a hunter neighbor recently shot a buck with a broadhead arrow (in the heart?) and yet the buck kept running. It's a well-known fact among hunters that often times deer like whitetails and moose WILL keep running no matter how good the hunter's shot is, even if it lands in the heart and lungs. Heart-shot deer are said to travel up to 200 yards and lung-shot deer up to 400 yards!
What Happens?
The divine rule on this planet is "continuation of life." (I explain in my book how that counteracts the second law of thermodynamics). Life begets life! Spirits (life energy) will endure. Deer are known to be full of life and energy. As in humans, the biochemical that ensures continuation of blood (energy) flow to limbs and organs of deer even in times of emergency and injury is a sympathetic hormone called adrenaline/norepinephrine. It is the autonomous action of the adrenaline that keeps the deer body moving even after being shot. Only a shot to the deer's spinal column seems to stop them because the release of adrenaline relies on an instant neuronal signal from the brain to the adrenal (ad means above, renal means kidney) gland above the kidneys to release adrenaline into the blood circulation.
Human Stampede?
In my book I discuss why stress-induced norepinephrine/adrenaline can wreak havoc in the human body in the long term because unlike in shot/hunted deer, humans stressed with "cerebral" stressors do not gallop or run away so the energy delivered by adrenaline and cortisol would not be used up (released) by our limbs. Instead the pent-up energy (the topic of much of Carl Jung's studies) causes neurological damages and what I call dissociative disorders/diseases. In time of feeling threatened, our "stampedes" are psychological. We form mobs, herds and cults, act paranoid, anxious or reckless, addicted or depressed.
More on Hunting
The opening scene of the movie "The Last of the Mohicans" is an impressive display of how hunting must have been done in the past, including a lot of chasing and footwork. Today, many hunters choose easier lazier (more stationery) methods and super powerful tools (arrows and bullets). Some hunters rely on the wild game meat to feed their family, especially in colder climates and if they are financially struggling (even factory-raised beef or chicken now fetch more than $6 a pound in stores). Other hunters hunt for pleasure (not meat), or hunt excessively. When a quick kill doesn't happen, animals are tortured. Here are some facts about the effect of stress on the quality of meat humans consume:
What Happens to Meat When the Animal is Stressed?
In an unstressed animal, after death, muscle glycogen is converted (anaerobically) into lactic acid, which helps keep meat tender, pink, and flavorful and resistant to bacterial degradation. The release of adrenaline and cortisol in the meat of the stressed animal (not a quick kill or those slaughtered in crowded factory farms) before death uses up glycogen storage in muscles, which means less lactic acid, and meat which will be darker, drier, tougher, less acidic and therefore more susceptible to microbial contamination (hence of shorter shelf life). Much of the meat you buy in supermarkets is kept (artificially) red by Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) which for example uses an artificial atmosphere of 80% oxygen and 20% carbon dioxide to maintain the meat’s redness for weeks1.
I also personally believe the abundance of stress hormones in the stressed animal meat would negatively impact our own hormonal balance too after we consume that meat.
My Request:
True education is an orphan today because what competes for our attention is often brought to us by commercial or political sponsors or attention merchants (many influencers). These posts, which take a lot of time to research and share, are my gifts to anyone seeking to improve their life. You can in return contribute by following me on twitter, sharing my posts, or buying my book (which took three years to research and publish). It was one of the few books on Amazon’s Hot New Release without any corporate sponsors.
References:
Discussion with Local Hunters
My Book: http://amzn.to/3VhxhHV
https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7463084/
https://www.modifiedatmospherepackaging.com/applications/modified-atmosphere-packaging-fresh-meat.aspx
High oxygen concentrations result in the conversion of myoglobin in the muscle (meat) to oxymyoglobin which is red.