Cattle are domestic animals, while bison are nomadic grazers. They manage this by having specialized stomach systems that are able to ferment vegetation before digestion. Bison, on the other hand, travel in a wandering herd and are able to consume their natural diet. American bison is commonly referred to as buffalo in Canada and the United States.
There is actually a different animal known as the true buffalo, which is only a distant relative to the American bison. The true buffalo is found in Asia and actually looks quite a bit different than the American bison. The North American continent was home to millions of bison in prehistoric times, stretching south to Mexico, north to Alaska, and east through the Appalachian Mountain Range. By the late s, however, human hunting and impact on their habitat reduced the number of buffalo to a mere few hundred.
While their habitat is much smaller now than it was in prehistoric times, the number of bison has thankfully rebounded. There are now somewhere around , bison in the United States, and over 12, in Canada. In Mexico, there is one bison herd, numbering somewhere between 80 and Both beef and bison have a similar flavor and share the benefits of having all nine amino acids and a number of vital vitamins and minerals.
That being said, when you compare beef nutrition to bison nutrition, bison wins hands down. For Your Health — Is bison meat healthy?
The short answer is yes! With significantly less fat and calories than beef, bison also has one of the best protein densities out of the common meat types. A serving of grass-fed bison has three to six times the amount of Omega-3s as that of grain-fed animals. The amount of Omega-3s in bison meat is equal to the amount you get from salmon.
There is some evidence that this anti-carcinogen and fat blocker could reduce the risk of a number of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, obesity, and various immune disorders. Bison, though, are allowed to roam freely for most of their lives. If you like knowing that your meat came from animals who had a good and free life, bison might be the choice for you. As a wild and native animal in North America, bison participate as an important part of the ecosystem. Their urine and manure fertilize the grasslands, their hooves help stir seeds into the ground as they roam, and they keep the native vegetation in check.
So many people love the taste of beef but feel conflicted about the environmental impact of raising domestic beef cattle. Environmental Impact. Treatment of animals. To equate them as closely as possible, we chose top sirloin—a very lean cut preferred by athletes—for the nutrition facts part of the table.
Also, as bison is mainly raised on pasture, we went with grass-fed beef in the example to match it. In other words, the table compares buffalo to the very best the beef world has to offer. More commonly found conventional beef would have approximately calories, 23g protein, and 15g fat per four-ounce serving. Across all cuts, buffalo meat is lower in calories and fat than beef is, and higher in protein.
A three to four-ounce serving of bison ribeye has calories, 6 grams fat, and 30 grams protein compared to a typical beef ribeye, which contains calories, 17 grams fat, and 27 grams protein.
Bison offers more omega-3 fats than beef, and a better omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Research supports bison as being heart-healthier too. A study published in Nutrition Research in compared the effects of consuming bison versus beef. Ten healthy men ate 12 ounces of either beef or bison per day, six days per week, for seven weeks. The same changes did not occur after eating buffalo. But Carter says that, even if the bison are forced to spend some time fenced in, they get a lot more space than cows do.
And most of the bison producers have independent auditors come in to test them. Buffalo meat is drier than beef due to its leanness, so it cooks faster. Carter recommends salting it and brushing it with olive oil to lock in the natural juices.
Then be careful not to cook it past medium or it will be too tough. These draw in carbon, taking it out of the atmosphere and producing oxygen, thereby fighting climate change. And bison consume less. Bison by nature must eat different grasses at different times of the year, so the animals are cycled through grazing lands, which promotes sustainability. Furthermore, Carter says bison are better designed by nature to care for the earth.
Their bodies make depressions in the ground that capture moisture and return it to the soil. At the soilnotoilcoalition International Conference this weekend, tankafund is focused on putting buffalo and prairie restoration front and center as a solution to climate destabilization. Bison were the staple food of Native American tribes until the latter half of the 19th century, when their population was decimated by disease brought over from European cattle, says Carter , reckless over-hunting, and anti-Indian U.
Thus, eating grass-fed bison may be a more sustainable choice 9. On the other hand, beef is more likely to be grain-fed and produced in factory farms. Due to eating a diet composed mainly of corn or soy, the cattle grow at a quicker rate That said, as bison meat grows in popularity, some farmers are beginning to feed their buffalo grain to keep up with production demands.
Regardless, both grain-fed and grass-fed beef and bison can be part of a healthy diet. However, in the United States, grass-fed meats tend to be more expensive, and some people may not find it worth the extra cost.
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