Nutritional Smackdown: Bison vs Beef, Chicken & Pork

The US Department of Agriculture maintains the National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, which contains nutrient information on over 8,000 foods.  In a side-by-side comparison with beef, chicken and pork, ground bison is higher in all the good stuff (vitamins /minerals (e.g., iron, zinc, niacin, B12), protein, and omega 3’s) while lower in all the bad stuff (calories, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium). It’s no surprise that the American Heart Association considers bison a lean meat option to combat high cholesterol and obesity — the two main risk factors for stroke.

                        

 

Bison are from America. Cows are from the Near-East?

It’s true — the real American meat is bison — not beef, as some might believe.

Of the 1.3 billion cows in the world today, recent DNA findings from fossils unearthed in Iran indicate that domesticated cows originated from the same herd of 80 cows somewhere in the Near-East (Iran / Turkey area) around 10,500 years ago. It’s not exactly known when cattle was introduced to the Americas, but early records indicate their presence on voyages made by Cortez and Columbus to Mexico and the West Indies, respectively.

The American bison (or American buffalo), however,  has been a long time resident of the Americas, with evidence of the species’ ancestors crossing the Bering Land Bridge to North America as early as 500,000 years ago. The birth of the American bison happened more recently between 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. So, if there was such a label as “Born in” on packaging, BisonBison Co.‘s would read “Born in America.”