Wild Food on a Low-Carb/Keto Diet
working in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley provide her with many opportunities to expand her
culinary horizons and continue to learn and grow through hunting, fishing, foraging, and farming.
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If you pursue wild foods and you’re looking for ways to work them into a low-carb lifestyle or ketogenic diet, this article is for you. I’ll outline some keto-friendly wild food and tips on how to use them and share what I’ve learned from hunting, fishing, and foraging on a strict keto diet.
But first off, here’s a little biology for the uninitiated. The human body usually fuels itself with glucose, which it gets by breaking down carbohydrates for energy. However, in the metabolic state of ketosis, the body switches to utilizing fat as its primary fuel source in the absence of carbs. In modern times, low-carb diets and ketosis are used therapeutically for weight loss, treating dietary conditions, and improving mental health — with a growing body of research supporting their benefits.
For ancient humans, ketosis was not a health goal, but a life-saving adaptation that protected from starvation. Those who live off the land are opportunistic eaters, and being metabolically flexible has allowed us humans to inhabit all corners of the earth, nourished by whatever bounty we can find around us.
That being said, adopting a low-carb lifestyle for any reason requires dedication, commitment, and a closeness to food that very much parallels the deep connection to nature we seek when sourcing our own sustenance.
So, what wild foods are low-carb and keto-friendly?
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Meat, Fish, and Fat
Any type of wild game meat and seafood is going to be essentially devoid of carbohydrates. As long as you don’t overdo it on protein intake (if you’re trying to maintain ketosis), the flesh of any legal creature that walks, crawls, swims, or flies is an excellent staple.
But since ketosis demands that the majority of one’s calories come from fat, the overall leanness of game meat can present a challenge. Fortunately, Poldi Wieland of The Year of Plenty Podcast has a well of experience with wild fat. He’s followed a low carb lifestyle (around a hundred carbs per day) for many years, and believes it’s a more ancestral way of eating.
Living in Montana, Poldi mainly hunts whitetail, mule deer, elk, and antelope. He cites the economy of bringing down a large animal versus the effort of foraging an equivalent amount of calories. By cyclically reintroducing higher amounts of carbs, he eats with the seasons — especially enjoying raspberries in the summertime with melted 100% dark chocolate. He keeps his diet fairly flexible, depending on what’s available — much like our ancestors, and primitive peoples today.
Poldi’s also a champion of deer fat. In the hunting community, deer fat has a misfortunate reputation of being “nasty,” often described as waxy and off-putting in terms of texture and flavor. But in Poldi’s experience, it’s a treasure. He explains that deer fat’s signature mouthfeel comes from healthy stearic acid, and after talking with him, I’m ready to give it another try instead of relegating it to the discard pile.
Poldi advises using fat that’s freshly harvested from an animal rather than dried out from hanging, and reminds us that fat can vary between even individuals of the same species, depending on diet, age, time of year, and other factors. If you’re unsure if you want to eat the fat from your kill, he recommends cutting a piece off and cooking it up in a pan — your nose will tell you what you need to know.
Fish and shellfish are wonderfully fatty and oily. I’m mainly a deer hunter and fly fisher, but I know that bears, beavers, and waterfowl have fat that many consider excellent. Other wild fat sources include seeds, acorns, and nuts — especially hickory.
Greenstuff and Fungi
Anything green is generally low in carbs; the further you get from the root of the plant, the better. Think stems, shoots, and leaves: ramps and fiddleheads are some of the foraged foods I look forward to most in the spring.
In Virginia, there is some type of edible wild green growing in every season. Even in the winter, you’ll find tenacious little clumps of hairy bittercress that are perfect wilted with buttered backstrap. All over the U.S., edible “weeds” — garlic mustard, lambsquarters, purslane, and so many more — offer up tasty leaves with few carbs and plenty of phytonutrients.
Wild mushrooms are also low in carbs, and they’re a great way to add dimension and bulk to your wild food meals. Make creamy mushroom sauces and gravies to enjoy with your game meat.
Berries
Berries are among the lowest carb fruits available, particularly blackberries and raspberries. Fortunately, I have wild blackberries, black raspberries, and the invasive but delicious wineberry all over my yard, and I relish each sun-ripened palmful in the summertime. There are also wild strawberries, blueberries, and other species that offer a tantalizing touch of sweetness. Poldi rekindled my interest in the macronutriently-balanced hackberry, which is common where I live but often overlooked.
Key Takeaways
On a low carb diet, nature’s edible offerings won’t mislead you like the supermarket.
And you can supplement your wild diet with groceries. Whole foods are the best bet — they have nothing to hide behind elaborate packaging and clever marketing. Seasonal produce, eggs, and real cheese are allies in your wild game cooking.
Anything processed or manmade warrants close examination and mistrust. I swear, they sneak sugars and starches into everything these days.
Scrutinizing every ingredient list and nutrition facts panel is not unlike doing extensive (and necessary) research on new wild foods, so you know how to properly identify them and safely consume them.
On a ketogenic diet, you need to introduce novel and unfamiliar foods slowly and carefully to determine how your body reacts to them. This is also true of some wild foods, which may not agree with every constitution, at least not right away.
Lastly, mindful preparation and proper processing are unavoidable in both wild and low carb eating. Some wild foods can be enjoyed fresh, but many require cooking, drying, grinding, soaking, or other processes to be made safe for consumption. Examples include cooking nettles or poke in multiple changes of water, leeching the tannins from acorns, and making sure you never eat any kind of wild mushroom raw.
As a keto hunter, I spend a lot of time butchering meat, rendering fat, and making jerky, pemmican, and bone broth — and having all that on hand is absolutely worth the effort. Prepping meals ahead of time is everything. Here’s a simple hack: make a month’s worth of venison burger patties and freeze them in batches. Five patties per bag, separated by wax paper, are a fast and filling lunch option for the workweek. You can cook them right from frozen.
Eating wild and eating low carb is challenging, and to do either you need to have the will to control and confront yourself. You need to become attuned to your body and aware of what you put in it — understanding what helps, what hurts, and what works for you. You need to be resourceful and keep your objectives in mind. Or as Poldi concludes,
“Have and focus on the WHY. It’s a lot easier to stick to a restrictive diet plan if you have a mission. Same goes with wild food. For example, my mission with wild food is to become more resilient and learn skills that we are losing as a culture. Having a strong WHY helps during the times when you get cravings for a cheat meal or the hunting/foraging season is at a low.”
