Goose

For the meat, poultry, eggs, and fish group, Preferably consume two servings a day of “Green-Green” foods. If unavailable, you can consume two servings a day of “Green” foods.

To be in conformity with the Savanna Model Use only omega-3-rich, free-range, organic hen’s eggs.

For the meat, poultry, eggs, and fish group Restrict total food group servings per session to one.

For the meat, poultry, eggs, and fish group, Restrict total food group servings per day to two.

Most poultry is conforming, particularly duck and goose and even turkey. If you can get wild game like pheasant and grouse, that is good. However, do avoid battery chickens (chickens raised in tiny, individual cages)— their fatty acid profile is terrible.

The low-fat parts of farm fowl, such as skinless chicken and turkey breast, are good in modest quantities. You should reduce consumption of other parts as much as possible. All parts of duck and goose are fine. Wild birds such as pheasant, grouse, and pigeon are fully conforming.

Eskimos hunted fish, seal, whale, walrus, musk ox, caribou, polar bears, wolves, birds, rabbits, ducks, and geese. They ate every part of the animal—brains, blood, intestines, and even the feces. On occasion, the women would gather eggs, crabs, mollusks, and shellfish.

Our ancestors were not alone in the savanna. They shared the land with a wide variety of creatures: giraffe, lion, elephant, warthog, rhinoceros, hyena, antelope, gazelle, zebra, baboons, chimpanzees, vultures, eagles, flamingos, and many more. In addition, there were snakes, porcupines, crocodiles, lizards, tortoises, snails, grasshoppers, and a myriad of small mammals, reptiles, and insects. The lakes, streams, and waterholes teemed with many species of freshwater fish, shellfish, frogs, toads, ducks, geese, and other aquatic creatures.

Duck and goose consumption is minimal compared to chicken and turkey. Domestic ducks are descended from a hybrid of the Muscovy duck domesticated by Incas in Peru and the mallard duck domesticated by the Chinese some 2,000 years ago. Duck raising is practiced on a limited scale in most countries, usually as a small-farm enterprise, although large flocks of duck are bred in some areas of England, The Netherlands, and the United States.

The early civilizations carried on the old traditions of hunting, trapping, and snaring fowl. The ancient Egyptians caught and ate ostrich, bustard, crane, dove, pigeon, duck, quail, partridge, pheasant, and goose. Birds associated with the gods were taboo, notably the falcon, the ibis (a kind of heron), and the vulture. The Greeks and Romans did not eat much fowl, although at feasts peacock, thrushes, and ring-dove might be served. However, we must remember that the food of the ordinary citizen was extremely frugal; banquets and feasts were for the few, the wealthy gentry.

( . . . ) wildfowl and wild fish are just fine. Poultry, particularly chicken and turkey, tend to be fattier and contain more of the unhealthy fats. The breast (white meat) of the bird is the best, when it has the skin and fat removed, and free-range chickens tend to be leaner and healthier. Duck and goose are also fatty birds, but their fats are semi-liquid at room temperature, indicating a low saturated fat content.

Professor Serge Renaud dug deeper and found that there were strong regional differences. In Toulouse, in the southwest of France, a Mediterranean-type diet was practised. While not consuming much olive oil, the Toulousains did use duck and goose fat rather than butter. He found that they drank red wine copiously— up to one bottle per person per day (it is the Bordeaux region after all). In contrast, in the northern city of Strasbourg, on the border with Germany, the diet is more "Anglo-Saxon": the population drank much more milk, used butter for everything, and drank beer rather than wine.

The fat from goose and duck is semi-liquid at room temperature, which tells us that there is not much saturated fat in it. The fat of these birds has a high percentage of monounsaturated fat. This seems to be one more element helping to explain the French Paradox— the people of Toulouse use these fats in preference to butter, thus increasing their intake of monounsaturated fats.