The many years spent building this wild endeavor and the many people who have showed up to help it along have been incredibly humbling. We are grateful to our friends, old and new, who have stepped in to amplify their impact within our communities and we are so lucky to be able to call on some of their expertise to help our customers better understand their own health journeys.

We have been having an ongoing conversation around the fact that all proteins are not equal, a lengthy talk-story that we think holds a lot of value for our ʻohana of customers. We compiled the following Q&A covering high-level nutrition. Mahalo nui Andy.

Jake — Broadly speaking how do you think about nutrition?

Andy — When it comes to nutrition, we’re always thinking about two major players: quality and quantity. Quantity is, effectively, calorie intake—making sure it’s not too high or too low. Quality is referring to the composition of the elements in those calories. Both impact the other. For example, take three specific scenarios:

#1) Someone who’s overeating (eating too many calories), but consuming high-quality foods. They will still have a number of negative health issues as a byproduct of additional body fat, but they are not likely to be missing any key micronutrients, vitamins, or minerals. For this person, regulating calories is the most important item.

#2) Someone who’s overeating, but consuming low-quality foods. This is far more common than people realize. In fact, it’s easily the most common of the three scenarios—overfed and undernutriented. They are going to have obesity-related problems as well as other issues caused by vitamin and mineral insufficiencies, potentially (although unlikely) even true clinical deficiencies.

#3) Someone who’s undereating, but consuming low-quality foods. You get the picture. When a low amount of total food is consumed, vitamin and mineral intake is at a very high risk of being clinically deficient.

The point I’m trying to make here is that there are numerous scenarios in which people may want to add calories (e.g, heavy training or exercise, maximizing muscle growth, etc.) or reduce them (e.g., body fat loss, athletes needing to reduce weight for a competition), and other situations where caloric intake is otherwise hard to manage (e.g., during pregnancy, in children, during extensive travel, etc.).

This is where quality becomes critical. The lower the total calorie intake, or the greater the caloric restriction, the more quality starts to matter. So by maximizing quality, you get to worry less about being perfect with your quantity.

J — What should everyone know about protein, and particularly, why is Leucine so important?

A — Proteins in your body come in many forms. We typically think of protein and muscle as the same thing, but remember, every cell in your body is made of proteins—your immune cells, red blood cells, brain cells, etc. So getting enough protein in your diet is indeed critical for muscle growth, but it’s really about the health of your body as a whole.

That said, proteins in all forms are made up of a combination of smaller parts called amino acids. There are many different amino acids, but one of them, called Leucine, is the primary driver of skeletal muscle growth. In fact, as long as you get enough Leucine, the total amount of protein you eat doesn’t matter that much for muscle growth. This is why you’ll often hear people differentiate "quality" protein from non-quality, because they come with different amino acid profiles.

As an example, Maui Axis deer have an enormous amount of Leucine, meaning their venison will drive muscle growth (more specifically, muscle protein synthesis) exceptionally well, making it far easier to hit your Leucine threshold (the amount of Leucine needed to maximize the response). You can use this to either:

J — We are so thankful you’ve taken an interest in our work. You’ve been to Maui to help us feed the community, you’ve seen all the nutritional data, and we’ve had numerous in-depth conversations. For you, what makes Maui Nui’s nutritional profile so interesting?

A — Even a cursory look at the environment, lifestyle, and harvesting process these deer experience tells you everything you need to know about the nutrient quality and quantity of MNV meat, particularly when you compare it to most meat sources, even grass-fed beef. The nutrient quality of volcanic-rich soil, along with perfect year-round weather, and the lack of predators, means these animals live an incredibly low-stress life.

The harvesting process is also superior. These factors combine to give the animal vastly superior protein, phytochemical, and fatty acid profiles with significantly lower oxidative stress markers.

MNV's protein and amino acid ratios speak for themselves. But the venison's Vitamin A and Choline concentrations are particularly interesting to me as they play an important role in everything from eye function to brain health, and are often overlooked.

Most jarring is their fatty acid profile. Of course, these deer are far leaner than most livestock—that’s a given. But it’s the constitution of fat that really matters. One of the biggest challenges of a standard western diet is the overconsumption of Omega 6 fatty acids and the simultaneous underconsumption of Omega 3 fatty acids.

I’ve personally tested the Omega 3:6 ratio in countless people’s blood, and it’s almost always poor. MNV has, by a country mile, the best Omega 3:6 ratio I’ve ever seen, and it is multiple times better than even grass-fed beef.

J — But how does it taste?

A — Oh, my word. It really is stunning. I grew up with deer meat in the house. Muleys, white-tail, black-tail, you name it. I’ve had countless elk steaks and antelope stews.

My wife on the other hand, grew up in the city and didn’t even know people ate deer until we met. She’s an incredibly talented chef with senses (particularly taste and smell) like a bear. She tolerates venison but greatly prefers elk or antelope. That all changed with the Axis deer. I had heard all the stories and was fully expecting the taste to impress, but she was far more skeptical. It easily exceeded my expectations and completely blew hers away. Remarkable in every way.