WESH (Winter Park, Florida) 26 November 07 Gator Meat Deemed 'Really Healthy Food'
Christmas, Fla.: Gators have long been hunted as part of a sport.
Now people are hunting gator meat because it's good for the heart.
Most gators that end up on restaurant menus are not hunted; they are raised on farms.
A segment on the Today show highlighted the health benefits of alligator meat, saying it's better for you than chicken.
But that's hardly a secret to guys who have raised them for decades.
Edwin Froehlich Jr. said the little fat and high protein makes gator meat "really healthy food."
Gator has all the protein of beef and chicken, and more protein than fish.
Fish is lower in fat, but gator has only a third the fat of beef and less than half the fat of chicken.
Some people still won't eat gator, despite the health benefits.
"A lot people hear about it but don't think they'd ever like it," Edwin Froehlich Sr. said.
Some complain gator meat is tough and hard to chew.
But, Froehlich said, too many people overcook it.
"We do a lot of big cookouts with hundreds of people," Froehlich Sr. said. "The thing which disappears first is the gator meat."
Froehlich sells 35,000 to 40,000 pounds of meat a year.
He said a lot of the alligator meat is exported but if it becomes a health food choice in this country, exports may be cut back to meet local demand.
Gator Meat Deemed 'Really Healthy Food'