What happened? Enter the onslaught of artisan jerky, stage left, a radical new kind of meat snack made from lean animals with no preservatives (including nitrates) or artificial sugars and only a modest amount of salt, compared with its primitive predecessors. And jerky lovers everywhere largely have one man to thank: Jonathan Sebastiani, founder of Krave Jerk. “There were like three companies making the same junk-food product—it was a totally stale category ready for a renaissance,” Sebastiani says of his decision to launch Krave in 2009. At the time, he was training for the New York City Marathon and snacking on small-batch craft jerky sold—for a hefty price—at a boutique butcher in Brooklyn. Like many other fitness-minded people, Sebastiani believed that the snack was a low-calorie source of quality protein. He was—and is—right. From a nutrition standpoint, a serving of jerky provides up to 12 g of protein for only 90 calories. That’s more protein than many energy bars for a lot less sugar—i.e., calories and carbs. And with less sugar, jerky doesn’t provoke the same fat-storing insulin response that many other packaged snacks do. Score one for jerky. MORE: The Incredibly Awesome Way Beer Can Lower Your Cancer Risk It’s been a long time since Krave shook up the meat-snack market, and they are no longer alone. Brands like 3 Jerks and Simply Snackin, among others, have joined the rush, and some (like Gourmet Grassfed) are upping the ante by crafting snacks from grass-fed cows or game meats such as buffalo, ostrich, and duck. In a word, jerky has gone fancy, including flavor profiles like Bombay curry, Mongolian spice, and pho. In short, we have a new superfood. Or do we? Comments welcome.
