Pigeon

Food · Protein · Food, Typed Supps

Dark poultry meat wrapped in a lot of fat — take the skin off and the numbers change completely.

Stage by stage

Intake (Skin fat and dark muscle): Chewing separates the fat layer under the skin from the dark flight muscle.
Digestion (Protein and fat broken down): Pepsin cleaves the protein; bile and lipase handle the fat further along.
Absorption (Amino acids, fat, heme iron): Amino acids, fatty acids and myoglobin-derived heme iron are absorbed.
Use (Repair and energy): Amino acids rebuild muscle; fatty acids are burned or stored.

Time to effect

Hours: Amino acids from the meal reach the blood within 1 to 2 hours.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Keto, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Halal, Kosher, Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

96 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — low. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.

Environmental footprint

9.9 kg CO2e and 660 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Poultry meat" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Mid — roughly £11 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Complete protein
Heme iron
Niacin
Vitamin B6

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 291
Protein: 16.2g
Carbohydrate: 0g
of which sugars: 0g
Fat: 25.5g
of which saturated: 6.8g
Fibre: 0g
Sodium: 68mg

Food vs. supplement

Nothing here calls for a supplement. Squab is a protein and heme iron source like other dark poultry, in a small portion; the reason to eat it is culinary, and it is priced accordingly.

Kitchen tip

Roast or pan-sear the breast to medium-rare and rest it; the leg and thigh benefit from longer, slower cooking. If the fat is the concern, remove the skin after cooking rather than before — it protects the lean meat from drying out.

Common myth

"It is poultry, so it must be a lean white meat." In reality: Poultry is not automatically the lean option and its colour is not about the species being 'unhealthier'. Muscle colour tracks myoglobin, which tracks how much sustained aerobic work the muscle does. Pigeon breast is dark for the same reason duck breast is dark and chicken breast is not: it is a working flight muscle. That myoglobin is why the meat carries meaningfully more heme iron than white poultry.