Nutritional Value of Animal Source Foods

Abstract Text: Animal source foods (ASF) reinforce household food security. One of the most difficult and least accounted values of livestock is their nutritional value. From the early 1970s to the 1990s, meat and milk consumption in developing countries grew by more than twice the rate in developed countries. On a global basis, foods of animal (including fish) origin provide about 17% of the energy and more than 35% of the dietary protein for humans. Most importantly, the biological value of protein in animal source foods is about 1.4 times that of foods from plants and animal proteins are 20-30% more digestible than plant proteins (96%-98% vs. 65-70%). In rural areas of developing countries, diets of children are primarily crop-based and often deficient in vitamin A, vitamin B-12, riboflavin, calcium, iron and zinc – vitamins and minerals that are essential for human health and are more bio-available in animal source foods. Vitamin A in its usable form and vitamin B₁₂, for example, critical for the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, are present only in animal-source foods. Iron is more easily absorbed by humans from meat than from vegetables, zinc has a role in the metabolism of RNA and DNA, riboflavin plays a key role in energy metabolism, calcium is an essential nutrient for cell physiology and bone mineralization and iron is necessary for hemoglobin and myoglobin production.

Keywords: animal source foods, nutritional value, protein