This question could come up in the Health forum and would--of course--be inappropriate for the vegetarian forum. So I opted to place it here. I know that there is on-going debate about the nutritional value of animal meat; some claim that the protein is completely valueless once it undergoes heat. Obviously we note that folks who consume meat products are generally not lacking in protein. My question, however, is whether or not the consumption of blood has ANY value at all. My own cultural beliefs prohibit the consumption of animal blood. I know that people around the world who do consume red meats often times use the blood as a part of the marinade. Any knowledge or thoughts on the value of animal blood as nutrition?
Cooking protein makes little difference. I suppose there maybe some that will break down at cooking temperatures but pretty mcuh all proteins will not break down during cooking unless you regularly take you oven into the mid-hundreds (centigrade). It is an essential part of any diet and not getting enough can inhibit a cell ability to repair and re-produce. I do not know about the value of blood a logical guess suggests it would be a good source of minerals that humans need for blood, Iron springs to mind. Im sure the plasma contains a wealth of trace nutrients that the body needs, though how much of that isn't found in the rest of the meat I don't know.
I have a friend who only drinks blood, and he doesn't seem to unhealthy. He's a little pale though and doesn't like going out during the day, and has this odd thing again garlic. Also, I don't know if its related by he has odd teath, sort of pointy. Probably nothing to worry about though. Its not really the protiens themselves our body needs, since it can manufacture them, but the raw ingredients, amino acids. The protiens are too large to be taken into the body anyway, and are broken down in the stomach, so it doesn't matter if they have been broken down during cooking.
Still though protease breaks down proteins into aminos so they can be re-deployed as necessary. Though aminos, as any amateur body builder will tell you is hard to come by if not through protein. If the body doesnt have enough protein it uses fat to generate aminos, which is part of the reason you rarely see an oveweight vegetarian. All you can do is balance it out get meats, vegetables and carbs in fair amounts and exercise to get rid of the excess. If you do that you can't go far wrong. Troble is we seem to do too much of the eating part and not enough of the exercising part. Then we waste money on a book so that we can loose weight without going back to the exercise part.
There is definately iron in it. I know there is a type of anemia associated with drinking a LOT of blood. I have to do some research to remember exactly what it is, but people get pale, and senstive to light, and think they need blood to live. OTOH, Eastern European people eat blood soup and blood sausage with no ill effect (BLECH) My dh's family eats stuff like this. It is very common in Bohemian and Polish cooking, where people waste none of the animal.
in britain black pudding is a traditional breakfast treat and blood is a major ingredient in that as well.
The body's tissues all "eat" nothing but blood. There must be some good chemicals in there. Even if some of those chem.s don't make it through the digestive process, it is probably a decent source of nutrition. Someone mentioned religious prohibitions against eating blood. I have heard that that prohibition in the Jewish culture was caused by surrounding tribes using blood in their religious ceremonies and the early Jews used the prohibition to distinguish their religion from their neighbor's.
I drink blood. Can't say that it has much nutritional value though. If I were you, I'd look up the contents of blood.
