Nutritional value

Rabbit's nutrition includes a big percentage of fresh green leaves, along with foods rich in Ω-3 fatty acids, which enrich their meat with these valuable nutrients for the human organism.

Rabbit's meat has exceptional nutritional value, and is low in calories, compared to other meats, a fact yet unknown to most of the consumers.

According to the latest research data, rabbit meat plays an important role to human diet and to the precious consumer's health, due to its multiple nutrients.

1. Fats, Calories and Protein Contents.

One of the basic advantages of rabbit meat is low fat and also its low calories content, compared to other widely spread meats, as pork, beef, lamb and chicken, a fact of great nutritional value for humans.

Second basic advantage is its comparatively big content in proteins (Chart 1), which are of a great biological value, richer in aminoacids (Lysine, sulfur amino acids, valine, isoleucine, etc.)

Chart 1. Average composition and energy content of various meats(per 100 gr of meat)

*Refers to its average fat content. Certain meat parts may contain much less fat, as those along the spinal line(1,8gr/100gr), or the back ends of the animal (3,4gr/100gr)
Scientific Data Source: Dalle Zotte & Szendrő, 2011.

Furthermore, rabbit meat does not contain uric acid, and is considered to have low contents in purins, thus lowering the possibilities of pathological situations as inflammatory arthritis.

2. Mineral contents

Although rabbit meat has low levels in iron, as all white meats, it has other advantages considering its mineral contents.(Chart 2). This fact, along with its high contents in Potassium(which fight the sodium levels within our organism), is extremely crucial to the prevention and limitation of the vascular high blood pressure.

Another characteristic of rabbit meat is high content in phosphorus, compared to pork, beef or chicken meats.

Furthermore, rabbit meat can easily be enhanced through animal feed, during the animal's growing period, with all necessary nutrients for human health, as selenium(which offers anti-oxidant protection to our system, among other things).

Chart 2. Mineral contents of various meats(gr per 100 gr of meat)

Data Source: Dalle Zotte, 2004

3. Vitamins Contents

All meats, as mentioned before, constitute a fine source of absorbable vitamins for our organism. For most of vitamins, no great differences are observed among various meats, they all appear similar, or close to it.

But what makes rabbit meat exceptional, is its B12 content, which is 10times higher than all other meats(Chart 3).

Β12 vitamin plays an important role to our nervous system and blood renewal. Blood deficiencies cause many pathological situations(nervous disorders, anemia etc). A portion of 100 grs rabbit meat covers the daily adultd need of 2 microgrsin B12.

Chart 3. Vitamin contents of various meats (per 100 grs of meat.)

Reference: Dalle Zotte, 2004

Among fat-soluble vitamins, vitamin D can be traced faintly in rabbit meat, while vitamin E can be found in big quantities, which can be trippled(from 0,16 to 4,46mg per 100grs of meat), through animal feed inhancement with vitamin E, during rabbits' breeding period, to the benefit of the consumers.

4. Fatty acids contents in rabbit animal fat, and cholesterol contents

Low cholesterol contents compared to other animal meats(chart4), makes rabbit meat a perfect choice for every consumeer.

Low cholesterol combined with good quality fat(intramuscular fat), rich in fatty acids((Low saturated, high polyunsaturated-especially omega-3 polyunsaturated), can help reduce atherosclerotic plaque formation risk in the arteries, preventing pathological conditions of the cardiovascular system (atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, etc.) and reduce blood cholesterol levels.

Πίνακας 4. Cholesterol contents(mg per 100grs of meat) and fatty acids contents(% in total numbers) of various meats

Reference: Hernàndez & Dalle Zotte, 2010

we must also point out that all these qualities can be enhanced even more through animal feed enrichments, during the rabbits' breeding period, to the benefit of the consumers.

The right animal feed is a crucial factor that determines the final product quality in rabbit meat, but also in all reproductive animals, due to their content in fatty acids.

Furthermore, scientific reports show that rabbit meat has a relatively generous content in branched fatty acids, which belong to a special category of important fatty acids, fighting cancer.

Conclusions

Rabbit meat has much to offer to the consumer's health, contrary to other meats, according to scientific research and the benefits are:

• Low cholesterol,
• Low in purines and uric acid,
• High levels of proteins of excellent biological value,
• Low levels of Sodium and high in Potassium and Phosphorus,
• High in Vitamins B(mainly B12),
• Low levels of Saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids,
• High levels of polyunsaturated and especially ω-3 fatty acids,
• Average quantities of special categories fatty acids, as branched fatty acids(fighting cancer)

Furthermore, rabbit meat can easily be enhanced through animal feed, during the animal's growing period, with all necessary nutrients for human health, as selenium, ω-3 fatty acids etc, which make it even more important to human healthy diet, and the consumer's best interest.

For the above reasons rabbit meat is considered among the healthiest and most nutritious food choices, with:

Low calories intake

Great Nutritional Valie

Great Beneficial Action

a fact, especially crucial to those who take special care of their figure and seek at the same time gourmet recipies with a tender white meat, easy to digest and a fine supplement to other foods, rich in fiber.

The nutritious value of rabbit meat can be found in many scientific surveys and the following bibliography.

bibliography

Combes, S. (2004). Valeur nutritionnelle de la viande de lapin. INRA Production Animales, 17, 373−383.

Combes, S., & Dalle Zotte, A. (2005). La viande de lapin: valeur nutritionnelle et particularités technologiques. Proc. 11èmes Journées de la Recherche Cunicole, 29–30 November 2005, Paris, France (pp. 167−180).

Dalle Zotte, A. (2002). Perception of rabbit meat quality and major factors influencing the rabbit carcass and meat quality. Livestock Production Science, 75, 11−32.

Dalle Zotte, A. (2004). Avantage diététiques. Le lapin doit apprivoiser le consommateur. Viandes Produits Carnés, 23(6), 1−7.

Dalle Zotte A., Szendrő Z, 2011. The role of rabbit meat as functional food. Meat Science 88, 319-331.

Dokoupilová, A., Marounek, M., Skřivanová, V., & Březina, P. (2007). Selenium content in tissues and meat quality in rabbits fed selenium yeast. Czech Journal of Animal Science 52, 165−169.

Hernàndez, P. (2007). Carne de conejo, ideal para dietas bajas en ácido úrico. Revista Científica de Nutrición. N° 8 Septiembre. Boletín de Cunicultura, 154, 33−36.

Hernàndez, P., Dalle Zotte, A. (2010). Influence of diet on rabbit meat quality. pp 163–178. In: Nutrition of the rabbit. Edited by C. de Blas, Univesidad Poletenica, Madrid, J. Wiseman, University of Nottingham, UK, 2nd ed., ISBN-13:978 1 84593 669 3.

Hernàndez, P., & Gondret, F. (2006). Rabbit meat quality. In L. Maertens, & P. Coudert (Eds.), Recent advances in rabbit sciences (pp. 269−290). Melle, Belgium: ILVO.

Leiber, F., Meier, J. S., Burger, B., Wettstein, H. R., Kreuzer, M., Hatt, J. M., et al. (2008). Significance of coprophagy for the fatty acid profile in body tissues of rabbits fed different diets. Lipids, 43, 853−865.

Papadomichelakis, G., Anastasopoulos, V., Karagiannidou, A., Fegeros, K., 2010a. Effects of dietary digestible fibre and soybean oil level on the odd-numbered, branched-chain and hydroxy-fatty acids of caecotrophs in rabbits. Animal Feed Science and Technology 158, 95-103.

Papadomichelakis, G., Karagiannidou, A., Anastasopoulos, V., Fegeros, K., 2010b. Effect of dietary soybean oil addition on the odd-numbered and branched-chain fatty acids in rabbit meat. Meat Science 86, 264-269.

Williams, P. (2007). Nutritional composition of red meat. Nutrition & Dietetics, 64, S113−S119.

Wongtangtintharn, S., Oku, H., Iwasaki, H., Toda, T., 2004. Effect of branched-chain fatty acids on fatty acid biosynthesis of human breast cancer cells. Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology 50, 137–143.

Yang, Ζ., Liu, S., Chen, X., Chen, H., Huang, M., Zheng, J., 2000. Induction of apoptotic cell death and in vivo growth inhibition of human cancer cells by a saturated branched-chain fatty acid, 13-methyltetradecanoic acid. Cancer Research 60, 505–509.