Have you tried camel meat?

My husband and I love grocery shopping because we love to try new foods. One day we came across camel meat at our local Coles supermarket. The camel meat was in the form of burger patties. So after a short discussion as whether we wanted to try it, we decided to buy it and put it in our homemade burgers. I have to say that I wasn't that keen to try it because it sounded weird.

This a picture of our burger with the lot (multigrain bread, lettuce, tomato, fried onion, patty, pineapple, beetroot, bacon, egg, beetroot, cheese).

What did it taste like? The best way to describe the taste of the patty is it taste like the sausage patty from McDonald's Sausage McMuffin (maybe I've been eating camel all that time and I didn't even know it?!). The patties are meant to taste sweeter because they have a higher glycogen (sugar) content but I really couldn't taste the difference.

So after eating my delicious camel burger, I decided to determine whether if camel meat is actually healthy for me. This is what I found out.

It is similar to other red meats (e.g. beef, goat and lamb), but it has less fat and more moisture. The fat content is pretty low, about 1-7% depending which part of the camel you are eating. And like other red meat it is an excellent source of iron and zinc. One group of scientists classified camel meats as a meat with low cholesterol content 51-53mg/100g of meat.  [Further nutritional information
books.google.com.au/books?isbn=178064101X]

In some parts of the world camel meats has been recommended to those with hyperacidity, hypertension, pneumonia, prevention of cancer, heart disease, colds, sciatica, and fatigue. Who knew camel meat could do so much? However I couldn't find journal articles to support all of those claims. Most articles do recommend camel meat for heart diseases, probably because of its low fat content. [ Further reading: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/232041869_Minerals_and_Nutritional_Composition_of_Camel_(Camelus_dromedarius)_Meat_in_Pakistan/file/9fcfd5073aabc88ca5.pdf]

I am not sure if camel meat is good for any of those conditions, I am eating it because it taste good. Be brave and give it a try!