Healthy Chicken:
What You Need to Know Before You Prepare Another Meal with Chicken!
This chicken looks delicious and nutritious, but unless you know how
it was raised, you may be consuming pesticides, hormones, antibiotics
and even arsenic!
|
Think about the past week: how often did you eat chicken?
If you are like most Americans, chicken probably made it onto your menu nearly
every day, and with good reason. Chicken is a delicious source of lean protein.
In fact, chicken is so common that the average American consumes 59.2
pounds of the (boneless) birds each year!1
This may not seem like a bad thing. After all, chicken has plenty of good
qualities besides just being lean protein.
Chicken is the world's leading source of animal protein. Here's why2:
- Versatility. Chicken can be sautéed, baked, poached, and
grilled with almost any combination of spices and marinades.
- Lean Protein. 4 ounces of chicken provide two thirds of your daily
protein requirements, and adequate protein may prevent bone loss in older
people.
- Immunity. That 4-ounce serving of chicken also provides nearly
half of your RDA of the trace mineral selenium that is essential for manufacturing
glutathione, a powerful immune boosting and cancer-fighting enzyme.
- Cancer and Alzheimer's Protection. A serving of chicken supplies
72% of the RDA for niacin, a B vitamin that can protect DNA from cell damage
and has cancer-preventative properties. Chicken may be a good food for Alzheimer's
prevention because elderly people who obtain niacin from food are less likely
to develop the disease.
- Energy. Vitamin B6 in chicken helps process carbohydrates and helps
regulate blood sugar.
You know that chicken is good for your health and taste buds, but before
you head to the grocery store, make sure you know the facts about conventional
chicken and how to pick the best poultry for you and your family.
The Danger of Conventional Chicken
The USDA has established firm guidelines that regulate the use of organic
labeling for chicken, but what's wrong with conventional chickens in the first
place?
Conventional chickens are raised in commercial chicken farms that pack
500,000 animals into close quarters where they eat genetically modified (GM)
grains (including soy) that have been raised with pesticides and fertilizers.
These chickens are given growth hormones to make them fatter and antibiotics
to prevent the infections that are inevitable in such living conditions.
Conventional chickens can expose you to hormones,
antibiotics, toxins from pesticides and fertilizers and even high levels of
the poison arsenic, which is used to prevent poultry parasites.3
But as a consumer, you have a choice NOT to consume conventional poultry.
Why Pasture Fed Chicken?
Here at Body Ecology, we encourage people to search out pasture fed poultry
whenever possible. But not just any pasture fed chickens.
When you choose pasture fed chickens, make sure the chickens:
- Have never been given antibiotics, hormones, or drugs.
- Have consumed a natural diet consisting of insects, pesticide-free
grass and non-genetically modified legumes and grains. This allows the chickens
to have a healthy inner ecosystem and strong immunity.
- Are humanely raised and free range (allowed to run around
outside with grass underfoot). Cage free is not the same as free range.
Cage free chickens typically live on porches with no access to pastures.
The USDA recently found that meat from chickens with access to the outdoors
were more nutritious than their cooped-up conventional chicken counterparts.4
Chickens that are pasture fed with the above farming standards have by
far the most health benefits, including5:
- Higher in minerals.
- Higher in fat-soluble vitamins (e.g., 50% more vitamin A).
- 21% less total fat and 30% less saturated fat.
- Natural source of omega-3 (100% more omega-3 essential fatty acids than
conventional chicken).
Organic chicken is a great choice, but make sure you get organic pasture
fed chicken in order to reap the health rewards of consuming chickens raised
on their natural diet. Organic chickens are not given hormones or antibiotics,
but "organic" on the label does not tell us if the chickens were
able to exercise, nor does it tell us what they were fed.
In fact, we often get questions on where to find healthy poultry products.
That's why we love US Wellness Meats, a network of highly skilled small farming
families with a commitment to the health of their consumers and the quality
of their meats and poultry. Nothing beats the convenience of buying online
and
US Wellness Meats delivers pasture fed products to your door!
US Wellness Meats was founded on the concept of providing pasture fed, chemical-free,
pesticide-free, non-GMO and antibiotic-free poultry and beef, so that the
animals, consumers and the planet could maintain the good health that nature
intended.
US
Wellness Meats offers a variety of poultry packages so that you can experiment
with different chicken preparations and recipes.
Next time you have chicken (it just might be tonight!) choose pasture fed
chicken that is free of all the chemicals and antibiotics that don't belong
at your dinner table. You can be sure you'll be eating chicken that tastes
great and has plenty of nutrients to support your healthy lifestyle AND a
healthy planet.
If you want to know more about organic eggs and meats, read
Eggs: What Health-Conscious People Need to Know About One of Our Most Misunderstood
Foods and Good
Meats vs. Bad Meats: Your Definitive Guide to How to Choose Healthiest Meat.
Sources:
1 Buzby, Jean and Farah, Hodan, "Chicken Consumption Continues Longrun
Rise," ERS.USDA.gov. http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/April06/Findings/Chicken.htm
2 Chicken, WHFoods.org. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=116
3 High Levels Of Arsenic In Chicken May Require Adjustment in Consumption,
Environmental Health Perspectives, 5 Jan 2004. http://www.ehponline.org/press/achicken.html
Organic Prairie Organic Chicken, OrganicValley.com.
http://www.organicvalley.coop/utility/faq/chicken_faq.html
5 Fallon, S. and Enig, Mary G., Splendor from the Grass.
http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/splendor.html
6 Salatin, Joel, "Pastured Poultry: The Polyface Farm Model," WestonAPrice.org.
http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/pasturedpoultry.html
Return to Newsletter Archive
Recommend
This Page to a Friend
Print this article
