Hey BSP, Check Out This Chicken
Filed under: General Health, Nutrition
A CP client whom I used to train sent me an email the other day that I thought was worth sharing with you guys as it is rather enlightening.
Hey BSP,
I thought this would interest you. I was talking to a patient today and spreading the good word about pasture raised chicken and how by eating it, makes the person that much more awesome. She had told me that she was allergic to penicillin and a bunch of other things. For about 2 years, whenever she would eat “chicken,” she would get sick. For awhile, she thought it was just a bad piece of chicken and didn’t think anything of it. She finally went to to doctors and had tests among tests done to try and figure out what was wrong. Finally, they figured out that the antibiotics in the “bad” chicken, most likely the penicillin was causing her to become sick. She tried pasture raised chicken and hasn’t had a problem eating that at all.
Thought you would like to hear about that.
That is pretty gross if you ask me.
Food is about more than just the macronutrients and calories it provides, no matter how many experts try to tell you otherwise. A chicken force-fed on a factory “farm” in an enclosed barn who never sees daylight while being smashed in with 10,000 other chickens and given antibiotics to prevent its crappy diet and unsanitary living conditions from killing it, is not the same as a chicken allowed to roam freely outside, eat grubs, maggots, insects or whatever it feels like and only medicated if necessary (just like humans should be).
While the breast from each “might” provide the same amount of protein, fat and calories, they are not equal. It is important to realize that the second chicken is going to have a significantly better fatty acid profile, with more omega-3′s and less omega-6′s. It also does not come with its own dose of penicillin! Finally, it tastes better and more than likely contains higher amounts of some yet unidentified element that is better for our health.
The longer we study food and nutrition, the more nutrients and elements we discover that have benefits to our health. More often than not, these elements are maximized when the food is raised properly, and not in some horrible mass production designed to maximize the company’s profit margin. Eggs are a perfect example.
Eggs from chickens raised in the healthy manner I described have been found to have 4-6x more vitamin D, 2x more vitamin A, 4x more vitamin E, 8x more beta carotene, and 3x more omega-3 fats! I can only imagine how much more choline, lutein, zeaxanthin and other beneficial compounds pastured eggs have over their conventional brethren!
It stands to reason if these well-raised chickens are putting out much healthier eggs, they themselves will be much healthier animals. Which would you rather eat: a strong and healthy chicken that produces nutrient-rich eggs, or a weak and sickly one that requires antibiotics to keep it alive and produces nutrient-depleted eggs? The choice is yours.
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Posted on June 22nd, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre
2 Comments
June 23rd, 2011 at 10:06 am
Hey Brian,
This is Tyler, current CP intern.
Good stuff on the chicken. That’s disgusting… I do my best to avoid any antibiotics/antibacterials in the environment, the last place I want it is in my food. Yuck.
I took pictures of some pastured eggs vs supermarket eggs a while back and discussed some of the nutrient differences here:
http://evolutionaryhealthsystems.blogspot.com/2011/03/real-food-6-classic-breakfast-homegrown.html
obvious visual difference..
July 7th, 2011 at 11:51 am
Here’s something that might interest you. Back in the early 70’s I did a short stint in life raising chickens. We were growing for the second largest processor in the US. The number one processors home plant was about 65 north. We had 7 houses and about 176,000 birds. In nature, a 4-5 lb. bird takes about 14-15 weeks to grow to maturity. When I was involved, the time frame was reduced to 10-11 weeks. I understand that it’s now down to about 6-8 weeks. Did you ever notice that there are no hard bones in chickens anymore?
Every morning I’d go through the houses and pick up the dead chicks: A job I really hated. A vet had told me that they usual die of a heart attack; and not from being frightened. It’s caused by antibiotics and growth hormones in the feed. E. I. Dupont coined the phrase, “Better living through chemistry.” Think about that.
The number one grower touted the bright yellow skin of his chickens. They were being fed marigold petals. Did you ever wonder what makes a Flamingo pink? It’s a pepper that they eat as part of their natural diet. Take them out of that environment and they turn stark white. Put paprika in their food and they go bright pink again. Number one also touted that his chickens were being fed cookies. They sure were. Nabisco was right down the street. They got all of the crumbed rejects… cheap!
Come this fall, I’m going to try my hand at raising rabbits. Yes, farm raised rabbits do cook and taste like chicken.
God bless.