Found this interesting Article Poultry Talk. It is one of the many good articles of the Wellness Letter which relies on the expertise of the School of Public Health and other researchers at University of California, Berkeley, as well as other top scientists from around the world. If you don't have time to surf over there, here is a brief summary of what is in that article:
Eating white meat (chicken or turkey) is better than eating red meat as poultry has less fat and fewer calories, especially if the skin is removed. However, the healthiest diets are still diets rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains (and include some fish) and lower in animal products of all kinds.
What’s the difference between farm-raised and organic chicken? Well, organic chicken are raised on 100% organic feed and no antibiotic is used, plus the welfare of the chicken have to be promoted (a rather vague provision). However, slaughtering methods are the same no matter how the chicken was raised, and that’s where most contamination with Salmonella and Campylobacter, two potentially deadly strains of bacteria found in raw chicken, occurs.
The free-range label means the birds have access to an outdoor pen, via portals on the poultry house. They may never go outdoors, and you shouldn’t picture them roaming free in a big yard. “Pastured” chickens, sometimes sold in high-end markets, are also raised in cages, but the cages sit on grass and are moved from time to time. There is no evidence that chickens labeled “free-range” or “pastured” taste better, are more nutritious, or get more humane treatment than other birds.
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1 comment:
Hi, The article doesn't sound very accurate. Free-roaming is generally the term used when the chickens have access to an outside pen. Free-range generally is used when the chicken or cows have access to a "range" to graze on in a natural life-style way (even if they've picked it clean, which chickens tend to do). These are both opposed to the tightly packed in chickens that need antibiotics in their feed because anything that overcrowed would get and rapidly spread illness. So, by definition the birds get more humane treatment.
What our family noticed is that free-range chickens are less fatty, tougher, gamier, and simply don't cook up as tasty as we're used to in the now traditional overcrowed well fattened up chickens. We especially noticed it with free-range turkey several Thanksgivings running and with cornish game hens. Farm raised salmon have cooking added since they are missing the caroetine (spelling?) and other nutrients in wild salomon because of their different feeds. Therefore, differently raised chickens may have different nutrietial profiles.
In neuroendoimmune illnesses (CFS/FM/MCS) I've known several people who commented that they could get organic or free-roaming chickens feed without hormones, but not regular chickens. What made it curious is that they could also each kosher chicken even though they weren't Jewish and didn't know what koshering involved. The kosher labels they had access to also use free-roaming and no-hormone or anti-biotic techniques. The over use of antibiotics in food animals is being blamed and considered for contributing to the anti-biotic resistent bacteria that are showing up. These chickens well may be healthier for us.
So many of the scientific articles in life come from places that start with belief systems and even agendas, so everything, even prestigious sounding has to be read cautiously. Otherwise in (to say it in an overstatement), we could ostrasize someone and their ideas for declaring that the earth is round.
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