Think Chicken Is A Health Food? Surprise!

Most people know that beef is bad for them, but not everyone realizes that chicken is unhealthy too. Not just fried chicken and nuggets and greasy fast food, but also grilled chicken and skinless chicken and other options that people tend to think aren’t that bad. But chicken is high in cholesterol, just like beef, not to mention fat and calories, and chicken flesh is frequently contaminated with bacteria like listeria, campylobacter, and salmonellosis.

Plus, chicken contains arsenic. Yep, arsenic. Today, the Washington Post article, “A Deadly Ingredient in a Chicken Dinner,” explained that most major chicken producers in the U.S. add an arsenic compound to their chicken feed. U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers have found that “[e]ating 2 ounces of chicken per day—the equivalent of a third to a half of a boneless breast—exposes a consumer to 3 to 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic, the element’s most toxic form.” Daily exposure to low doses of arsenic can cause cancer, dementia, neurological problems, heart disease, diabetes, and other ailments in humans.

But that’s not all. According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, chicken is also a significant source of sodium. The chicken industry regularly injects raw chicken with saltwater solutions during processing. Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, says, "This practice manages to do not one but two bad things. It increases the water weight of the chicken so you are paying for water, not chicken, and it adds salt that you don't need." 

High sodium levels can cause and aggravate high blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. I’m not normally one to worry about sodium, and even though I also don’t eat chicken for ethical and environmental reasons, I find this whole unhealthy practice distasteful.

I’m the last person who will tell you that it is sensible to think that a chicken’s corpse is a smart thing to put in your mouth, but I think these articles show that many people are eating more crap than they realize when they eat chicken. We all know fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains are your best bets (mock meats don’t necessarily qualify as real “health food”), but if you crave chicken, the following vegetarian foods “taste like chicken,” without so many unappetizing issues:

Morningstar Farms vegetarian chicken strips

Health is Wealth meatless buffalo wings

 Worthington Foods Chic-ketts

Boca original and spicy meatless chicken patties

There are tons more, of course, but this should give you some product suggestions.