Are You Being Deceived by Chicken Labeling Lies?
Chicken is a great source of lean protein - and is a staple food for many healthy eaters. However labels and marketing slogans for chicken products can be very misleading.
Let's take a look at a few culprits:
100% All Natural
Have you every shoved a chicken breast on your Foreman grill and noticed a lot of watery stuff trickling down? That's because "All Natural" is not natural at all. 30% of chicken is "enhanced". What this means is that salt and water are injected into the chicken meat. Other additives often pumped up with salt and water or even seaweed extract.Not only is this dubious from a health perspective (high sodium) - but also from a cost perspective. 15% of the chicken weight is from additives! (see Washington Post).
The Truthful Labeling Coalition are so incensed with this that they are taking the issue to the federal court.
100% Chicken Breast
On processed chicken products - you can often find "100% Chicken Breast" displayed in large bold type. In very small print above this is the words "made from".
Check out this product from Australia - Inghams Chicken Steaks - note the "100% Chicken Breast" at bottom right? Let's compare this with the ingredients.
"CHICKEN (51%), WATER, FLOUR (WHEAT, RYE, SOY), SALT, THICKENERS (1404, 412), "... and the list goes on.
A quick glance at the product may have convinced you that you were buying a lot of chicken breast. Not really.
Fast Food Chicken Strips
When I glance down a fast food menu - I often think "strips of chicken sounds healthy". Then I promptly remind myself - that these "chicken" strips are often an absurd concoction of any number of ingredients (see more about McDonald's Chicken Selects).
KFC chicken Strips From KFC: "Juicy, 100% all-white meat chicken breast".
Let's take a look at the ingredients (buried deep within the KFC site):
Chicken Breast Strips Containing up to 43% of a Solution of: Water, Seasoning (Soy Protein Concentrate, Salt, Rice Starch, Carrageenan, Dextrose, Onion Powder, Dehydrated Chicken Broth, Maltodextrin, Spice Extractives), Sodium Phosphate. Breaded with Wheat Flour, Salt, Spices, Monosodium Glutamate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Garlic Powder, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Calcium Silicate (as Anticaking Agent), Modified Corn Starch, Gum Arabic, Natural Flavor, Extractives of Turmeric, and Extractives of Annatto
Doesn't seem so juicy anymore.
Crying Foul
Nothing is as it seems in the world of chicken (and we haven't even started talking about poultry farming practices).One option is to buy your chicken meat directly from a local organic producer.
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I never buy pre-breaded, par-fried frozen chicken products because you never know what's in the breading; plus it's a lot healthier to just eat a plain grilled chicken. I usually buy fresh chicken breasts with the skins on and bones in and remove the skin and bones myself before grilling them. I was buying the prefrozen chicken breasts, but I stopped because they had a lot of solution injected into them to keep them moist. Buying the whole breasts is a little more work, but I feel that it's worth it.
ReplyThose breaded chicken products are prefried, too.
It is so easy to make a healthy breaded chicken at home, for cheap: rub lime juice on the chicken, then dip in seasoned thick breadcrumbs - I use whole wheat cracker crumbs. Then bake in a preheated oven.
I make a ton at once, then use the leftovers in salads.
ReplyYep, any "breaded" frozen product is ALWAYS prefried before it even gets to your house. Lots of people figure if they buy chicken nuggets, but bake them instead of deep fry them, they're somehow healthier. By that point, it doesn't really matter. I guess if you deep fry them at your house, it'll add a few more calories, but even if you bake them, they're still full of trans-fat (most brands, anyway) and other nasty stuff.
I like the breadcrumb idea. When I make chicken nuggets for my cousins and my friends' kids, I cut chicken up into bites, coat them in crunched up bran flakes, and bake them. The kids LOVE them!
ReplyI've found that crushing garlic-sesame whole wheat cracker crumbs instead of crushed up Fiber One, which I did before, makes me not have to dip them in egg to stick - the oil the crackers have make them stick. Also, I tend to open one of these packages to snack on in college, eat 3/4 of it, forget the rest in my bag, and they go soggy, so it is a way to get rid of them.
If I want a really nugget-y thick crust, I use thin Fiber One "dust" (I save that dust that is in the bottom of the packages), then egg, then crushed cornflakes (the ones from the health food store, not reshaped, small ones). It is more trouble, but it turns out perfect, because of the double crust, just like fried chicken.
ReplyChicken is the most disgusting of all the meats. The things they do to those poor animals is simply horrible. The US cruelty laws are so third-world it is not even funny.
Google KFC cruelty and you will see what I mean. If I never ate chicken again I would be happy.
RT from RMO
ReplyOR, you can just eat the good stuff (pastured, organic chicken).
ReplyIt's not that hard to raise your own chickens. If you have a little land, you can build a chicken coop and keep a few hens around. My inlaws used to raise chickens and my husband tells me that he got sick of chicken because they ate it so often. As soon as we get our land contract settled and buy our 20 acres of land, I'm raising my own chickens. That way, I'll get eggs AND chicken that I know EXACTLY where they're from.
ReplyMy neighbor has chickens in a townhouse, ha. He only uses them for eggs, though. Every week he gives me a dozen cause he uses our wireless internet connection.
ReplyI had no part in this, I swear! o.o
ReplyAs a child raised on chicken and red meat, I find my attention turning to fish as I get older.
I'm against eating fellow land mammals.
ReplyJust curious -- why are land animals off limits but other animals fair game?
ReplyMaybe it is cause fish wouldn't hesitate to eat you, but chickens and cows wouldn't. A fairness thing? ;)
ReplyWhat about sharks? Those are fish and lots of them would definitely eat you. I personally think shark tastes really great, but since I can't usually afford it, it's kind of a delicacy :)
ReplyI'm glad you think of shark as a delicacy, because it's on the be careful list of high mercury content.
ReplyI say I'm not a picky eater, but I had shark once and I had to immediately spit it out. I've eaten intestines, brains, kidneys, tongue, goat meat all without gagging, and I still couldn't handle shark.
My mom has fond memories of her shark and soy bean school lunches as a child in the post-war period. Other proteins were too expensive, it seems.
Now the shark here is treated with sodium borohydrate to remove like 90% of the mercury, so when it is sold, it is lower in mercury than tuna. But I'm still not eating it.
ReplyStick with small fish like sardines. Very little, if any mercury in them.
ReplyIt's good to know exactly what's in your food.
But the tone here is that these additives are bad for you. They aren't. Why do we need a deceptive article debunking other so-called deceptions?
I hope I don't die from that water and flour and salt in my food. What will the put in the food next? Spices!!?
ReplyI don't think it's fair to be paying for saltwater along with my chicken. I can get that for free down at the beach.
ReplyYou pay the price on the package. Since when is packaged chicken sold by weight or volume?
It doesn't cost extra because it has salt and water in it.
ReplyTake a closer look at the price of the fresh - not frozen - chicken when you buy it at the grocery store. Notice that most of the packages havedifferent prices. That is because they are selling it by weight. You do pay for salt water added.
ReplyAnd then we wonder why there are so many nutrition related disorders!?
I remember watching a documentary on the meat industry and I was appalled!
I get really frustrated when I am reminded of these things!!!
Though we do have pasture fed, well treated chickens still available, though it costs alot of $$$!
ReplyI also stick to the free range, organic chicken. Yes, it's more expensive than traditional store bought chicken...but at least I know what's in my food! It makes me crazy when people feel they can't afford stuff like that. I simply ask, "how important is it to you to eat properly - to stay chemical and additive free in your diet?" Some people don't care where their food came from. But you should!! Most people have no clue what they are putting in their mouths. Educate yourself - for your health's sake.
ReplyI stick to the organic, free-range, hormone free chickens at the farmer's markets. Yes they are more expensive. So you eat it a couple times less a month, something like beans a couple times more.
If you have kids who like the breaded chicken, here's a great trick I found in Cooking Light - toast some panko (japanese bread crumbs) in a fry pan in just a little canola oil til they are a toasty brown. Coat the chicken in this, and bake it in the oven. It will have an amazingly satisfying crunch. They will never ask for Mcnuggets again. If you toss some grated parmesan in with the crumbs before you bread it, and then pour some nice tomato sauce over it once it's been baked, topped with a little lacing of the parmesan, you will have beautiful, guilt-free chicken parmesan.
ReplyOrganic, free range chicken doesn't have anything pumped into it. Just the thought of it...ewwww!!
ReplyI very much agree with this article, though it is something I have been aware of for years, myself. The sad thing is that many, many people don't know what is going into their food (the worst additive is probably sodium nitrate, potentially carcinogenic).
ReplyWe only ever buy free-range, organic whole chicken. Sure, it costs more, but free-range chickens are typically slaughtered at two months rather than the factory farmed one month limit. As a result, you get a bigger, additive free chicken that tastes miles better than that factory farm rubbish we are used to. The chicken is bigger, it tastes better, and so the farmers are getting paid a fair amount from the supermarkets for every chicken bought from them. Plus, you can be sure the animal has had a happy, natural life.
I really pity the humble chicken, though. Such a versatile food that millions love, yet these birds are treated in the most appalling, inhumane way. Knowing this, it makes my conscience all the more clear realizing I haven't contributed to the barbaric factory farmed chicken industry. The more people buy free-range chicken, the more of this type of product we'll see on the shelves - and the peace of mind that comes with knowing those chickens were humanely treated.
Kentucky Fried Cruelty! Home grown, free range, "organic", back-yard poultry, local farm grown.... Amazing to what extremes people go to have thier "MEat".... Though, I hear it tastes much like cat.... hummmm - let's see, they eat cat in China - I also hear that chickens have the awareness of a 1 year old.... hummmmm - so if times get really desperate for "MEat" - should have no problem processing and consuming 1 year old cats???
For health & heart.... Go VEGAN!
ReplyThat is so eye opening! I hate how fast food places like KFC mentioned or the others talk about their "100% all white meat". They fail to mention though they deep fry it and the fat content is ridiculous.
Replyactually - organic free range - doesnt mean anything. it means there is a hole in the chicken coop and the chickens can venture out if they want, but chickens rarely do. There are not many laws on the phrasing of that stuff for poultry. Also - hormones are never added to poultry products in the USA - only beef. This is a very interesting article I came across:
Replyhttp://www.lionsgrip.com/pastured.html