The Chicken Fallacy:
Poultry Not as Healthy As You Think
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

John Himmelberger, This Dish Is Veg
November 2010

In the 1970’s chicken consumption averaged 27 pounds per person, in modern day that number has risen to 59 pounds.

Looking to make changes in your life and eat healthier? Easy right? Avoid red meat and eat plenty of chicken... that must be the answer. It’s white meat and it must contain lower amounts of artery clogging cholesterol?

Wrong, chicken and turkey actually contain as much heart damaging cholesterol as red meat.

In the 1970’s chicken consumption averaged 27 pounds per person, in modern day that number has risen to 59 pounds. With the explosion of chicken farming the goal of the modern day farmer is to raise large meaty chickens fast. In the 1950’s chickens lived 90 days until slaughter. Today chickens are slaughtered in 40 days. Pumped with growth hormones and antibiotics the modern chicken lives a bleak life. Most are kept in polluted dark sheds with as many as 25,000 birds per shed, these birds suffer many of the same ailments as battery hens, such as being de-beaked and being forced to live in a toxic environment.

These animals live in this confinement for 40 days without ever seeing sun or being allowed to roam through grass. Genetic engineering of broiler chickens and turkeys often results in a bird too heavy to stand or walk. They suffer from pain in their legs and sores on their feet that are induced by their extreme, unnatural size.

---

Return to Animal Rights Articles
Return to The Meat and Diary Industries