Issue #97: Should you eat chicken on an animal-based diet?

Hello Radical Health Seekers,

Coming up in your newsletter this week:

Our beef with chicken… 🐓

Followed by a rude interruption from the pig… 🐖

Leading to the question on everyone’s mind: 

“What’s the deal with eating chicken on an animal-based diet?”

Lets go!!!

Should you eat chicken on an animal-based diet?

It’s an animal-based diet, and chickens are animals…

So it seems obvious that eating chicken should be okay, right?

Well, sorta, but it’s actually a little complicated.

Short answer is that it’s probably fine to eat chicken.

But if you’re serious about pursuing radical health then you probably won’t want to be eating too much of it… 

And to understand why, first we need to tell you a story.

The story of the chicken 🐔

Chickens were born to scratch and peck in the dirt.

In fact if left to it’s own device, a chicken could probably walk all the way from Texas to Georgia, pecking the entire way.

Now back in the day, every family farm kept chickens (and roosters) for eggs.

The chickens were free to eat whatever they could find (mostly bugs), with occasional handouts of grain, scraps, and waste kitchen products.

And they were also pretty tiny. About a quarter of the weight of today’s modern bird. 

The point is, chicken meat was a rare treat, and expensive!

Check out the price of chicken compared to lamb, beef, and lobster in this menu from 1909:

But fast forward to today, and the modern chicken is VERY different.

For starters, it’s FOUR times bigger…

Source: How chicken became the rich world’s most popular meat | The Economist

It’s also cheaper, which means we now eat more chicken than ever:

How did this happen?

Well after the food shortages of World War Two, the poultry industry began working towards a more efficient method of raising chickens…

And with improved breeding, they created a franken-chicken that could grow four times larger in half the time it took in the 1940’s:

So not only did the chickens grow bigger, but they grew faster.

Back in 1925, it took 112 days to grow a 2.5 lb chicken…

But nowadays, it only takes 47 days to grow a 6+ lb chicken!

We’re eating gigantic baby birds.

Now some will say this has been a modern miracle… 

A way to get cheap protein to the masses.

And maybe they’re right.

But cheap food ain’t cheap. 

And someone’s got to pay the price.

The chickens certainly are. 

Because they are now so fat they waddle when they walk. 

Not to mention the other “minor inconveniences” like a lack of natural light, confinement, debeaking, and disease.

This cheap source of protein also comes with a price for our health…

Because the food our food eats matters.

OINKKKKKKK!

🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷

What the heck?!?

Why have pigs suddenly rudely invaded your chicken-themed newsletter? 😲

Well because everything we will tell you from this point forward applies to chickens AND pigs…

The problem with chicken and pork

You see, virtually all chicken and pork is fed a diet that is NOTHING like the diet it evolved eating.

It’s a mix of corn, soybean, wheat and seed oils…

And one problem is this food is mostly genetically modified, and sprayed with herbicides like glyphosate.

But the main problem is that it’s incredibly high in Omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)…

And just like humans, chickens and pigs aren’t meant to eat such a high Omega-6 Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) diet…

Wild humans, chickens and pigs eat a diet with an Omega-6: Omega-3 ratio of about 2:1…

But with this modern diet, it can get as high as 20:1.

This is a problem, because chickens, pigs and humans are all monogastric animals, meaning we cannot convert these Omega-6 PUFAs into stable saturated fatty acids…

So we store them in our fat cells instead, where they cause metabolic dysfunction.

And when we eat chicken or pork with excess PUFAs, those excess PUFAs accumulate in our bodies too.

But what about pastured chicken and pork?

Pastured chicken and pork will always be healthier and have a higher quality of life…

But it’s also alot more expensive.

And almost all pastured chickens and pigs are still fed a high Omega-6 diet of corn and soy, meaning we’re back to the original problem! 😟

Because it’s just not economical to raise large numbers of these animals on an alternative diet.

Now it is possible to find low PUFA chicken and pork…

But it’s expensive and rare (kinda like chicken meat used to be).

This is why we think beef is best 🐂

Because cattle are mostly raised on grass, which is the food they evolved to eat.

And since they are ruminant animals, even when they are fed corn or soy, they don’t accumulate it in their fat to the same degree as chickens. 

Now there’s an important caveat here.

We aren’t saying to never eat chicken or pork in your animal-based diet.

Yes, grass-fed & grass-finished beef is the best… 

But cheap chicken is still better than cheap french fries…

Grain-fed beef is still better than pizza…

And bacon and eggs is still better than cereal.

So don’t let perfect be the enemy of good when it comes to radical health.

This week on Instagram:

This week on Radical Health Radio:

The Beauty & Harsh Realities of Ranching w/ Nate Pontious

This week on the Blog:

Animal-Based Success Stories: “How I Lost 80 Pounds!”

That’s all from us this week…

Keep thriving!

The Heart & Soil Team