Is chicken meat really healthy? The truth compared to beef and pork

Many people seem to have the impression that meat of a bird is healthier than that of fellow mammals like cows and pigs, and therefore eating chicken preferentially.

Also, these days there are people who avoid beef for environmental reasons, but continue to consume chicken, even though chicken clearly has significantly higher environmental impacts than plant protein.

Chicken is as unhealthy as beef?!

It’s fairly well-known that the red meat of cows and pigs leads to increased risks of cardiovascular diseases due to the saturated fat increasing LDL cholesterol. However, there wasn’t much research comparing this to chicken, until recently. *1

According to a survey funded by the U.S. National Institute of Health and published in June 2019, when equal amounts of protein were consumed, both red meat like beef and white meat like chicken equally raised the LDL cholesterol level, concluding that there’s no basis in choosing chicken over beef in terms of cardiovascular disease concerns. As already known previously, getting the same amount of protein from plants resulted in the best outcome.*2*3

Actually, half of the calories from chicken is fat, and ~30% of that is saturated fat, which promotes cholesterol production *4. LDL cholesterol clogs arteries and is a known cause of heart diseases and strokes.

Chicken contains as much cholesterol as beef or pork. 100g of beef and 100g of chicken each contain about 100㎎ of cholesterol *4.

Chicken meat full of various bacteria

If you have a look in the poultry processing facilities you won’t be surprised, but bacteria from the intestines of the chickens stick to the chicken meat. Indeed, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) states:

With the current poultry processing technique, it is difficult to remove 100% of these food poisoning bacteria, and campylobacter is found in chicken and the intestines at a high frequency. *5

To prevent secondary infection, it is important to: (2) process and store meat with separate cookware and containers from other foods, (3) wash hands thoroughly after handling meat, before handling other foods, and (4) cleanse and disinfect any used cookware etc. that came in contact with meat. *5

Food poisoning can be cured, but even more threatening drug-resistant bacteria are contained in ~70% of the chicken on the market, according to a survey by MHLW.

Grilling can kill bacteria, but it also makes chicken carcinogenic

According to a survey of chain restaurants in California, 100% of 100 grilled chicken samples contained carcinogen called PhIP *4. PhIP has been linked to breast, prostate, and other cancers. PhIP forms naturally when tissues like meat is exposed to direct high heat.

Finally…

Because of the small bodies compared to cows or pigs, consuming only a few meals worth of chicken leads to forcing one bird to suffer a lifetime of pain due to severe selective breeding. One drumstick is one leg of a bird who had only two. A chicken wing is one arm of a bird who had only two. Moreover, chickens who are sold as “chicken” are only 50-day-old chicks, equivalent to about 13-month-old human babies.

You’d be behind the trend if you still buy into the lies of the meat industry that we can’t be healthy or strong without eating meat; they just want to sell you meat.