Americans have a love affair with chicken. According to the National Chicken Council (yes there is such a group), the average person in the United States is forecasted to consume 94.3 pounds of the stuff in 2019. Amazingly, this number has skyrocketed since 1960 when the average American ate 28 pounds of chicken.
Relatively inexpensive and versatile, this meat is often the star in salads, casseroles, and pot pies. Unfortunately, the chicken filling supermarket freezers today may not be something you want to put on your dinner table. In fact, according to Natural News, this insanely popular food is so dirty in this country that it has to be washed with a chlorine spray before it can be sold to grocers.
Natural News reported that chicken meat in the United States is regularly doused with chlorine water in order to annihilate pathogens and other potentially harmful compounds present in America’s overcrowded factory farms. Interestingly, most of Europe has much higher standards concerning raising animals for meat production. American meat is usually not welcomed across the pond
Chickens were created to roam freely in open pastures searching for tasty worms, bugs, and other treats. Sadly, these delicious birds are typically reared in the exact opposite living conditions in this country. The majority of factory farms in the United States are vastly overpopulated. Chickens are often stuffed into cages where they never even get a glimpse of natural light.
This filthy, depressing environment results in chickens becoming stressed, diseased, and candidates for contamination. Dena Schmidt of NaturalHealth365.com referred to the end product of American chicken farms as an “abomination of nature.”
Painting a grim narrative, Schmidt said, “They are overweight, oversized, and live crammed together in close quarters in large warehouses. Since the chickens are bred for breast meat, they become overweight and top heavy. Many are unable to even stand – due to the excess weight – and spend most of their lives squatting or sitting.”
Regrettably, chickens labeled “organic” are also raised in these deplorable conditions if they aren’t granted access to open pastures. Whenever you’re shopping for some juicy chicken thighs or “healthy” chicken breasts, look for options with a “pasture-raised” label on them.
According to Natural News, an astonishing 97 percent of all chicken raised in the United States is now treated with chlorine before arriving at supermarkets nationwide. Schmidt maintains this process is necessary because no restrictions on the level of feces and urine allowed in chicken meat are presently in place. Therefore, when you chow down on chicken in this country, you’re likely eating a “sanitized” product.
Last year, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, TBIJ, and The Guardian released the results of an investigation about the hygiene practices at pig and chicken plants in the United States. The findings might make you want to swap the chicken in your freezer for beef, pork, fish, or virtually any other healthy, satisfying food.
The unpublished American government records outline several specific incidents. For instance, according to The Guardian, “Diseased poultry meat that had been condemned” was “found in containers used to hold edible food products.”
The publication also noted, “Dirty chicken, soiled with feces or having been dropped on the floor” was “put back on to the production line after being rinsed with diluted chlorine.” The companies involved in the probe reported that all of the failings resulted in instantaneous corrective action and posed no risk to consumers.
Professor Erik Millstone, a food safety expert at Sussex University, found the results of the study troubling “because of the risks of spreading infectious pathogens from carcass to carcass, and between portions of meat. The rates at which outbreaks of infectious food poisoning occur in the US are significantly higher than in the UK, or the EU, and poor hygiene in the meat supply chain is [a] leading cause of food poisoning in the US.”
Besides being dirty, American chickens are routinely fed genetically-modified, GMO, feed. Schmidt remarked, “Eating factory farmed poultry means exposure to a veritable toxic soup of chemicals to which the birds have been exposed. The only way to avoid this is by steering clear of chicken that’s grown via factory farming and instead eating organic, genuinely free-range chickens.”
To safeguard your health whenever a chicken craving strikes, just say no to the nuggets at your favorite fast-food restaurant or any chicken coming from a grocer.
