Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

[c1ue]

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/0...-chickens.html

Compared to caged birds, free-ranging hens had more bacterial infections (the most common cause of death), more parasites, and more viruses. They were also more likely to become victims of violent pecking and cannibalistic attacks, the scientists reported this month in BioMed Central's open access journal Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica.

"One of the largest attractions of free-range chickens is that it makes people happy to think about chickens outside pecking at the soil," Porter said. "Although the perception of the general public is that these outdoor chickens must be healthier than others, time and time again this is shown not to be true."

[BadJuju]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

The point is that free range chickens are supposed to be healthier to EAT, and that they are able to live in a more natural fashion. Anyway, the definition of a 'Free range chicken' is fairly broad.

[Spartacus]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

As long as you bring up health and the media,
the obesity paradox series is good

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/...paradox-1.html
another study was reported which found that fatter cardiac patients were more likely to survive hospitalization and invasive treatments than thinner ones, even when adjusting for age and other contributing factors

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/...paradox-1.html
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/...can-it-be.html
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/...paradox-3.html
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/...paradox-4.html
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/...y-paradox.html

(several more like this, search for "obesity paradox" on this page)

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/

[flintlock]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

Is that Richard Burton? I'm currently reading his Biography.

[c1ue]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

Juju,

How is eating something with more viruses, parasites, and bacterial infections more healthy?

Secondly if you look at the full article, the definition of 'free range' just means the chicken has some open space to run in - even if it is for 15 minutes a day or a dirt square like dairy cows sit in.

'Free Range' doesn't mean chickens running around the prairie.

[santafe2]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

Secondly if you look at the full article, the definition of 'free range' just means the chicken has some open space to run in - even if it is for 15 minutes a day or a dirt square like dairy cows sit in.

'Free Range' doesn't mean chickens running around the prairie.

From the USDA web site....I'd like to see how Tyson would interpret this.

Free Range or Free Roaming
Livestock or poultry has been allowed access to the outside.

And from a Food Safety and Inspection conference last October:

Animal producers and certifying entities may have different views on the specific types of practices that qualify a product to bear a raising claim on its label. So the result is that the same animal raising claim may reflect different animal raising practices depending on how an animal producer or a certifying entity defines the basis for the claim.

And then they drill down a bit into what that may mean.

As an example, our free range raising claims in the labeling of poultry products. FSIS approves a free range raising claim in the labeling of poultry products if the producer demonstrates that the birds were allowed continuous free access to the outside for over 51 percent of their lives.

So some producers may support a free range claim if the source birds were allowed access to the yard, regardless whether the birds use the yard.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Animal_...ims_101408.pdf

As for the other raising claim, "cage free", this is a claim related to eggs, not chickens and USDA does not have jurisdiction over uncooked eggs - that's FDA. And, cage free does not mean the chickens have access to the outside. There's no ranging with cage free.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

Spent a few years living on a chicken farm. Watched deformed and near dead chickens get rushed to market while it was still legal. Sure they have less disease, they're so pumped with antibiotics no self-respecting bacteria would get near one. Of course that just leaves the bacteria that have little respect for antibiotics to evolve into super bugs. Colonel Sanders can have em, wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole.

Here's a nice article in scientific american about trying to live your life in a sterile environment.

...
“That’s actually the dogma—that you have widespread infection and in only a small percentage of cases there is cancer.” In glioblastoma, he has noticed that the majority of patients are affluent, and he speculates that people infected with latent CMV might be more likely to get tumors if they grow up in hygienic environments. The idea stems from the “hygiene hypothesis,” used to explain the rising incidence of allergies in developed countries. It posits that childhood exposure to pathogens primes the immune system to respond appropriately; however, when people grow up in “superclean” environments, their immune system does not mature properly. When infected with CMV, these patients might then be at a heightened risk for developing glioblastoma, Cobbs says...

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=virus-in-the-brain

[zoog]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

Spent a few years living on a chicken farm. Watched deformed and near dead chickens get rushed to market while it was still legal. Sure they have less disease, they're so pumped with antibiotics no self-respecting bacteria would get near one. Of course that just leaves the bacteria that have little respect for antibiotics to evolve into super bugs. Colonel Sanders can have em, wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole.

Here's a nice article in scientific american about trying to live your life in a sterile environment.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=virus-in-the-brain

Absolutely. The pharmaceutical industry has turned us all into paranoid anti-germ freaks so we'll use their products to try to sterilize our world, and then more of their products to combat the diseases we get because we haven't allowed ourselves contact with and therefore built-up immunity to viruses and bacteria.

...How is eating something with more viruses, parasites, and bacterial infections more healthy?...

Do you eat raw chicken?:confused: Cook that stuff till it's dead.

...Secondly if you look at the full article, the definition of 'free range' just means the chicken has some open space to run in - even if it is for 15 minutes a day or a dirt square like dairy cows sit in.

'Free Range' doesn't mean chickens running around the prairie.

Once upon a time in this country, "organic" and "free range" and "natural" and all those buzzwords actually meant something, because there were just a few small companies and scattered small farmers doing it because they really cared about health and the environment. But in the past 10-15 years all the big agribusiness companies have jumped on the bandwagon. They cut corners wherever they can, because they're only doing it for the market share, not because they actually believe in the underlying principles. The USDA, FDA, etc. regulations are extraordinarily broad and vague. Just like financial investing, it pays to do due diligence on where your food comes from and how exactly is it grown / raised / processed.

[BadJuju]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

Thank you, zoog! You provided an excellent summation of my thoughts and feelings. :p

[raja]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/0...-chickens.html Quote:

Compared to caged birds, free-ranging hens had more bacterial infections (the most common cause of death), more parasites, and more viruses. They were also more likely to become victims of violent pecking and cannibalistic attacks, the scientists reported this month in BioMed Central's open access journal Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica.

c1ue,

I'm curious as to why you feel that the health of chickens is worthy of a new thread on an economic site.

Not that I'm against it . . . it's actually a topic in which I'm interested . . . .

[jdv]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

It's nothing about the birds health that makes free range appealing to me. It's the question of do I want to injest the chemicals given to chickens? Do I want to eat the steroids and medication given to captive chickens? How many of those chemicals are still present when a bird is butchered.

[c1ue]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

'Organic' is what stores use to identify price insensitive customers.

The number of people who are insensitive to price drops is directly proportional to the state of the economy.

Certainly I don't disagree that there *may* be some benefits to eating organic, on the other hand I am highly suspicious of any movement which is basically a pushback against price consciousness.

As for cooking - cooking also destroys antibiotics and hormones.

So just boil the crap out of everything!

[BadJuju]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

As for cooking - cooking also destroys antibiotics and hormones.

So just boil the crap out of everything!

No, it does not; otherwise, the filtration system I have would be nigh useless.

[Jay]

Re: Free Range Chickens: Not as healthy as marketed *gasp*

t fatter cardiac patients were more likely to survive hospitalization and invasive treatments than thinner ones,

Sure, but they are much more likely to get to that spot in the first place than thinner people when other risk factors are controlled.