“This KFC is fish, not chicken!” the kids declared.
Dr. Steven Gundry relates a story of when he moved his wife and two young daughters from the USA to London to work at a renown hospital. The girls missed their favorite food, fried chicken, so he took them to the only KFC in London.
Anticipating their familiar fried chicken, the girls were surprised when they bit into London’s version of KFC. They declared it was not the same, and turned up their noses. They claimed it was fish, not chicken. Verily, at that time British chicken were fed primarily ground fish meal. The children with their sensitive tastes could tell the difference in what the chicken ate, and those chicken were in effect, fish.
Within the last 50 years, changes in the production and processing of food have altered what we get when we eat. Substances which you have been told are good for you have been altered in a way that affects your health, and not in a good way. Also, environmental toxins in food disrupt the normal functioning of our bodies. All of this is in what you eat, if you are not careful.
Milk, for example
There is a vast difference in milk from a cow that grazed on grass in the summer and ate hay in the winter, and a cow raised in a stockyard on corn and soy. This was proved in a study with Brown Swiss cows.
The quality of milk consists of the proportion of omega-3 to omega-6 fats. In general, the 3’s are anti-inflammatory and the 6’s and arachidonic acid are inflammatory.
“Two groups were fed grass-only on pasture (P) or freshly harvested in barn (B). Group C served as the control, receiving a silage-concentrate diet.
Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and phytanic acid increased while arachidonic acid decreased with grass-only feeding. Grass-only feeding increased milk alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) concentration by 86 and 134% at low and high altitude.”
Which would you choose: milk from cows pasture-fed grass or on a silage diet?
Animals made of corn and soy
The fats make a difference not only in milk, but in meat. Corn and soy feeds contain mainly omega-6 fats, while grass is high in omega-3’s.
In addition, the plant protective proteins called lectins are high in corn and soy. These are known to tear up the human digestive system, leading to inflammation, allergies, weight gain, and a host of chronic diseases.
When cows and chickens eat grain or soy-based feed, these omega-6 fats and lectin proteins wind up in the animal’s meat, milk, and eggs. The same goes for farm-raised seafood, which are fed corn and soy as well.
When you eat this kind of meat, you are eating the omega-6 inflammatory fats and damaging lectin proteins.
Even organic and free-range animals are fed corn and soy, that is, organic corn and soy for the organic animals.
In addition, in the USA, almost all soy and corn are from genetically-modified seeds. That creates proteins which our bodies have never seen before, with immune consequences. Also, since GMO corn fed to chickens creates osteoporosis and osteopenia in them, what is it doing to you?
Cattle get fatter on soy and grains then grass, even with the calorie intake the same. Why would that not happen to you too?
Corny Humans
If you are eating animals which ate corn and soy, then you are becoming an animal made of corn and soy as well.
Not only in animal meat, corn appears in our food as corn oil, cornstarch, cornmeal, corn syrup, and other extracts of corn.
Ninety-three percent of fast food burgers, when examined by scientists, contain the signature carbon from corn. A similar finding was uncovered in fast food chicken.
So, how much of you is made up of corn? Scientists at the University of California- Berkeley did a test on carbon from human hair. They discovered that typical Americans tested to be 69% corn!
Add antibiotic insult to injury
On top of that, almost all chicken and beef produced in the USA contains enough antibiotics to kill bacteria in a petri dish, according to Dr. Steven Gundry.
Until recently, chickens, even organic, free-range chickens, were given arsenic to produce a pink blush to the flesh. Arsenic, besides being toxic and an antibiotic, also disrupts hormones and mimics the action of estrogen.
Also, chicken feed contains an estrogen-like substance which winds up in the chicken meat not in insignificant amounts. It has the power to disrupt your own hormone balance.
Broad-spectrum antibiotics fed to pigs, chickens, and other food animals have contributed to human antibiotic resistance. In addition, these antibiotics fatten these animals and allow them to grow faster.
It should be no surprise, then, that they do the same for people! A single round of antibiotics given to a child can make him obese by altering his intestinal flora. The antibiotic residues from meat and milk only continue and increase this effect.
Know your labels
Cage-free can still be housed with hundreds of thousands of other hens, and eat antibiotic-laced grain feed.
Free-range does not specify how long they spend outside or how much space they have, and says nothing about what they eat (probably GMO corn and soy.)
Organic does not mean “certified” organic, which is guaranteed to be antibiotic-free.
Pasture-raised hens roam freely outdoors, foraging for food such as bugs and grass.
Pasture-raised
Industrial chickens are often housed with thousands of other chickens and fed a diet of genetically engineered corn and soybeans. They are also given antibiotics to prevent the spread of disease.
In contrast, pasture-raised chickens roam freely outdoors. They often are protected in a chicken tractor, which you can see in the featured picture. Chicken tractors are mobile cages that confines chickens to a particular part of a field. There they eat grass, grubs and bugs, until that field section is almost bare. Then the chicken tractor is moved to another section of the field so the pasture has the chance to regenerate. The chickens get to roam inside the tractor cage, eventually covering the entire field.
The availability of what they eat is inconsistent, as they eat bugs and grubs during the spring, but may be supplemented with grain in the fall when bugs are less abundant.
Local sources
Sunnyside Farm in Camp Verde, AZ is a local source. In fact, being there on Saturday buying chicken for me and my dog inspired me to write this blog.
They sell pastured eggs and poultry, and naturally grown produce, which is chemical, herbicide and pesticide free.
Contact Marshall at (480) 760-1980 or find him at a central Arizona farmers market.
Email sunnysidefarmaz@gmail.com for a current pricelist.
