Chicken

CHICKEN
Many people in modern society switch to eating chicken and poultry because it is lower in saturated fat and cholesterol than beef and other red-meat products. Poultry, however, has substantial fat content, which along with its protein, have been associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease, various cancers, and other illness. In addition, the poor quality of most modern day chickens is a major concern of public health authorities. Recent food poisoning epidemics, such as Salmonella, have been traced to contaminated chicken. Antibiotics given to chickens in factory farms are also believed to be a principal cause in the appearance of drug-resistant strains of bacterial related disease. See Antibiotics, Arthritis, Eggs, Global Warming, Heart Disease. .

• Vast Majority of Chicken Infected with Campylobacter - Campylobacter, the leading bacterial cause of food-borne illness in the United States, infects 70 to 90 percent of chickens, according to scientists at the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Campylobacter causes between 2 and 8 million cases of sickness annually and results in 200 to 800 deaths, according to various estimates. Symptoms include cramps, abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea and fever and results from eating undercooked chicken or other food that has come into contact with raw chicken. Campylobacter may lead to a potentially fatal nerve disorder called Guillain-Barré syndrome. Campylobacter used to be treated by antibiotics, but new strains of drug-resistant bacteria are developing. A recent sampling of chickens in Minnesota supermarkets found 79 percent contaminated, including 20 percent with a strain resistant to antibiotics. In another sample, 58 percent of turkeys were infected with 84 percent drug-resistance.
Source: Marian Burros, "Health Concerns Mounting Over Bacteria in Chickens," New York Times, October 20, 1997.

• Energetic Effects of Eating Chicken - Macrobiotic educator Michio Kushi, who has counseled thousands of people over the years, reports that chicken contributes to the tightening of bones, joints, muscles, and other parts of the body. Eating too much chicken, in his experience, is a leading cause of arthritis, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and other diseases in which the limbs or bones contract, wither, or waste away. Energetically, he compares this to assuming the appearance and qualities of a chicken.
Source: Michio and Aveline Kushi with Alex Jack, Macrobiotic Diet (Tokyo and New York: Japan Publications, 1993).

• Poultry and Mutant Rats - Two-foot long "mutant" rats are attacking farm animals in Chile. They are believed to have evolved after eating the droppings of hormone-fattened poultry. Burrowing in the banks of the Mapocho, a polluted river that crosses Santiago, they have attacked chickens and small goats.
Source: "Chilean Mutant Rats," Boston Globe, December 1, 1997.

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