Chicken, A Healthy Choice of Meat.

For none-vegetarians, chicken is the most commonly consumed poultry meat. In fact it ranks high amongst the most consumed animal proteins in the world. I've heard of people who forbid pork for religious and sanitary reasons, beef for cultural reasons, goat meat(chevon) for it's extra gamey taste but I've honestly never met or heard of a meat eater whom forbids chicken for just one flimsy excuse.

From the above it can be safely concluded that chicken is a most popular meat of choice amongst none-vegetarians.
In recent times, findings from scientific research has linked meat consumption to a plethora of debilitating health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and colorectal cancers. Still further in-depth studies have linked these poor health conditions to the consumption of red(dark) meat. For better elucidation on this article, it should be understood that in gastronomic terms there are mainly two types of meat.

The red(dark) meat have high saturated fat content and a higher content of the skeletal muscle protein, myoglobin hence they are darker in colour. The main sources of red meat are the active skeletal muscles of mammals. The other type of meat is white(light) meat. They are generally leaner in fats and the protein, myoglobin. They are pale in appearance and their main sources are poultry such as chicken, turkey and fishes.

With that said we now have some basic understanding why chicken is a healthy choice of meat compared to most because it is a white meat generally low on saturated fats. Aside it's healthy fat content chicken has other proven health benefits. It's high in the B vitamins and calcium and it also contains appreciable levels of tryptophan a protein good for inducing a stress free state.

Having said all that about the desirable qualities of chicken meat, it is imperative that I state as a matter of caution that certain methods of preparing chicken meat renders it as unhealthy as the red(dark) meat.

Chicken is best consumed with the skin off. Chicken meat although low in fat content, the skin has high and unhealthy levels of fat. Chicken skin contains high levels of cholesterol. So when preparing your chicken it's best you skin it and rinse off fat residues. Frying chicken particularly in deep oil is an unsafe method for those who want to lay off some fats from their menu. You are simply adding fats to your lean meat and putting it on the same class with the red meats.

If you must fry chicken, fry in shallow oils or best give a thin oil based marinade then bake in an oven or on a grill. Chicken cooked in low fat soups and oilless stews are the healthiest. Overall applying the other fat inducing cooking methods to chicken and the red meats, chicken still turns out lower in saturated fats and it is a healthier choice of meat amongst most.

I do hope you enjoyed reading my blog on chicken as a healthy choice of meat. Thanks for your time reading, feed wisely, exercise to burn of some excess calories, stay safe as I wish you all a fun-filled day.

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