Is
Chicken Better Than Beef?
A
T-bone steak derives 42 percent of its calories from fat. A chicken thigh
or leg is considered as red meat and 56 percent of its calories are from
fat, with the skin included. Removing the chicken skin reduces the fat content
to 47 percent of calories. Chicken red meat is therefore a high-fat food
with or without the skin.
In fact,
an average chicken provides more concentrated fat than the finest cuts of
beef. Chicken fat is also very concentrated and could damage our arteries,
much like beef. Chicken also has just as much cholesterol as beef and pork.
Only chicken
breasts with the skins removed are low in fat. This is the best way to eat
Free
Range Chicken
A reduction
in chicken consumption is one of the easiest ways to prolong your lifespan.
If you must consume chicken, buy the birds that have been grown on a farm
that allowed them to run and exercise and are fed organic food. These are
called free-range organic chickens. These birds are fed organic
feed free of pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Meat from such chickens
are firmer and they are leaner as compared to commercialized non-organic
grain fed chicken.
Free-range organic- fed chickens
and their eggs are completely different from commercially raised chickens
and eggs. They are high in N3 EFA. In fact, the fatty acid ratio of N6 to
N3 EFA is 2 or 3 to 1 in the free-range organic fed chicken and eggs as
farm raised chicken.
Fish
Fish
is generally regarded as a highly desirable source of protein and fatty
acids. However, most fish nowadays has lost its nutritional values due to
environment pollution.
Supervising the growth of fish
is nearly impossible due to its free movements across the waters. Fish consume
much toxic wastes, which are polluted materials discharged into their habitats.
These toxic wastes are usually industrial waste, sewerage, pesticides, and
insecticides. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
(DDT), dioxin, methyl mercury, and lead also occasionally appear in inland
waterways, rivers, and polluted bays. These pollutants, especially PCBs
and methyl mercury, could possibly end up in our bodies due to the consumption
of affected fish.
Fish also concentrate their toxins
in their fatty tissues throughout their lifetimes, just like cattle, chicken,
or humans. Large fish are especially exposed to toxins as they consume smaller
fishes. Their toxin concentrations are probably 10,000 times more than their
smaller counterparts. Fish can also carry disease-causing microorganisms.
In fact, they are the cause of many food-borne illnesses.
Researchers
have suggested that contamination is so widespread that almost half of the
world’s fish population is infected with toxins. The only practical
solution is to choose fish that is least likely to be exposed to toxins
and eat them as fresh as possible.
Swimming
in Toxins
Fish in coastal waters, particularly
those near large cities, have alarmingly high levels of toxin concentrations
as they are exposed to tons of chemicals. Chemicals are then transferred
to our bodies when we consume the contaminated fish.
Even fish raised in commercial
fishponds are not immune to toxins. Pesticides and herbicides from nearby
fields often pollute their ponds. The most protected fish are generally
the cold-water species fish like cod, haddock, perch, and salmon as they
thrive in the open seas, which are furthest away from the polluted coastal
waters.
Methyl
Mercury: Toxic History?
In Japan, there was a tragic
incident of human poisoning by toxic-laden fish when an unusual epidemic
infected the entire population around Minimata Bay in the 1950s. Over 1,500
people died. They were poisoned by high doses of methyl mercury. It was
found later that the toxin comes from fish who in turn got the toxin as
such toxic chemicals from local industries was dumped into the bay.
Chronic methyl mercury poisoning
affects not only the brain and central nervous system but also the reproductive
system and many other organs. Its earliest symptoms are neurological in
nature, including numbness and tingling in the extremities, difficulty in
walking and talking, poor concentration, weakness, and fatigue. These symptoms
could progress to spasms, tremors, coma and finally death.
Methyl mercury can trigger toxic
effects in doses as low as 150 micrograms each day if consumed over a few
months. This can come from over consumption of fish that are toxic over
time. A consumption of most commercially available fish twice a week
(approximately 8 ounces total) is quite safe.
According to the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), methyl mercury limit in fish ranges from 0.5 to 1.0
per million (or 0.5 to 1.0 microgram per gram of fish) in some countries
like Finland, Sweden, and Japan. However, there is no ideal and practical
way of calculating the amount of methyl mercury we consume from fish. Estimating
the amount of methyl mercury is therefore a noble but fruitless exercise.
With global warming and acid
rain, larger lake fish like bass, pike, and lake trout may have levels higher
than the official set range limit of methyl mercury levels. As acid rain
dissolves the deposits of mercury found in rocks and soil, it erodes and
washes these chemicals into lakes and seas. Bacterial action then transforms
mercury into methyl mercury.
As chronic methyl mercury poisoning
creates internal health problems, it greatly speeds up the aging process.
Its signs and symptoms have become apparent only after serious cellular
breakdown has occurred.
Supplemental
Protection
Some supplements are recommended
to guard your body against the damaging effects of methyl mercury if you
find it difficult to give up fish for good, or you have been consuming fish
for more than a few times a week. Vitamin
C and the amino acid cysteine are particularly important. They
can help the detoxification of methyl mercury and eliminate it from your
system. Vitamin E and selenium are scavengers
of cell-damaging free radicals and protect your brain and central nervous
system. These supplements, while lowering the damage from methyl
mercury exposure, do not offer total protection from chronic methyl mercury
poisoning.
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