Chicken: Should it be on your Grocery List?

[ashedfc]

Not sure where this topic would go (shopping or finance)

Should chicken really be on your grocery list?

If you buy grocery-store chicken on a regular basis you may want to consider handling it and preparing it with care.
http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/chicken-re...170000160.html

[Sally888]

I try to only buy free range straight from the local butcher. I dont like how chicken from zehrs is marked good for 7 whole days. Last year I bought 2 packs that had just been put out and they were so rotten

[MortgageQueen]

If you're really into "fresh' as opposed to mass production. . . check out the movie "Fresh" It's fantastic. Very educational too.

[emg]

I became vegetarian after a restaurant owner who is a friend of mine told me terrifying stories about chicken grown with hormones. Food nation is a great documentary for everybody to get informed.

[carebearhamm]

I try very hard to buy organic - if we knew what was really in our food most people would stop eating.

[kasha100]

are they trying to say that eating chicken will give you a UTI?

[marstec]

I think you can find a scary story about just about any food in existence. If you follow ALL the advice, what are you left to eat?

Organic foods are all fine and dandy, but they are expensive and there is research that points to organic farming practices being more harmful for the environment than non-organic. You need more land to produce the same amount of food, and in order to use organic fertilizers, ie ,manure, you need to have a lot of space to raise the cattle. I like buying some organic foods, but more for the flavor than for the philosophical aspect.

As to the handling and preparing meats...you should always be careful not to cross-contaminate your foods, and to cook them to the right temperatures to kill off anything that will harm you...it's just common sense.

[Shwa Girl]

We try to get the Maple Leaf veggie grain fed chicken.
We may be fooling ourselves about it being an extra safe chicken, but no problems so far.

We cook all our meats well and separate meat handling utensils from veggie utensils.

[Natalka]

I think you can find a scary story about just about any food in existence. If you follow ALL the advice, what are you left to eat?

Organic foods are all fine and dandy, but they are expensive and there is research that points to organic farming practices being more harmful for the environment than non-organic. You need more land to produce the same amount of food, and in order to use organic fertilizers, ie ,manure, you need to have a lot of space to raise the cattle. I like buying some organic foods, but more for the flavor than for the philosophical aspect.

As to the handling and preparing meats...you should always be careful not to cross-contaminate your foods, and to cook them to the right temperatures to kill off anything that will harm you...it's just common sense.

Agree with your points!

As for people being scared away from eating meat - well, last summer there were recalls for tainted organic spinach, as well as other produce like sprouts and cantaloupe - and others, of course.

... I think the link between UTIs and meat products is coincidental.... I really dislike studies like this which are promoted to scare people.

[ashedfc]

Agree with your points!
... I think the link between UTIs and meat products is coincidental.... I really dislike studies like this which are promoted to scare people.

Because of these studies, we are able to find the truth, which wasn't available decades or centuries earlier. This has helped us by knowing the facts, so we can take precautions.
Heating to a certain degree, kills several micro-organisms, but there are several thermophilic ones, which are resistant to high temperature.

Bacteria, Virus, Fungus, Prion, etc there are several reasons of diseases. Science & Technology has advanced a lot, but so have the resistance of these disease/problem causing microbes..

Its a game of chicken & egg (who came first): Scientists discover newer antibiotics, & microbes get resistant to newer antibiotics.... this game goes on & on....

[Shwa Girl]

Because of these studies, we are able to find the truth, which wasn't available decades or centuries earlier. This has helped us by knowing the facts, so we can take precautions.
Heating to a certain degree, kills several micro-organisms, but there are several thermophilic ones, which are resistant to high temperature.

Bacteria, Virus, Fungus, Prion, etc there are several reasons of diseases. Science & Technology has advanced a lot, but so have the resistance of these disease/problem causing microbes..

Its a game of chicken & egg (who came first): Scientists discover newer antibiotics, & microbes get resistant to newer antibiotics.... this game goes on & on....

"One of" studies can be misleading.

Some have said coffee is good. Others have said coffee is bad.
Reproducing studies is what is important.

The most notorious "one of" study was the famous one linking vaccines to autism. The study was never reproducible. The doctor in the UK falsified his data and intimidated parents in the study to skew data. His medial license may be revoked soon.

[MortgageQueen]

[QUOTE=marstec;4494630]
Organic foods are all fine and dandy, but they are expensive and there is research that points to organic farming practices being more harmful for the environment than non-organic. You need more land to produce the same amount of food, and in order to use organic fertilizers, ie ,manure, you need to have a lot of space to raise the cattle. I like buying some organic foods, but more for the flavor than for the philosophical aspect.
QUOTE]

I vehemently disagree with the fact that organic is more harmful then non-organic. You do NOT need more land to produce the same amount of food. You really should view the movie "Fresh" as just one of the many honest documentaries out there. it takes a balanced look at both methods and is not a witch hunt.
There is one very impressive farmer on there, that by just planning rotations of grazing animals, makes something like $3000 an acre in comparison to the $450 an acre that commercial farms make.

You might also find interesting that because commercial farms have soooo much manure waste, they end up with literal"toxic waste" ponds near their factories. It's totally unusable. You will never find that at an organic operation.
The more and more potent antibiotics farmers use on their pigs/cattle is creating super-viruses. (that's not news) One farmer got nicked by one of his animals and almost died because even the strongest standard antibiotic couldn't kill his infection. It was only when he was in ICU dying, that they gave him the newest most potent antibiotic just on the market. It totally freaked him out and he switched to organic farming and loves it. But he wasn't pointing any fingers. . .just saying it how it is.

Ok. end of rant. But the increase in disease isn't just a coincidence to my way of thinking. . .

[ashedfc]

"One of" studies can be misleading.

Some have said coffee is good. Others have said coffee is bad.
Reproducing studies is what is important.

The most notorious "one of" study was the famous one linking vaccines to autism. The study was never reproducible. The doctor in the UK falsified his data and intimidated parents in the study to skew data. His medial license may be revoked soon.

Couple of falsified data doesn't mean all research (right from discovery of penicillin, to discovery of diseases like Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, etc.) is worthless..
I have personally visited slaughter house & I know how the process of certification of meat is done (& how many flaws are there in the process)..
I am not questioning the work of CFIA, they are federal agency - they have their duty & obligation for meat inspection)..... But do you think all animals are critically/clinically tested before certifying to be fit for human consumption. We all know the answer.

I would conclude with...... Do not depend on the grocery stores to maintain the keeping quality of the meat.. & always take your own precautions. Its you who is consuming (not them).

[MortgageQueen]

[QUOTE=ashedfc;4498988]
I have personally visited slaughter house & I know how the process of certification of meat is done (& how many flaws are there in the process)..
QUOTE]


Eeeeewwwww! I've heard people that visit those slaughter houses become vegetarians! Was it hard tp eat chicken after that??

[ashedfc]

Eeeeewwwww! I've heard people that visit those slaughter houses become vegetarians! Was it hard tp eat chicken after that??

True,
I have turned partly vegetarian.. No Beef, No Pork, & any other large animal meat. Only little bit consumption whatever happens is Fish/Chicken (but we ensure they were kept frozen till right before cooking, or marinated). My stuff mostly comes from Costco..