Chicken is the most common muscle food. Its high protein content is proven to help gain weight and build muscles faster. But the most commonly available variety, broiler chicken, causes so much damage to your health that it should be completely avoided as a muscle food.
Unlike organic or country chicken, broiler chickens are raised exclusively for their meat. The poultry farm is a controlled and sterile atmosphere, where thousands of birds are huddled together in cages. Their feed contains antibiotics and other chemicals to make them grow faster; almost three times faster than a normal chicken would
To be honest, you have no idea what’s really in the broiler chicken you’re eating. And if you knew, you wouldn’t want that chicken in your or your family’s diet. The secret behind the easily availability of the genetically modified broiler chicken breed, although millions are slaughtered daily, is genetically modified fodder. The modified fodder is full of harmful chemicals and hormones you don't want inside you.
The biggest proof of the health risks in consuming broiler chickens is their own physiology - weak bone structures and a high risk for avian diseases due to inbreeding and consuming their own feces.
The broiler chicken you’re buying also likely contains a high concentration of antibiotics, harmful hormones, and trace amounts of pesticides. Tetracyclines (such as doxycycline), fluoroquinolones (such as enrofloxacin) and aminoglycosides (such as neomycin) are commonly used antibiotics in chicken rearing.
These contaminants in broiler chicken can cause antibiotic resistance in some people, increase the risk of cancer, and lead to early-onset of puberty.
1. Food Poisoning
Broiler chicken play hosts to numerous deadly bacteria. Most tested chicken samples from the market contain bacteria such as Campylobacter spp and Salmonella. Regular intake, or even occasional consumption of broiler chicken, can lead to diseases such as diarrhea and food poisoning. It also weakens your immune system over due course of time.
2. Antibiotic Resistance
Broiler chickens themselves have very poor health and immunity, owing to the conditions they are bred in. That’s why poultry farmers load them up with antibiotics. This has given rise to antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Now if you’re infected by such a bacteria or virus and visit a doctor, they will administer an antibiotic. However, if you have been consuming the antibiotic laden broiler chicken meat on a regular basis, you would have developed a resistance to the antibiotics. If your body doesn’t respond to the treatment, you could end up having a severe bout of illness.
3. Dangerous Growth Hormones
All poultry farms inject broiler chickens with naturally occurring as well as synthetic growth hormones. This is an unavoidable reality of the poultry business that can’t be done away with legislation, because the poultry owners need to sell their produce within a certain time-frame in order to turn a profit. When we consume these broiler chickens, the hormones are likely getting passed into out bodies too. It has been reported to lead to obesity, male fertility problems, and early puberty in females. Most importantly, these are not the kind of hormones you need to build bigger and stronger muscles.
4. Unhealthy Fats
Thanks to the variety of nutritional supplements and growth boosters fed to broiler chickens, they tend to be high on fat and low on muscle. Although this does mean their meat is more tender, it also implies that you are consuming unhealthy fat instead of the protein you need. These unhealthy fats can cause problems like high blood pressure, obesity, and heart problems in healthy people.
5. Chicken Tandoori / Tikka Are Most Unsafe
Unlike country chicken, broiler chicken is very easy to cook on a grill since its meat is tender. But cooking broiler chicken at high temperatures can influencer the formation of heterocyclic amines and polycyclic amine hydrocarbons that increase the risk of prostate and breast cancer. So, even though body builders tend to hog on appetizing the appetizing chicken tandoori or tikka, they’re only putting their well being at risk.
Bulking up by consuming an extremely unhygienic muscle food is not bulking up. It is more like exposing yourself to a range of health risks that will compromise your fitness. On the same lines, one must also be careful to avoid dam-reared fish as they are fed the same antibiotics and hormones. Sea fish and real fresh water fish are safe to consume.
Take a pledge to give up broiler chicken today, especially if you don’t want to compromise on your health just for the sake of faster muscle growth. You are not a broiler!
.Broiler chicken price shoots up in Telangana
HYDERABAD: Owing to multiple factors such as surge in demand, festivals and wedding season, the broiler chicken meat price crossed Rs300 mark in Telangana. Currently, the skinless broiler chicken costs 300 while the normal one costs 262.
Apart from the rise in demand, poultry farmers also note that the recent rise in fuel prices too play a crucial role in the rise. In Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Mahboobnagar and Nizamabad, the broiler chicken price is 162. In Khammam, the price is slightly less at 157.
“Many poultry farmers quit the business across the state during the steep fall in prices to Rs80 per kg around five months ago. This resulted in a huge gap between the supply and demand,” Mohammed Basha, owner of Fitoor Broiler explained. On the bright side, the price of country chicken remained stable at 470 per kilogram.
The spike in chicken prices was witnessed since the end of the Ramadan fasting period. However, prior to that, data shows that there has been a steady rise in chicken prices from March onwards. Other common reasons attributed towards the rise in chicken meat price are high feed costs and the rise in death of the birds during summer.
Meanwhile, the chicken prices in Andhra Pradesh have touched an all-time high of 350 a kg in many places.
Rising fuel prices, coupled with acute shortage in production due to intense summer heat, are said to be the main factors behind the rise in chicken prices. Feed prices too have increased, putting extra financial burden on the poultry farms.
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