Chicken: the benefits and harms of the product

When you say that you will cook a bird for din­ner, which one do you mean exact­ly? .. Yes, of course, chick­en! She is the most famous, most pop­u­lar and most com­mon poul­try in all cor­ners of the world, besides, mankind tamed her a long time ago, at least two thou­sand years before the birth of Christ. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, dur­ing this time, chick­en has become an ordi­nary, every­day prod­uct in the human diet!

Where is the chicken from?

Chick­ens in the wild have a whole horde of rel­a­tives — here are pheas­ants, and guinea fowls, and quails … But the clos­est rel­a­tive of the domes­tic chick­en, the very first domes­ti­cat­ed bird, was from the jun­gles of South­east Asia. Accord­ing to the researchers, for the first time they learned to breed chick­ens in the farm­stead in India.

Today this pop­u­lar bird is bred in all cor­ners of the world. And we are talk­ing about chick­ens of a wide vari­ety of breeds, excel­lent both in plumage, and in size, and in pur­pose: there are dec­o­ra­tive birds — pure­ly for beau­ty, there are “pro­duc­ers” of eggs, and there are spe­cial­ly bred meat ones. One of the most famous meat breeds today is broil­er chick­en. When you buy chick­en in a store, you are prob­a­bly buy­ing broil­er meat.

And this is nei­ther good nor bad. It’s just a state­ment of fact.

How useful is chicken?

Chick­en meat is an excel­lent source of lean pro­tein, which is much eas­i­er to digest than veal, pork or lamb. But, of course, every­thing is good in mod­er­a­tion. There­fore, nutri­tion­ists insist that a serv­ing of chick­en in the dai­ly diet of an adult should not exceed 300 g.

Nutritional value of chicken

100 g of chick­en is 19 g of pro­tein, 8–13 g of fat, B vit­a­mins, vit­a­mins A, C, E, F, min­er­als (in par­tic­u­lar iron, zinc, cal­ci­um, phos­pho­rus, potas­si­um, sodi­um, mag­ne­sium, sul­fur, chlo­rine, cop­per ) and impor­tant amino acids. What exact­ly — we’ll fig­ure it out.

Amino acids found in chicken

Chick­en con­tains the amino acid argi­nine, which has immune-mod­u­lat­ing and anti-inflam­ma­to­ry prop­er­ties. Amino acids valine, leucine and lysine pro­mote the growth of mus­cle tis­sue, increase the body’s resis­tance to tem­per­a­ture changes (remem­ber, my grand­moth­er assured me that in the win­ter cold the most healthy food is soup with strong chick­en broth? ..), valine also con­trols the lev­el of the hor­mone sero­tonin in the body , one might say, is respon­si­ble for the lev­el of hap­pi­ness. Anoth­er amino acid, purine, pro­motes the absorp­tion of nutri­ents and sup­ports the work of meta­bol­ic process­es in the body. Do you know why tra­di­tion­al­ly the most pop­u­lar spring sal­ads and chick­en pies? Also because of the amino acid con­tained in poul­try meat, because of tryp­to­phan: this amino acid is a good means of pre­vent­ing hypovi­t­a­minosis.

Need to wake up your brain? Eat a serv­ing of chick­en: A “dose” of tau­rir, anoth­er impor­tant amino acid, will help your mem­o­ry cells recov­er.

How many calories are in a serving of chicken?

Chick­en is a rec­og­nized favorite in the diet. The calo­rie con­tent of chick­en meat with­out skin is rather low, only 190 kcal per 100 g of prod­uct. As for the boiled chick­en breast (of course, also with­out skin), it is even less — 123 kcal per 100 g of chick­en.

The benefits of chicken

So, what is the ben­e­fit of chick­en?

1. For healthy teeth and bones

Chick­en as a high pro­tein food is rec­om­mend­ed for old­er peo­ple, and espe­cial­ly for women who may expe­ri­ence bone prob­lems. It is enough to add 100 g of chick­en breast to your menu to cov­er the body’s dai­ly pro­tein require­ment. The phos­pho­rus con­tent of chick­en will sup­port the health of teeth and bones, and will also con­tribute to the nor­mal func­tion­ing of the kid­neys, liv­er and cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem.

2. For the digestive system

Chick­en meat in gen­er­al and chick­en breast in par­tic­u­lar is a unique prod­uct with­out exag­ger­a­tion. Sim­ply put, chick­en can be eat­en even by those who can eat very lit­tle. The meat of this bird is includ­ed in the diet menu, which is pre­scribed for many, even very severe diges­tive dis­or­ders. So, for exam­ple, chick­en is accept­able on the menu of those who suf­fer from gas­tri­tis, pan­cre­ati­tis, ulcers, in addi­tion, chick­en is rec­om­mend­ed to be intro­duced into the diet for diar­rhea of ​​var­i­ous ori­gins. Of course, we are talk­ing about fresh, high-qual­i­ty meat that has under­gone prop­er heat treat­ment.

3. For heart health

Chick­en meat is use­ful as a pre­ven­tion of ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis, coro­nary heart dis­ease, it will not harm those who have prob­lems with blood pres­sure surges. Reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of chick­en, accord­ing to researchers, pre­vents the devel­op­ment of ear­ly heart attacks and strokes, since poul­try meat reduces the lev­el of bad cho­les­terol, strength­ens blood ves­sels and reg­u­lates blood pres­sure.

4. For immunity

Dur­ing a cold, dur­ing the recov­ery peri­od after a long ill­ness, doc­tors rec­om­mend adding chick­en broth to the menu. The end of the debate about whether it is harm­ful or use­ful was put a decade ago in the course of care­ful­ly con­duct­ed mod­ern research. Chick­en broth is a tru­ly valu­able vit­a­min food, rich in numer­ous vit­a­mins and stim­u­lat­ing the immune sys­tem. And — take note! — just an indis­pens­able super tool that helps you quick­ly get back on your feet after a very noisy par­ty with an abun­dance of alco­hol. And the rea­son for every­thing is vit­a­mins, fats, pro­teins.

5. For the nervous system

Accord­ing to the obser­va­tions of doc­tors, reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of poul­try meat reduces the risk of devel­op­ing neu­roses, increas­es stress resis­tance and nor­mal­izes sleep. The pos­i­tive effect of chick­en meat on the func­tion­ing of blood ves­sels and pulp has been proven. Recent stud­ies also show that eat­ing chick­en in old age can be seen as an adjunct pre­ven­ta­tive against Alzheimer’s dis­ease.

6. For skin health

The com­po­si­tion of chick­en includes riboflavin — an ele­ment that improves the con­di­tion of the skin and mucous mem­branes. Reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of chick­en will improve the com­plex­ion, will help cleanse the integu­ment and mucous mem­branes, and also … will reduce crack­ing of the lips and relieve inflam­ma­tion of the gums.

Can pregnant and lactating women eat chicken?

Pro­tein, phos­pho­rus, vit­a­min E, folic acid — the com­po­si­tion of chick­en meat is ide­al for the menu of a preg­nant and lac­tat­ing woman. Chick­en meat is an eas­i­ly digestible, nutri­tious prod­uct, not char­ac­ter­ized by high calo­rie con­tent and at the same time very tasty. This meat will main­tain the teeth and bones of the expec­tant moth­er in a nor­mal state, help to resolve meta­bol­ic prob­lems, and will also pre­vent the for­ma­tion of puffi­ness and help nor­mal­ize blood pres­sure.

Dur­ing the peri­od of feed­ing the baby, chick­en in the diet of a woman is also appro­pri­ate. She will not only give mom­my and baby a lot of use­ful and nutri­tious things, but also help the young moth­er to keep calm and cheer­ful mood. And this is very impor­tant for the health of both moth­er and child.

How useful is chicken for a child?

Chick­en meat is a prod­uct that is intro­duced into the diet of a child among the first. Chick­en meat is an excel­lent source of pro­tein, and it is the main build­ing mate­r­i­al for a grow­ing organ­ism. Low-fat, eas­i­ly digestible meat with a rich com­po­si­tion of use­ful min­er­als and amino acids, of course, is good for the baby. It is only impor­tant to adhere to all med­ical rec­om­men­da­tions for the intro­duc­tion of com­ple­men­tary foods. And, of course, so that on the child’s table there is always only a high-qual­i­ty, fresh prod­uct that has under­gone prop­er heat treat­ment.

Is it possible to eat chicken for those who are losing weight?

Accord­ing to nutri­tion­ists, a high pro­tein con­tent in food con­tributes to weight loss. Chick­en (espe­cial­ly chick­en breast) is low in calo­ries and at the same time cov­ers a sig­nif­i­cant part of the body’s need for pro­tein. In addi­tion, chick­en, in com­par­i­son with oth­er types of meat, con­tains a small pro­por­tion of cho­les­terol, which is very use­ful for the pre­ven­tion and treat­ment of many dis­eases.

Chick­en meat is a rich source of sele­ni­um, which is nec­es­sary for the nor­mal func­tion­ing of meta­bol­ic process­es in the body, which is also very impor­tant for nor­mal weight reg­u­la­tion.

Which chicken is the healthiest

And the whole bird as a whole, and each part of it sep­a­rate­ly deserves the close atten­tion of both gourmets and fans of a healthy diet, and those who are shown spe­cial diets (diets). But here, to each his own. The nutri­tion­al val­ue, calo­rie con­tent and vit­a­min com­po­si­tion of each part of the bird has its own dif­fer­ences.

For exam­ple, dark meat (thigh, leg) has more calo­ries than white meat (chick­en breast); and the skin con­tains a sig­nif­i­cant amount of fat, includ­ing sat­u­rat­ed fat. For those who fol­low a diet for weight loss, it is bet­ter to remove the chick­en skin from the diet, oth­er­wise the piece of bird you like will sig­nif­i­cant­ly add to the calo­rie con­tent. For exam­ple, the calo­rie con­tent of boiled chick­en with­out skin is 170 kcal per 100 g, and with skin — 214 kcal.

The most ten­der, most dietary meat in a chick­en car­cass is a breast, or fil­let. This meat con­tains the small­est pro­por­tion of cho­les­terol, so it is con­sid­ered the noblest and most dietary. Chick­en breast is suit­able for baby food, for the pre­ven­tive menu of those suf­fer­ing from dis­eases of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem and blood ves­sels.

Chick­en legs and thighs are high­er in calo­ries, but their pro­tein con­tent is much low­er than in the breast.

The least healthy part of a chick­en is the wings. They have very lit­tle meat, but an excess of fat.

What is the healthiest way to cook chicken?

The most suit­able meth­ods of heat treat­ment of poul­try are roast­ing or boil­ing, includ­ing steam­ing. Those who care­ful­ly mon­i­tor their diet should be care­ful about deep-fried chick­en meat, a vari­ety of com­plex bat­ters.

What can be dangerous chicken meat?

For all its use­ful­ness, chick­en can be extreme­ly dan­ger­ous for humans. Raw poul­try meat may con­tain Sal­mo­nel­la, Campy­lobac­ter, and Clostrid­i­um bac­te­ria. That is why it is extreme­ly impor­tant to sub­ject poul­try meat to thor­ough heat treat­ment. You should also cut the chick­en very care­ful­ly, wash well all kitchen uten­sils that came into con­tact with the raw prod­uct, and the cut­ting board on which the bird was butchered.

To avoid chick­en poi­son­ing, it is extreme­ly impor­tant to choose a fresh, health-test­ed prod­uct. Alas, a chick­en bought on a spon­ta­neous mar­ket, no mat­ter how attrac­tive and well-fed it may look, can be a real poi­son. There­fore, when choos­ing a bird for the fam­i­ly table, pay atten­tion to the goods pre­sent­ed in trust­ed retail chains. It will sure­ly be safer.

Chick­en meat can also be dan­ger­ous due to improp­er man­age­ment of poul­try and due to improp­er han­dling of slaugh­tered poul­try car­cass­es and improp­er stor­age.

Are there hormones and antibiotics in chicken?

As we under­stand it, chick­en comes to retail chains from poul­try farms, where poul­try is kept on an indus­tri­al scale. No mat­ter how high-tech the poul­try keep­ing con­di­tions are, it should be tak­en into account that there are no and can­not be con­di­tions at the poul­try farm for keep­ing each bird in a sep­a­rate iso­lat­ed cage. Birds are con­stant­ly in con­tact with each oth­er and if one gets sick, there is a high risk of los­ing the entire live­stock. To avoid this, birds are occa­sion­al­ly giv­en vit­a­mins and drugs that are sim­i­lar in com­po­si­tion to antibi­otics. But they do not do this all the time, because the accu­mu­la­tion of these sub­stances in the bird’s body is prac­ti­cal­ly reduced to zero. In addi­tion, the qual­i­ty of chick­en goes through mul­ti-lev­el con­trol before it hits the shelves.

As for the “feed­ing” of the bird with hor­mones, this is from the cat­e­go­ry of fan­ta­sy. Even with­out such dan­ger­ous feed­ing, meat breeds of poul­try grow well and gain weight well, and they sim­ply do not need “hor­mone ther­a­py”. In addi­tion, the use of hor­mones would great­ly increase the cost of chick­en.

How to choose a chicken?

It is most rea­son­able to buy poul­try in retail chains, where you have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pur­chase a prod­uct that has passed a high-qual­i­ty san­i­tary check and is safe for life. If you have the slight­est doubt, you can also look at the doc­u­ments con­firm­ing that the prod­uct is safe to con­sume.

When choos­ing a vac­u­um-packed bird, make sure that the pack­ag­ing is not dam­aged.

What is the best chicken size?

Chick­en — a bird … Dif­fer­ent. Among the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of meat breeds, there are also quite large “spec­i­mens”. And of course, you can choose a bird of any size and degree of fat­ness. But if you plan to cook chick­en in a spe­cial way, accord­ing to a recipe fresh­ly found in a fash­ion mag­a­zine, con­sid­er one caveat: as a rule, the amount of all ingre­di­ents for cook­ing poul­try is giv­en based on a car­cass weigh­ing 1.5 kg.

How to store chicken?

Pur­chased poul­try should be stored in the refrig­er­a­tor or freez­er, depend­ing on how quick­ly you plan to cook it. If you intend to delay cook­ing the bird for a day or two, it is safer to place it in the freez­er.

If you do not plan to cook the whole bird and want to put it aside for long-term (in the freez­er) stor­age, cut it into por­tions — sep­a­rate legs, thighs and wings, sep­a­rate the breast, divide the remain­ing chick­en frame into two to four parts. Pack all parts of the bird in sep­a­rate bags or con­tain­ers and place in the freez­er. In this form, poul­try chick­en can be stored in the freez­er for about a year. To remem­ber how long the prod­uct should be used, write the date of “pack­ing” on the con­tain­ers (sachets).

If you plan to use the chick­en as soon as pos­si­ble and put it in the refrig­er­a­tor for, say, a few hours or a day, there is a risk that it may absorb odors. To pre­vent this from hap­pen­ing, wrap the car­cass in cling film.

It should also be remem­bered that raw chick­en meat can be unsafe, so all the more so before plac­ing the bird in the refrig­er­a­tor, it should be wrapped in film or poly­eth­yl­ene.