NUGGETS OF WISDOM

 

keywords: chicken, safety, obesity, petroleum, economics

How did I connect these?

Buy Local has become a popular concept in Rhode Island.  So, what could be more Rhode Island local than a backyard chicken?  One home in our suburban neighborhood has a rooster I hear crow while out walking.  Another home has chickens that strut around the front yard, foraging for bugs, slugs, and worms.  Yet another family down the street embraced the hobby with several breeds of chicken. 

Back in 1854, the renowned Rhode Island Red was bred in Little Compton, specifically for egg production.  These birds quickly became a commercial favorite, because of their laying capabilities and quick growth.  A healthy, well-loved hen can lay more than 200 eggs in a season.  And eggs laid by a hen that eats a diet of insects and worms are naturally rich in nutrition.

Eggs are nature’s most perfect food, one of the best sources of protein on the planet.  They score higher in their quality of protein than milk, beef, whey and soy, and they contain all nine essential amino acids.  Eggs are also a significant source of the nutrient choline, which is essential for cardiovascular and brain function and for healthy cell membranes.  

While some chickens are raised for eggs, most chickens raised for meat are fed a cheap corn diet on a factory farm.  Of this a large portion is delivered for consumption in a highly processed form.

December 23, 2010 – On today’s walk I gathered a bunch of trash that originated from a local McDonald’s.  Here’s today’s collection:

#1    BIG MAC cardboard container, crushed and dirty

      Printed Message: “savor the JOY”

      Calories: 540

      Fat Calories: 260 (29 grams Fat versus 25 grams Protein)

      Sodium: 1040 mg (43% Daily Value)

          #2     DOUBLE QUARTER POUNDER cardboard container, crushed

      Printed Message: “TWICE AS MIGHTY”

      Calories: 740 

      Fat Calories: 380 (42 grams Fat versus 48 grams Protein)

      Sodium: 1380 mg (57% DV)

#3  4 CHICKEN McNUGGETS (happy meal) cardboard container, clean and intact

      Printed Message: AN EXCELLENT SOURCE OF HAPPINESS

      Calories: 190

      Fat Calories; 100 (12 grams Fat versus 10 grams Protein)

      Sodium: 400 mg (17% DV)

#4  10 CHICKEN McNUGGETS, clean and intact

      Printed message: I’VE BEEN NUGGETIZED

      Calories: 460

      Fat Calories: 260 (29 grams Fat versus 24 grams Protein)

      Sodium: 1000 mg (42% DV)

The message printed on each package promotes a “feel good” sentiment (like the “Food Safety Bill”). The food itself serves to promote obesity, Type II diabetes, and heart disease.  The nugget, specifically, has supplanted beef as the most popular meat in America.  Consider, however, that a 10-piece serving of McNuggets has 27 g (grams) of carbs, 29 g of fat, versus 24 g of protein. 

The nutrition information on the packaging does not provide the ingredient list, which is alarmingly complex.  In fact, according to Michael Pollan, who wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemma, there are 38 ingredients in a McNugget, thirteen of them from corn, including the following: 
 

“the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat), mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leaches out); yellow corn flour and more modified corn starch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially-hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative.”

McNuggets also contain some synthetic ingredients – petroleum or chemical-based - to preserve the processed foods in the freezer or on the road.  The most alarming of these, TBHQ, is a form of butane, albeit used sparingly.  To grow and process those 460 calories requires at least ten times as many calories of fossil fuel energy.  In addition, many calories of fossil fuel are required to transport the food across the country and refrigerate it.

What’s the difference between the nugget and the backyard chicken that has been floured, egged, breaded, and lightly cooked in butter, besides the ingredient list?

Let’s start with the economics.  Say chicken raised on natural diet costs $6.99 per pound.  This seems expensive.  But let’s look at a pound.  A ten-piece sized serving of McNuggets has 24 grams of protein.  This is stated clearly on the box.  24 grams equals only .84 ounces or .05 lbs.  A pound of chicken would yield about 200 nuggets (1 lb divided by .05 lbs x 10 nuggets).  If the price for a 10-nugget serving is $3.79, then we are looking at spending $75.80 for a pound of chicken protein.  (I wonder how much of that cost is attributable to fossil fuel.)

Now that $6.99 per pound price for fresh chicken isn’t such a bad deal after all, is it?  You could use that pound of chicken to cook up six satisfying 2.5 ounce servings of freshly chicken protein (breaded). Six servings of McNuggets would cost you $22.74, each with only .84 ounces of protein, leaving you hungering for more.  The cost savings using fresh is $15.75.  Might the $15.75 savings be worth your time to cook up some fresh chicken pieces at home?

Now let’s look at the fulfillment of nutrition requirements. The USDA recommended “serving size” of meat is 2-3 ounces – 2-3 servings per day.  The 2-3 ounce recommendation would require eating 24 nuggets, or 1,104 calories of nuggets, which would include 67 grams of fat, which exceeds the percent Daily Value (DV), thereby blowing your fat allowance for the day in one meal, just to satisfy your protein requirement.  Help the environment and take care of your own health.  Buy Local.