We all have these moments in life where time stands still because we learn new information that literally changes our lives. That’s why I said, I am sorry to do this to you, but it’s time you know.
The Grocery Story Fairy is Not Real!
You see food, real food, has been around longer, A LOT longer then the modern Grocery store. (First one opened in 1916, the Piggly Wiggly) Now this modern invention has changed EVERYTHING about the way we eat and even think about as food. This Grocery Story Fair is run by HUGE PR firms and marketing agencies that tell us stories about the “food” within. Time to come to gripes with the TRUTH: (sorry, not sorry)
Chicken Edition
- Eggs are seasonal. There should be NO eggs from about late October through beginning of March. Longer for those of us further north. Chickens do not lay eggs year round, their bodies need a break and God give them that in the winter months. They only lay year round if put under lights for 12-14 hr per day to FORCE their bodies to lay against natures design.
- Eggs, unwashed, straight from the chicken, don’t need to be refrigerated. People from other countries laugh at us with our eggs in the fridge. Eggs are coated with a bloom as they are laid and that protects the eggs and they can sit out on a counter for months. Factories wash the eggs and wash off that protective coating and then the eggs have to stay in the fridge or they’ll go bad faster.
- Your Fresh Eggs aren’t exactly fresh. The farmer (haha that’s another myth)! The factory has 30 days to put the eggs into the package. The egg can be sold up to 30 days after the package date. That doesn’t mean the laying date, the packaging date. So that egg could easily be 2 months old before it’s on the grocery store shelf for purchase. Don’t forget the eggs were washed pretty quickly after collection so now that protective coating (the bloom) is gone and the nutrients start to degrade. Contrast that with a truly fresh eggs, eaten the same day or week it’s been laid. It tastes better and has higher nutrients.
- Chicken is also a seasonal product. Chickens are killed (harvested, to be polite) at 8 weeks old. We, humans, have through either natural selection or genetic modification chosen birds that grow incredibly fast to get to market faster. 8 FREAKIN WEEKS OLD! If you are raising your own meat birds, you get 2-3 batches in a growing season, May, July and September, maybe October if you have a longer season. And that’s it. Plus do you have any idea of how hard it is on their bodies to grow that fast? Their breasts are so heavy they cannot walk and other horror stories. When they live on the land and eat grasses and bugs they can only do that part of the year. Find a farmer who raises heirloom varieties of birds that are slower growing.
- Chickens are NOT vegetarians. Any package that states fed a vegetarian feed is telling you this chicken product (meat or eggs) is from a bird who was nutrient deficient. This product is not as good as is could be for the chicken or YOU. Chickens eat bugs and meat- they are omnivores.
- Chickens have more than breasts. Gassp I know! I think some people maybe thought chickens were just a pair of huge breasts with a beak, but nope. They are actually an entire animals with many parts and the parts you want to eat are the thighs. The darker the meat the more nutrients. And you my friend, I know are on a mission to create the most nutrient dense meals that you can, so you will skip over the breasts and go for the thighs.
- Chicken are cheap because they are worse for you…The final note for our Chicken edition is a harder one for many to accept, but facts just don’t lie. If you go to the oldest steak house in your area and look at an old menu, I’m talking like 1890 or early 1900’s. You will see that the most expensive item on the menu was chicken. This is not because it is superior, it is because it takes so much work to process (harvest or kill) a chicken relative to the meat that you get out of all that work. Have you ever killed a chicken? I have it is a TON of work for only 2 breasts, 2 thighs and some back meat. The 2 feet you get go into the freezer (why? read on). There isn’t much left a few organs which you will keep and eat and that’s it. That wouldn’t feed more then 1 family 1 meal with lots of sides. Somewhere along the mid century when there was better living through chemistry and assembly lines, they could mechanically process the chicken quickly and get the less nutrient dense meat to the public for less. The public choses their food based on cost and cost alone, not nutrient density. But this trade off hasn’t helped us. Why we’d push this on the masses by keeping the price low on a less superior product is for you to think about. Why would ‘they’ do that?
- Chicken feet are needed to make gelatinous and perfect bone broth. Yes and boy does this make it look like some sort of Halloween brew. You’ll want to save the feet and toss a bunch in, like 6, for each batch of homemade bone broth to get the BEST broth.
Stay tuned next week for more Truths from the grocery store.
Sorry! I’m here for you. I know this was A LOT. Just take a moment to breathe through it and then find a local farmer pronto.
