I have been “preaching” for years NOT to eat conventionally raised chicken. Conventional means ANYTHING besides organic. So… natural, greenwise, super duper clean… whatever the label, if not ORGANIC, don’t eat it if you care about your health.
This of course includes chicken from Chick-fil-a, a grilled chicken salad at a nice restaurant, or a chicken breast at Nikolai’s Roof in downtown Atlanta for $50 for the a-la carte breast. And the reason why I have been preaching this, is because the chicken feed has been laden with arsenic for years. Purposefully placed in order to accomplish a number of tasks:
…in the 1940s, producers started using arsenicals to promote growth, treat disease and improve meat pigmentation…
– Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-hunt/arsenic-in-chicken_b_3267334.html)
Later, as feed sellers saw the desire for chicken producers to add these drugs (yeah, they are actually considered drugs by the FDA), they saw opportunity in adding them early, which gave them an area to both profit in, as well as a way to protect feed from infestation. Over time, multiple drugs have been introduced to the market. And very recently, many have been taken off the market. Except one.
I had a patient who mentioned that they read that the drugs had been banned now. So I went digging, and she was correct, except for the one drug that is still on the market. The one that is now the only one being sold, and it is being sold at high levels. Pfizer owns this last drug, Nitarsone, and has complete control of this market currently. The New York Times spells it all out pretty well in this ARTICLE. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/business/fda-bans-three-arsenic-drugs-used-in-poultry-and-pig-feeds.html?_r=0
The good news, is that the FDA’s removal of three of these drugs, makes it seem more imminent that the fourth could be removed. But in the meantime, if you know anybody who eats chicken, that is not organic, on a regular basis… and if they develop cancer. You can point a finger in the direction of our country’s chicken feed policy. Which leads me to an aside.
When someone comes to me and says, “I just found out that so and so has cancer”, I am rarely surprised. At this point, I realize that we have all done, and are probably doing things to kill ourselves, that we don’t even realize. This is one of the reasons why I wrote the Daily Sprout on Juice Plus the other day. The point made by the WebMD author – “Consume as many antioxidants as you can, because we don’t know enough about the damaging effect of the free radicals.”
I guess my point is this. If you are buying from GNC, then you are probably taking a supplement that adds free radicals into your body, in the name of health. If you are buying garbage from your grocery store, or from a discount club (costco, BJ’s), then you are buying garbage, and likely putting free radicals into your body.
Add the arsenic in the chicken, and the pesticides in your vegetables, and fruits… and before you know it, you are a cancerous risk walking around without a clue. Get a clue. Pay attention to the truth. I write with direct blunt truth, because I care.
Be well and Be blessed! – Dr. E