Know The Toxic Truth Behind Your Turkey Dinner! Theres a reason you can buy Thanksgiving turkeys for 99 cents a pound: Crammed into windowless houses and fattened from birth to slaughter weight in mere months, large-scale producers have achieved a depressing efficiency when it comes to these holiday staples. Then they try to sell you on the ideal that your turkey came straight from the countryside (or the woods) with meaningless labels that obscure the cruel conditions in which it was raised. Dont be duped! Here are three reasons to ditch the Turkey these holidays: #1: Natural or all-natural. The USDA has very vaguely defined the term natural with regard to meat as meat that contains no artificial flavor or flavoring, coloring ingredients, chemical preservatives, or other artificial or synthetic ingredients, and is minimally processed. However, natural has nothing to do with how turkeys were raised. These inappropriately labeled birds were raised in the same filthy, crowded, inhumane conditions as birds not labeled natural, and they still eat a diet composed of genetically-modified corn and soy. Plus, turkeys fattened with antibiotics to promote growth and to ward off the myriad diseases that proliferate in concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs) also qualify as natural. #2: Hormone-free or no hormones added. This is a common but misleading food label that seems to imply a healthier choice, but really tells you nothing. Its against the law for turkeys to be treated with hormones, so a turkey labeled hormone-free is sort of like a label saying, We dont feed our turkeys rat poison. The USDA disallows the use of the label unless the statement Federal regulations do not permit the use of hormones in poultry follows it. However, chances are that little disclaimer is in print so tiny, you wouldnt see it anyway. Another meaningless but common term is raised without steroids. Like hormones, its illegal to feed poultry steroids so advertising a steroid-free bird means absolutely nothing. #3: Enhanced, moisture-enhanced, self-basting, or marinated in natural broth solution. These labels arent related to how turkeys were raised, but they should raise red flags nonetheless. Turkeys that are enhanced or self-basting have been injected with a solution of water mixed with potassium and phosphorus that keep the meat juicy while cooking but could have an adverse affect on your blood pressure. A recent study of these products found that the levels of potassium found in some enhanced meats were so high, they could trigger a life-threatening condition called hyperkalemia in people with kidney disease. Also, because potassium and phosphorous are essentially salts, they can raise blood pressure. These turkeys can have sodium contents ranging anywhere from 210 milligrams (mg) of sodium to 710 mg; a standard nonenhanced bird has about 75 mg. All that sodium can find its way into your gravy, too, if you use the pan drippings to make it. A quarter cup of gravy made with sodium-laden turkey drippings can add another 200 mg of salt to your supper, according to Bonnie Brost, a registered dietician at the St. Marys Duluth Clinic Heart Center in Minnesota. These broth-injected birds can also be labeled natural, which is yet one more reason to be skeptical of that label.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 16:07:55 +0000
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