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What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

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261–270 of 327 posts

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#261
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the meantime you might find vegetarianism surprisingly easy - I know I did. It is initially a bit of extra effort because you need to learn brand new recipes and depending on where you live you might have limited restaurant selections but I mostly gave up meat 18 months ago and was surprised at how easy it was. Plus it's way cheaper and you get to massively reduce your carbon footprint too. It's not for everyone b…

Also even if you aren't necessarily willing to be vegetarian all the time you can have say one or two nights a week where you prepare a vegetarian meal. This introduces you to new ingredients and recipes without adding immediate restrictions to your diet and life. Even if you never go full vegetarian, just cutting back on meat consumption still has an effect.

This thread is really eye opening, culturally.

Aside from some devout paleo people, I've never known a single omnivore who doesn't routinely have meatless meals, without even giving it much thought. Having meat with every dinner seems rather obsessive to me, or (in my biased view) reflective or someone who isn't very creative with their diet. There are so many awesome foods out there for which meat is a minor, optional detail. I suppose some people always find a way to insert some meat, even when it adds nothing to the meal as a whole.

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fat is what gives meat most of its flavor. We aren't talking about deep frying as in your chicken nuggets example. We're talking about fat that is naturally on the meat.

Not talking deep frying either, I don't deep fry nuggets. Dark meat gives it a bad, inconsistent texture and taste and a generally greasy feeling in your mouth even when eaten on its own. If you like that, you go right ahead, but I'll stick to the white meat - it makes sense that it's priced more to me since it may not be more flavourful, but it's more versatile and more pallatable. No marketing needed - it's just be…

White meat I agree is better in chicken tenders and nuggets. But dark meat is tastier in nearly all other dishes in my opinion. Chicken Kiev is the only other dish I can think of where dark meat isn't an improvement

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it was forcefully bred by a corporation that treated it like trash to increase their financial gains The same could be said for plants.

I hear this kind of argument pretty often. It's bizarre, because debunking it is pretty trivial. Even if we assume destroying plants is 100% equivalent to destroying animals (this is obviously a position not many would agree with), destroying animals is worse because animals require plant food to grow. And since animals burn calories that don't go directly to growth, it's an inefficient means of producing food (beef…

If you assume that we evolved (this is a position some do not agree with) then you would realize that we are nothing but the top of the food chain and whatever the flip we decide to do with animals doesn't matter--regardless of how much pain it causes them.

Make sense?

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#264
post #250
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, boil those after and make soup

I don't think you want to do that with bones from factory-raised chickens.

Why not? I've been making stock from carcasses for years. Granted, most of the animals I eat are either hunted or some type of free-range/organic/what-have-you, but I've made stock from cheap grocery-store birds before too, and honestly I don't think that I could tell the difference.

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#265

Your concern for animal welfare will never be enough for the animal rights people (just read the other comments here).

Who are these "animal rights people"? Do they really all think as a monolith? Is it fair to characterize each individual with any concern for animal rights as "one of them"?

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#266
post #250
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, boil those after and make soup

I don't think you want to do that with bones from factory-raised chickens.

What is the difference between eating the meat of a factory-raised chicken and making stock from a factory-raised chicken?

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#267

Animal welfare aside, I find people in North America really in favour of chicken breast, much more than other parts, say chicken thigh. Yet I myself think chicken thigh tastes much better, especially with the skin (yet again it is usually skinless in supermarkets here, unfortunately). Is it because of nutrition (percentage of fat/protein etc.)? On top of that, chicken feet are considered unacceptable by many...

On the bright side: I live in the US, I love the "dark"/fatty meat on chickens, and I don't mind that everyone else here prefers "white"/dry chicken meat because that means a) chicken thighs are often much less expensive, and b) I rarely have to fight over the thighs and other fatty meat when sharing a full bird. Edit to add: As for why other people prefer white meat, people usually invoke that it tastes better, but…

It may interest you to know that outside the US (in Australia at least), "white" and "dark" meat aren't differentiated from each other at all. I was quite confused when I went to an American chicken shop and saw "white" and "dark" meat with different prices.

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#268
if this disgusts you for moral/guilt reasons there is a good solution. Eat less meat! You don't have to go full vegan.

I think people employ black and white thinking about this -- either I eat all meat or I become vegetarian/vegan and eat no meat. That's hard, and you're likely to fail (hard cutting to vegan would be quite difficult, regression rates after a few months are sky high).

Instead, simply resolve to eat less meat. Make Thursdays meatless. Opt for the vegetarian option when eating out. Slowly reduce your meat consumption to a level you're happy with. Learn about meat alternatives (which have gotten really, really good in the last few years).

If everyone in the US took one day a week to have no meat, the whole industry would change dramatically. Baby steps!

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For many, coming up with enough sources of protein while satisfying their dietary restrictions is not easy without meat. I'm not sure this is true. I know it's a pretty common argument, but in reality, it's not particularly difficult to hit your protein requirements on a plant-based diet. Even if you take a relatively low protein food, like brown rice, and eat your required daily calories worth of it in a day, you'…

Huh? 2200 calories of Brown rice would give only 50g protein, and 400g carbohydrates. It's not that you it's impossible to get lots of protein on a vegetarian diet - the issue is that it's very difficult to maintain a high ratio of protein to carbs and fat, since even 'high protein' beans and seeds etc have less than a 1:1 ratio.

Brown rice alone (at 1:8) has only a _slightly_ higher carb ratio than is typically recommended. Adding tofu, seitan, nuts, legumes, seeds, etc. will easily get you within a healthy ~2:5 range [1].

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16004827

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the bright side: I live in the US, I love the "dark"/fatty meat on chickens, and I don't mind that everyone else here prefers "white"/dry chicken meat because that means a) chicken thighs are often much less expensive, and b) I rarely have to fight over the thighs and other fatty meat when sharing a full bird. Edit to add: As for why other people prefer white meat, people usually invoke that it tastes better, but…

> chicken thighs are often much less expensive One of the few downsides to shopping in an "ethnic" area in the USA is that chicken thighs are just as expensive per pound as chicken breasts

Not if you live in one of those ethnic white enclaves.
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