Sobering Thread Explores the Startling Transformation of Chickens in the United States

If you're not a vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian in the United States, chances are your diet involves at least a bit of chicken. Eating healthy as an omnivore has almost become synonymous with eating massive amounts of chicken breasts. On a less healthy note, pretty much every restaurant you go to will, at the very least, offer diners a chicken sandwich of some kind. Every year in the US we consume 26 billion pounds of the bird and spend almost $30 billion on broiler birds. According to @MrSollozo, the average American eats 65 pounds of chicken. These staggering statistics are alarming on their own, but they actually come from a thread that @MrSollozo composed about how much the chickens we gorge ourselves have changed in the last year. The transformation is pretty startling.

Posted by Ada Elder

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In the thread, Sollozzo explains that the chickens we eat are 364% larger than they were fifty years ago. They're giants. And yes, this change has an effect on your health.
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Sollozzo makes a pretty good point regarding the blandness of chicken. Think of all the things we have to do to make it actually…taste like something.
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Apparently, the chicken we've been eating is a direct result of the ‘Chicken of Tomorrow’ contest, which sounds like something straight out of The Twilight Zone.
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As you can see from this wealth of information, efficient chicken farming does not equal good-tasting or good-for-you chicken. While some of this was news to me (Hello, the contest!) I've been eating more expensive, thoughtfully-raised chicken - but solely for the taste. Now I know they're healthier, too. Unfortunately, due to rampant inflation, this chicken has become increasingly difficult to justify the purchase of even the usual bargain that is chicken thighs. People on Twitter were very thankful for the revelatory thread - and even weighed in with their own fascinating facts regarding the state of the chickens (and eggs) we eat today.
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