gluten-free chicken

[tex]

Lesley,

Are you aware that "vegetarian fed" is simply a term dreamed up to hide unpopular facts? "Vegetarian fed" almost always means grain fed.

Tex

[Lesley]

Exactly! Which is why I only buy or order guaranteed grass fed meats. Whole Foods sells some, but not all. Their stock bones are NOT from grass fed cows, nor is any of their pork. The lamb comes from NZ, and from what I understand, although the meat for the NZ market is always fully grass fed, the lamb produced for the US market is "finished" with grain to fatten it up. The flavor is much better than US grown lamb (if you like lamb), but it's NOT grass fed.

We have a large, permanent "farmer's market" here in LA, where there are a couple of great butchers. I can get meat through them, and if I buy enough I get it for a much better price. I share with a friend.

There are a couple of farms that sell at weekly farmer's markets. They usually sell fresh, additive free eggs, if you can do eggs, and their meat is all grass fed.

[tex]

Pigs have a monogastric digestive system (only one stomach) and it's so similar to the human digestive system that many of the parts are interchangeable. Pigs can't live on grass, because like humans, they can't digest cellulose. Like humans, they would starve to death on grass alone. Only herbivores and equines can survive on a diet of grass.

Tex

[brandy]

Hi Everyone,

I saw this thread when I was traveling and I think this is a really, really important thread for those us with this disease.

Question for Tex, My Dad worked in the poultry industy in the late 70's for one of the big name players and at that time the chicken parts left over in processing were ground up and mixed in with the chicken feed so that the chickens were eating chicken feed that also contained the ground up chicken parts. Ick.....isn't that how mad cow started? I've seen the labels on chicken that said 100% vegetarian fed. I took that to mean the chickens weren't being fed leftover chicken parts with their grain? Or maybe that is illegal now to do? It was the routine in the late 70's. I'm just curious.

I grew up in the county that is the 7th largest chicken producing county in the US. Believe me when I say it is a sleazy business. You can't over scrutinize chicken labels. The chickens that we eat on the east coast do not see the light of day. (Contrary to some of the marketing on packages.) Chicken farmers are routinely taken advantage of in contracts with Big Ag in which they have no control. There is a huge emphasis in the labs to bring chickens to market quicker thru diet etc.

My mother lives on the east coast and will typically try to buy either Amish raised chickens or kosher chickens. These seem to be injected less.

PS. It can be very difficult to buy a turkey that has not been injected. Brandy

[wonderwoman]

At Costco yesterday a frozen package of their store brand chicken said injected with water and salt. I couldn't find anything else on the label that said it contained other ingredients. I also looked at a package of frozen chicken at Safeway and it said the same, injected with water and salt. Don't remember the brand. Would these be OK?

How about Foster Farms chicken?

[tex]

Brandy,

Since the "Mad Cow" scare, it's illegal to feed ruminant livestock with "recycled" animal parts, bone meal, etc., from any mammals subject to the family of diseases related to BSE. It's still legal to feed them chicken liter, and feathers, and things of that sort.

I'm not sure exactly how the laws apply to poultry feeding these days, but as far as I know, it's still legal to feed them meat and bone meal.

Tex