Paleo Chicken Vs. Domestic Chicken

Posted Sun, 05/30/2010 - 07:47 by Melissa

Domestic "vegetarian-fed" chickens typically eat soy, wheat, and corn- grains high in omega-6 fatty acids, which they pass on to you.

Pastured domestic chickens get to forage for insects, but still almost always are fed a ration of soy/wheat/corn.

Poultry scientists are trying to solve the fatty acid balance problem. Unfortunately, one of the solutions, fish meal, is unsustainable and makes the end product taste well...fishy. Why rob our ocean's food chain, taking food away from delicious fish like salmon, to get some fishy tasting omelet? Beyond that, chickens didn't evolve to eat fish. That's the magic of grass-fed pastured beef- you get the benefits of eating an animal that is eating its own paleo diet.

Here is the kind of "chicken" our paleolithic ancestors might have eaten- a guinua fowl. What does it eat? "seeds, fruits, greens, snails, spiders, worms and insects, frogs, lizards, small snakes and small mammals." Look at all the meat in that diet! If you ever slaughter poultry, you'll notice they are basically a bunch of dinosaurs wearing fancy dresses. It might be possible to raise domesticated chickens "paleolithically" by also raising frogs, snails, and worms for their consumption and supplementing with a supplement mix that with a better fatty acid balance (flax, hemp, alfalfa, rice, quinoa). 

Until I start my "paleo" poultry farm, I just will avoid making chicken a staple in my diet.

You could also hunt for your poultry. You know those Canadian Geese terrorizing the children in your local park? They are pretty tasty I've heard.

Comments

@ Gene we purchased our

by debbie - 06/02/2010 - 19:59

@ Gene we purchased our turkey for Thanksgiving from healthy family farms, Delicious and very fresh. nice not to have a turkey pumped full of salt, water and god knows what kind of feed.
I think HFF does a great job with good feed for their livestock and poultry. Wish it was closer to me
Debbie

Pastured domestic chickens

by Dave from Hawaii - 06/02/2010 - 18:17

Pastured domestic chickens get to forage for insects, but still almost always are fed a ration of soy/wheat/corn.

Don't forget that pastured chickens get to eat GRASS, which is one of their primary sources of getting Omega-3 in their diet.

One of the reasons why Omega 6 fatty acid ratios are so out of whack on the S.A.D. is because of the switch over from lard and butter to vegetable oils and margarines, and the grain heavy, predominantly carbohydrate based foods.

You still need SOME Omega 6 fatty acids in your diet...and chickens that are free range and eat grain feeds also get to eat grass and insects, which gives them a fairly balanced diet. If you actually watch pastured chickens in action, they favor grass (and the insects and worms they come across while eating the grass) over grains.

IMO, If you generally eat paleo (and largely avoid the high Omega 6 rich processed foods), you're not gonna get a huge O6 to O3 imbalance by eating eggs from pastured chickens that eat grains as part of their diet.

Of course, while I feed my pastured chickens grains (a wheat/milo/barley/alfalfa/corn scratch mix as well as several scoops of flax seed), I purposely avoid soy feeds because the soy isoflavones from soy based feed are transferred to the egg yolks.

Goose is good if butchered

by jeannie - 05/31/2010 - 00:35

Goose is good if butchered and prepared well. It is not tough at all, however of all the wild game it tastes the most "gamey".
My husband and I hunt and (mostly) have eaten only what we killed and processed ourselves the past 2 years. With no wild chickens in the area, haven't had much chicken but don't miss it. Like Melissa, not worth the O6's.
I do get fresh eggs from some local chickens which are as close to chicken meat that I get.

guinua fowl are mean as

by jem - 05/30/2010 - 21:10

guinua fowl are mean as hell!! you'll want then out of the yard and on the table after they've attacked you and your children a few times.
my parents raised them along w several other varieties.

there are better choices, really. lots of 'heirloom' varieties.

LOL, well at least the

by Melissa - 05/30/2010 - 21:18

LOL, well at least the children won't get attached to them.

Canada Goose would have tough

by Erin - 05/30/2010 - 20:05

Canada Goose would have tough breast meat from their migration.

Canadian goose are really

by Aaron Curl - 06/10/2010 - 06:54

Canadian goose are really delicious if smoked. Actually I think you can smoke anything and make it delicious! I think smoked goose tastes like roast beef! Goose jerky is delicious also!

That is the diet I want my

by Primal Toad - 05/30/2010 - 18:08

That is the diet I want my birds to be eaten - the guina fowl. It sounds the most healthiest by far. I buy organic chicken which is superior to conventionally raised chicken but still seems to be far from ideal.

I have been buying food locally more and more often - I just bought a half of a cow. I guess I will have to start buying whole pigs, chickens, and other birds too!

I was fortunate to discover a

by Gene Williams - 05/30/2010 - 17:45

I was fortunate to discover a local farm selling pasture-raised chickens that at least are never fed soy. Healthy Family Farms in Santa Paula, CA. Here was the owners response to my questioning their exact feeding practices:

"The chickens receive a ration of grains mixed: organic wheat, barley, oats and some flaxseed. They also eat organic fruit and vegetable scraps (we bring back tons from the farmer's markets – big boxes of things like fennel tops, extra greens, berries, whatever...), and of course all the grass and bugs they can forage. The large chickens (the 5 pounders) also get organic corn the last 2 weeks before harvest – hence the golden skin and some extra fat to make them extra succulent for roasting. But no soy, of course, which is why we have to mix our own feed – you can't buy feed, even organic, without corn AND soy."

Not optimal perhaps, but better than the local supermarket chickens. Melissa, I apologize if plugging a vendor is discouraged on your blog. Thank you for all the great information!

Geno

ANYTHING to get rid of those

by AutumnP - 05/30/2010 - 14:56

ANYTHING to get rid of those Canada Goose poop factories! Constantly dodging the green and white globs they leave when I go out for walks by the river. Though I've heard they aren't that tasty. Maybe we should try one....

Love your blog, Melissa -- you are an inspiration!

Unfortunately it's pretty

by Forty2 - 05/30/2010 - 12:06

Unfortunately it's pretty much impossible to shoot Canada geese in a non-wild setting. Permits, bullets whinging through windows, that sort of thing ;)

I'd sure love to take out one of those shit tankers and put it on my table, though. If I could hunt them in the parking lot at work I'd never need to buy meat again. Wonder what the fatty-acid balance is in a wild goose, god knows there's enough fat on those bastards. They are full of fat and poop and not much else as far as I can tell.

What about ducks and

by Leniza - 05/30/2010 - 11:09

What about ducks and pheasants? I'll occasionally by the eggs at Whole Foods. I've seen the poultry at the farmer's market but I've yet to buy them or question the farmers about them. Are they typically fed the same way as domestic chickens?

Unfortunately, most duck

by Melissa - 05/30/2010 - 13:13

Unfortunately, most duck farmers I know feel a mix of corn and soy.

i'm not a scientist, so i

by emily - 05/30/2010 - 11:04

i'm not a scientist, so i cant say whether the pastured chicken eggs i eat have an optimal fatty acid profile, but i have been to local farms where i saw the chickens being fed leftover greens, apples, and kitchen scraps, and foraging madly for bugs. the farm i'm refering to also had guinea fol but i dont think they raised them for the meat.

A farm near NYC raises guinua

by Melissa - 05/30/2010 - 13:14

A farm near NYC raises guinua fowl for meat and sells at the farmer's market. Next time I get a chicken...maybe I'll get one of those instead. They say they feed an alfalfa mix.

"one of the solutions, fish

by Justin - 05/30/2010 - 08:48

"one of the solutions, fish meal"

I got my B.S. in poultry science from Texas A&M -- and am now getting my PhD.

In regards to the post is no real demand in the industry to use fish meal. The product competes with the aquaculture industry so fish meal is too expensive to use.

Flax meal is more common. But in large amounts it too will taste fishy.

I presented a research paper for a trial we did for camelina meal. It's approved for use in meat birds, and our study is going to be used by camelina producers to try and get the product approved for use with eggs.

However, I agree with your assessment that "Until I start my "paleo" poultry farm, I just will avoid making chicken a staple in my diet." The fatty-acid balance in any farmed chicken is not paleolithic, but I really only hear that being talked about it here on your site.