The good fats are divided into monounsaturated fatty acids MUFAs and polyunsaturated fatty acids PUFAs. The goal is to have a lower Omega ratio.

Omega 3 fats tend to reduce inflammation and Omega 6 fatty acids tend to encourage inflammation. An increased ratio increases the risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Omega 3 fatty acids promote heart health, reduce blood pressure, and raise good cholesterol HDL. One way to get better fats in your diet is to eat different foods: more fish, nuts, vegetables, etc.

This is often the angle of attack for people who fight against the eating of meat. The reality is, according to Collette, that the U. Simply changing that diet has many barriers, including cost, accessibility, and preference. Poultry and eggs, for example, have become utilitarian foods and have additional health benefits beyond their fat profile.

You can have significant change to the American diet, says Collette, just by improving the health of the animals we use as food. Pasture forage is a direct and significant way to improve the nutritional profile of the animal because the forage is a good source of the Omega 3 PUFAs.

Pasture-raised chicken meat tends to be higher in iron, higher in Omega 3, have a lower Omega ratio, and be higher in antioxidants Vitamin E, for example. Pasture-raised eggs have higher Omega 3s, a lower Omega ratio, increased vitamin D, and more antioxidants.

Vitamin E, for example, is an antioxidant, and pasture-raised chicken has higher densities of vitamin E.

Many Americans are deficient in vitamin D even though the body absorbs it from being exposed to the sun; therefore, finding dietary sources of vitamin D becomes important.

Vitamin D is required for the body to absorb calcium and phosphorus, which leads to strong bones. The U. Health and Human Services says that one-third of U. adults are obese, and even if a person is of a healthy body weight, poor diet increases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis.

The primary line of defense to these diseases is diet, and when it comes to the poultry you raise, your customers can positively affect their diet and their health by choosing poultry and eggs raised on pasture.

I relied heavily on the data points presented by nutritionist Collette Lentz, MS, during her webinar for the Food Animals Concerns Trust FACT.

You can watch this webinar online for free at foodanimalconcernstrust. Manganese has nothing to do with it. Looking at blueberries as my model, I see five criteria. I propose choosing food based on taste, internal feedback, charm, production integrity, and human connection.

For instance, choose a ribeye steak for its incomparable flavor, a fermented dill pickle because it is soothing, a camembert cheese for the tang that reflects a specific pasture in July, a chicken raised by a farmer doing the right thing, or a spaghetti sauce recipe that has been a family tradition for generations.

These are the truly important food criteria. Not every food needs to be top ranked in each category, but I believe that truly good foods are the ones that score high on most of these rankings.

Necessarily, in following these guiding principles nobody would end up eating identically as I do. But nobody would end up eating bland, self-destructive, uninteresting, irresponsibly produced, lonely meals either.

Instead we would focus on the food, the experience, the values, and the people rather than obsessing about invisible nutritional attributes. That approach devalues the chicken and misunderstands humans. Our pasture raised chicken is not a vitamin, mineral, or protein supplement. This chicken is too special to be just a health supplement.

I think our food can be much more to us than its constituent microscopic particles. Reference for further research as listed below.

Thanks to Collette Lentz and Mike Badger for many of these references. Your email address will not be published. Products Articles. Is Pasture Raised Chicken More Nutritious? Dave Perozzi July 31, Pasture Raised Poultry. What Can We Learn from Research?

Collagen Collagen is an fascinating protein. Fat Profile, Particularly Omega 3 Covering any topic related to dietary fat can be exhausting. Vitamin E Vitamin E functions crucially as an antioxidant, preventing tissue damage. Limits of Research We should recognize the important limitations of depending on research for factual claims for or against the health of any product.

Wrong Direction, Different Direction Rather than chasing Omega 3 in chicken or manganese in blueberries, I propose choosing food based on more intuitive, more human standards.

Research Bibliography Reference for further research as listed below. Almasi, A. Effects of different rearing systems on muscle and meat quality traits of slow- and medium-growing male chickens.

British Poultry Science, 56 3 , — Comparing the Effects of Conventional and Pastured Poultry Production Systems on Broiler Performance and Meat Quality. Journal of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 2 1 , 29— pdf Boz, M.

ca, M. Production traits of artificially and naturally hatched geese in intensive and free-range systems — II: slaughter, carcass and meat quality traits. British Poultry Science, 58 2 , — Effects of outdoor access on growth performance, carcass composition, and meat characteristics of broiler chickens.

Poultry Science, 92 2 , — Transfer of bioactive compounds from pasture to meat in organic free-range chickens. Poultry Science, 95 10 , — Fat and fatty acid composition of cooked meat from UK retail chickens labelled as from organic and non-organic production systems.

Food Chemistry, , — The influence of season on the sensory profile of Egyptian goose Alopochen aegyptiacus meat. Poultry Science, 95 9 , — Nutritional strategies to improve the lipid composition of meat, with emphasis on Thailand and Asia. Meat Science, , — Growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality of yellow-feathered broilers fed graded levels of alfalfa meal with or without wheat.

Pasture-raised chicken also contains higher amounts of amino acids, including glutathione , which is so beneficial that many people take it in supplement form to reduce inflammation, aid in detoxification, and increase energy, just to name a few benefits. Pasture-raised chicken has been shown to have six times the glutathione of regular chicken, even chicken that is free-range and organic.

and happy chickens are healthy chickens! While many industrially-raised chickens are confined to tight, crowded spaces sometimes housed with literally thousands of other chickens , pasture-raised birds are given plenty of access to sunlight, and fresh air, and allowed to move around and forage as chickens were meant to do.

Chickens raised conventionally are fed a diet of genetically engineered corn and soy, given hormones to increase their size, and fed a steady diet of antibiotics to avoid the spread of disease from so many birds living in such close proximity to each other.

On the other hand, pasture-raised chickens are fed a primary diet of balanced feed , supplemented by an instinctive diet rich in insects, worms, legumes, grasses, and seeds found naturally while foraging.

The resulting meat is higher in vitamins, nutrients, and essential fatty acids due to the varied diet that the chickens are exposed to during their lifetime. A healthier diet is just one benefit of being raised on pasture. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

More from the blog Tyson Foods investing big in bug protein for new venture The first bug-protein facility of its kind will be used to make food for pets, fish and livestockTyson Foods is partnering with a Dutch bug-protein company to bring insect farming to the U.

Earlier this month, meat-producing giant Tyson Foods announced its investment in insect protein producer Protix and said it's partnering with the Netherlands-based company to build a facility in the U.

that will raise insects. The bug protein won't be used for human consumption at this point. Instead, the facility will use animal waste from Tyson cattle to feed black soldier flies, which will then be processed into food for pets, livestock, and fish.

Tyson said in an Oct. Tyson Foods' minority stake in Protix will help the "leading insect ingredients company" fund its global expansion, according to the U. company's press release. The facility is expected to open in , Tyson Foods told Fox News.

The venture aligns with a global shift toward alternative proteins and more sustainable food sources amid environmental concerns, since growing insects uses less water and land than traditional livestock, according to Tyson Foods.