Protein is essential for the proper development of a baby in utero. After all, proteins are the building blocks for all of us. It’s no surprise that expectant mothers need to increase their protein intake to ensure their babies have what they need to grow.
As essential as protein is, the way many proteins are produced may call into question its nutritional value. Who wants a side of synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals with their rump roast? The problem is that many of us don’t realize that our major sources of protein have undergone a huge and unfortunate transformation.
Just like cows, pigs need water, sunlight, fresh air, a specific diet, and space to roam. Pigs are root animals and they scour the ground with their snouts, especially under trees, to eat roots, bark, nuts, fruits, plants, insects, … just about anything that they dig up. Rooting is their natural instinct. Having the freedom to wander in fresh air and open wooded areas, with access to water and mud, keeps pigs healthy.
With the onset of factory farming, pigs are raised on concrete floors with grain feed as their only source of food. They can’t root for their food nor can they roll in “clean” mud as God intended. Instead these pigs are crammed into hog lots with only their own feces to roll in. These conditions necessitate the use of antibiotics. Pigs are also given synthetic growth hormones which makes them grow faster and their largely corn (again produced with pesticides and other chemicals) diet fattens then up.
Chickens, like cows and pigs, have similar needs: water, sunlight, fresh air, a specific diet, and exercise. Chickens have a diverse diet of insects, worms, seeds, corn, and a wide variety of vegetation. Free-range chickens grow healthy and strong when allowed to follow their God given instincts. Because these chickens have a nutrient rich and diverse diet, their meat is full of flavor and nutrients and so are their eggs more so than their factory farmed counterparts.
At factory farms chickens are raised most often in dark over crowded hen houses. The conditions inside these hen houses are squalid and sickness is unavoidable. Just like cows and pigs, chickens are given antibiotics which are most often put into their food source. Like factory farmed cows and pigs, chickens are given a largely corn based grain feed. As with most factory farmed animals, chickens are also given synthetic hormones which make them grow so fast that their organs can’t keep up with their rapid “breast” growth and many chickens become deformed, hardly able to walk. In most cases these chickens do not have outside access and are thus deprived of sunshine, fresh (feces free) air, exercise, and their natural nutrient rich diets. Consequently, the meat and eggs produced by these chickens are lacking many of the nutrients God intended them to have.
What’s next? Milk and an overview of good sources of protein!