new research debunks trad views on nutrition

[Morrigan]

Here we have different types of peanut butter. They sell 100% peanut butter too. This has no added sugar, salt, fat or anything else. I don’t have a clue wether that is processed food or not. .

It would be considered processed food, but not "ultra processed food". I've seen some people review to items like this as "minimally" processed food. Just like the tomatoes I canned yesterday out of my garden. Processed, but minimally so. It's still healthy food.

 

[Perris]

I believe that a chicken fed an appropriately diverse, balanced diet of whole, real foods will be healthier than a chicken raised on commercial, processed food. I've read your article, and I think the way you feed your chickens is awesome.

The trouble is, that doing so is difficult and expensive for many, particularly those that do not have access to safe, nutritionally suitable free range. Even for those, like myself, who try to thoughtfully supplement a portion of my flocks' diet with real food, commercial feed is close to a necessity.

This is an important point that didn't get addressed while the focus was on feed, so I come back to it.

I appreciate that the environments in which readers of BYC are trying to raise their chickens are very varied, and differ greatly in opportunities for forage from the flora, fauna and funga that will grow in it. But if there are wild birds living in it, especially anything chicken-like such as from the pheasant family, then it is already nutritionally suitable, it just needs to be left to grow on its own, and not poisoned with herbicides and pesticides and whatnot. And that is actually a lot cheaper than keeping it 'neat and tidy'.

A lot of people like their gardens to look neat and tidy, and like to grow plants that don't do well with chickens scratching through them, and want to control plant pests and diseases with chemicals, and they're all perfectly good reasons for not wanting to let their chickens loose to find their own food. But they should be clear why they're doing it, and not pretend it is for some other reason such as the chickens' own good. The chickens would prefer to be free and to find their own food, unless they have been habituated to protective custody, in which case it takes a while for them to rediscover it. But Shadrach's thread on rescues https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/shadrachs-ex-battery-and-rescued-chickens-thread.1502267/ shows they still have the instincts, and will recover them given half a chance. What is truly difficult is for we the keepers to relinquish control over 'our' animals.

 

[BDutch]

A lot of people like their gardens to look neat and tidy, and like to grow plants that don't do well with chickens scratching through them, and want to control plant pests and diseases with chemicals,

And buy new plants and flowers that will live just one season in garden centers or other shops. These plants are often filled with pesticides. Which is another good reason not to let the chickens free range.

Imho it should be avoided to buy ‘treated’ plants at all costs because its not only unhealthy for our chickens but unhealthy for other birds and wildlife too. For insects it’s even deadly. And higher up in the food chain wildlife gets sick and vulnerable too dye because of this

Translated paragraph from a article in a Dutch bird protection organisation:
It has previously been shown that the use of neonicotinoids is very harmful to insects that serve as food for insect-eating birds, such as reed warblers. The University of Groningen recently discovered that the livers of young godwits contained as many as 49 harmful substances. “A poison cocktail of pesticides and neonicotinoids, among other things,” the researchers said.

Many people don’t realise the impact of pesticides. I even read a story of someone who bought lawn/grass rolls for inside the chicken run to please the chickens. The trouble with these poisons is that it gives no immediate reaction but it damages health in the long term.

 

[Perris]

And buy new plants and flowers that will live just one season in garden centers or other shops. These plants are often filled with pesticides. Which is another good reason not to let the chickens free range.

Imho it should be avoided to buy ‘treated’ plants at all costs because its not only unhealthy for our chickens but unhealthy for other birds and wildlife too. For insects it’s even deadly. And higher up in the food chain wildlife gets sick and vulnerable too dye because of this

Translated paragraph from a article in a Dutch bird protection organisation:
It has previously been shown that the use of neonicotinoids is very harmful to insects that serve as food for insect-eating birds, such as reed warblers. The University of Groningen recently discovered that the livers of young godwits contained as many as 49 harmful substances. “A poison cocktail of pesticides and neonicotinoids, among other things,” the researchers said.

Many people don’t realise the impact of pesticides. I even read a story of someone who bought lawn/grass rolls for inside the chicken run to please the chickens. The trouble with these poisons is that it gives no immediate reaction but it damages health in the long term.

It's not just chemicals that can come into the garden in/on potted plants; they can introduce non-native fungi (and other microbiota, like nematodes) into the ground where they're planted too. Short but sweet student paper on this here
https://medium.com/student-conserva...e-and-nonnative-invasive-species-542ce2fcf2ad

 

[lightm]

To bring the thread back on track, and in particular remind readers that ultra processed foods are associated with poor health outcomes, some more little quote and examples from Spector:

p.27 changing the matrix of the nuts, from whole almonds to powdered almonds, for example, by crushing and destroying their structure, changes both the blood lipid levels and energy levels six hours after eating from the same amount of whole almonds… this shows how the different forms in which they are eaten have crucial health consequences but aren’t reflected in their calories or fat levels... p.32 eat foods in their whole, natural form to maintain the optimal matrix... p.59 In a traditional market we can see, smell and touch the food itself instead of having to trust the labels on the packet.

I've been reading this thread yesterday and today. I find it interesting and thought provoking. I don't find the "off topic" annoying. I rather like them. But it's just me.

But I just have to laugh out loud now because this is like the 7th time you say "to bring the thread back on track".

 

[lightm]

Research published just yesterday (having been conducted over 184 countries over 28 years) links Type 2 diabetes with 3 dietary issues:
1. insufficient whole grain consumption
2. excess refined rice and wheat consumption, and
3. excess processed meat consumption.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02278-8

It is not just a matter of what we eat (or feed our chickens) but how processed, or not, that food (or feed) is.

Oh snap. I love my white rice, guess I will work on adding more whole grains...

 

[Perris]

I don't find the "off topic" annoying. I rather like them.

I don't mind 'off topic' if it's related and has some substance.

But I find idle chatter as rude here as in the cinema or theatre, and I try to shut down ignorant or unsubstantiated assertion, because both put other people off - people who come here for information and advice, and who give up on a thread because they get fed up of the dross - as Shadrach did (and then said he came to regret it because he missed some good stuff!). Real contributions develop the readers' knowledge and understanding, and provide more useful information or anecdotal evidence. So I think there is value in trying to keep it focussed, even if it sometimes requires more patience than I possess

I'm glad you're finding it interesting and thought-provoking.

 

[BDutch]

Oh snap. I love my white rice, guess I will work on adding more whole grains...

What is true for most people doesnt apply to everyone.

Some of the general advice is certainly not working and not healthy for everyone. But in research this ‘groups’ or rather individuals are often expelled and are not seen in the outcomes, and not listened to by the general health services.

Would be interesting to know how many people (mice, investigations) are expelled because of outcomes that aren’t scientifically valuable.

I know for certain that research that gives unwanted outcomes goes too often in the garbage because the industry that paid for it, doesn’t want to go pjblic with it.

 

[Perris]

Another article on UPFs and health - including, specifically, brain health - today
https://www.theguardian.com/food/20...od-system-is-the-leading-cause-of-early-death

 

[Molpet]

Record dog dies at 31. Ran loose and ate people food.
https://news.sky.com/story/worlds-o...jRxZ1J5dHhGbTJPeW1wR0ZDbzR1ckducERLMDNvM3NYdQ..