April Austerity - Clucking Chickens

Not all chicken is created equally, but that is hardly news.

The meat I'll be eating over the next month falls way below the standard of welfare that I'd like my dinner to have experienced before ending up in front of me.  So, why didn't I turn vegetarian for the month?

Firstly,  I am a meat eater and to turn veggie for 30 days seems like a fake change, especially in view of the fact that I am trying to get a feel for what it may be like for someone who is having to live like this on a permanent basis. Whilst some may chose to give up the meat, in favour of veggies, many probably won't.  This exercise is not one in animal welfare, but one in people living on the breadline.

Secondly, there's the question of my diet and the transplant drugs.  The last time I was up at Harefield I overheard a conversation between another patient and her family.  She'd decided to swap herself onto a diet which was substantially different from her normal routine.  Her blood test results took a nose dive and from the way she was talking, I think she'd had one heck of a telling off from the doctor!  Not only were several things like her iron levels out (no, I can't remember them all), but scarily her immuno suppressant levels had dropped to dangerous levels.  Basically, if you reduce the fat content in your diet, then you reduce the amount of immune-suppressant drugs that your body absorbs.  If you increase the fat content, then you absorb too much and are at risk of scary things like kidney failure.  The bottom line is, don't change your diet without supervision, eat regularly and eat similar types of food in similar quantities.  Discussion with a transplant doctor, about a lifestyle change is essential if you are making changes and be prepared for weekly blood tests and subsequent mucking about with doses until they are satisfied you are stable!  On top of this, I am already eating a restricted diet.  This all seemed far to complicated to factor into something that is really a social experiment.

Anyway, back to the chicken.   It's been a loooong time since I've had the misfortune to knowingly eat anything quite so revolting as Tosca's value frozen chook breasts.  The 1kg bag, for £3.99, has to be the worst thing on the market at only 82% chicken in their 'Chicken' - the rest is made up of added water, dextrose and salt - for 'added succulence'.  Apparently adding salt and sugar makes something juicy; the water (we all know) just leaks out upon cooking.  So, you've actually only bought 820g of chicken, not 1kg!

Aldee 1kg frozen chicken 'value' breasts come in at £3.99 as well.  I avoided this because this had added water and again, I actually wanted to pay for what I was getting, if you see what I mean.  That said, there was no added salt and sugar, so it is an improvement on Tosca's efforts.

Sodsbury's 1kg frozen chicken breasts were a whopping great £6.49!!!  I can't afford that!!! Moving swiftly on and back to my current scrimpery fave - Aldee: £3.79 for 6 breasts weighing in at 700g.  Given the water and junk content in the Tosca cheap version, I think this should be better value...  Only a taste test next week will prove me right, or wrong.

Clearly I have had to cast aside any guilt I feel about battery farming, as I am pretty sure that animal welfare is not particularly high on the agenda of the cheap end of supermarket shopping, or in the minds of people looking for pennies to be able to afford to feed the family.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I'll have to atone for this with a month of ethical eating, including total freedom food and see what that does for my wallet.