Chicken, a staple in many diets, is often considered a healthier meat option. However, there’s a part of the chicken that poses potential health risks and should be avoided for optimal health.
Funnily enough, when children see this bit of chicken, they won’t eat the dish at all. While they might get reprimanded for finishing their plate, this isn’t a bad thing, it turns out. The part that we’re talking about is the skin.
What’s so bad about chicken skin?
Chicken skin contains tons of fat and bad cholesterol. There are also no nutritious substances in it, so it’s essentially the most useless part of the chicken. Even worse? To make a bird look more attractive when sold in the grocery store, it’s treated with different agents that stay on the skin. Although your chicken might look pretty, these chemicals can be dangerous for you to consume.
Beyond that, it can cause weight gain and the accumulation of unhealthy fat in your body, as well as possibly increasing blood pressure and the risk of disease.
According to the USDA, a cup of cooked chicken with the skin removed contains 231 calories, while the same cup with the skin on has 276 calories. The skin also has 3 grams of saturated fat in every ounce, aka in every cup.
What you can do about it
This doesn’t mean you have to remove chicken from your diet entirely. To make it healthier, you can cut out the skin or remove it after you’ve cooked the bird, since some believe that keeping the skin on can maximize flavor or moisture in your chicken meat.
And if you do decide to eat chicken skin, it can increase your protein intake. However, if you want to make your meal as healthy as possible and keep your cholesterol levels in line, you may want to cut this part of the chicken carcass out of your diet.