Chick-fil-A recently held a “Cow Appreciation Day”, but we’re doing anything but celebrating. Their idea of “appreciating” cows is to give away free chicken. While we’re all for skipping the burgers, substituting chicken has to be one of the worst deals of the century. Let’s look at some of the details of the Chick-fil-A bad deal.

While not quite as high as beef, chicken still has high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol that contribute to clogged arteries and other diseases. Cooking chicken also produces more cancer-causing heterocyclic amines (HCA’s) than any other meat when cooked, and fried chicken is even worse. So there’s no doubt that eating chicken is bad for your health.

Raising chickens also causes massive water pollution and contributes to global warming. And the poor chickens are commonly jammed into cages so crowded they can’t even turn around, causing endless animal suffering. Then there’s the slaughterhouse which is worse than gruesome, giving rise to the saying that if slaughterhouses had glass walls we’d all be vegetarians!

So if you still eat chicken, and are having a hard time giving it up, why not give one of the many chicken substitutes a try? They’re now widely available at natural food stores and co-ops throughout the region. You can readily find faux “chicken” patties and nuggets these days. These products, always popular at Vegfest, get better and better every year. Some of them taste and smell so much like chicken that many cats start to meow when they are prepared.

Let’s not forget all the eggs served at Chick-Fil-A. Eggs pack a lot of cholesterol. While the extra cholesterol in eggs only adds a little to the blood levels of the average American whose diet is already overwhelmed with cholesterol from animal products, it really shoots up the cholesterol levels for those following an otherwise healthy diet, and increases the amount of “bad” cholesterol relative to the “good.”  Fortunately, Vegan Eggs are now readily available! Finally, we can have egg-free omelets, quiches and good old stick-to-the-ribs scrambled eggs, without having to consume all that extra cholesterol and torture chickens in the process.

So when you hear about the “Cow Appreciation Day”, spare a thought for the poor chickens and their impact on us and the environment, and celebrate cows by going vegetarian instead!