7 reasons chicken is good for your health

Find out more about chicken and its various health benefits.

By: Sameer Jha | | Updated: August 9, 2015 8:45 pm

From soup preparations to fried and roasted forms, chicken is a popular food in India that is cooked in multitude ways in every household. Chicken is one of the most valued foods among people of all ages, throughout the world. Not only it forms a crucial part of various culinary traditions but it is also highly nutritious and delicious to taste. Here are some amazing health benefits of eating chicken.

1# Helps build muscles: Chicken is one of the best non-vegetarian sources of protein. It is lean meat, which means that it contains more amount of proteins and less amount of fat. A 100g serving of roasted chicken offers you 31g of protein, making it great for those who want to bulk up and build muscles.

2# Keeps your bones healthy: Apart from protein, chicken is rich in several minerals like phosphorus and calcium, that helps keeps bones in mint condition. Also, it has selenium which has been known to cut risk of arthritis.

3# Relieves stress: Chicken has two nutrients that are great for reducing stress – tryptophan and Vitamin B5. Both of them have a calming effect on your body and this makes chicken an excellent option after a stressful day. Also, it tastes great and that too adds to its stress releasing, happiness inducing properties. Read our mega guide on how to deal with stress.

4# Reduces PMS symptoms: Magnesium, a nutrient present in chicken helps soothe symptoms of pre-menstrual syndrome and fight the various mood changes that a woman might experience during her periods. Here are more tips on dealing with PMS.

5# Helps boost testosterone levels: Men should consume foods rich in zinc as it helps regulate testosterone levels as well as boost sperm production.

6# Boosts immunity: Chicken soup has long been used as a home remedy for relieving cold, flu and other common respiratory infections. The hot steam of chicken soup helps clear nasal and throat congestion while the thick fluid coats the throat to prevent invasion of respiratory linings by microbes to cause infection. A study evaluating this effect suggested that chicken soup inhibits migration of neutrophils, a type of immune cells, thereby preventing inflammation during common infections and boosting immunity [1].

7# Promotes heart health: Chicken, being rich in vitamin B6, plays an important role in preventing heart attack. Vitamin B6 helps by lowering the levels of homocysteine, one of the key components linked to an increased risk of heart attack. Besides, chicken is also a good source of niacin that helps lower cholesterol, a risk factor for heart disease development. The American Heart Association also recommends consumption of chicken over red meat since it contains less amount of saturated fats and is also a good source of omega-3 fatty acids that exhibit beneficial cardiovascular effects.

How to cook chicken in a healthy way

Different parts of chicken have different levels of fat and cholesterol. The breast meat is the leanest with 28g containing just 1g of fat. This is followed by the chicken’s legs which has 2g of fat per every 28g.

Before you decide to cook chicken, make sure you cut of all the visible fat as it isn’t good for your heart. These fat deposits usually look white in color, and you can ask your vendor to point it out for you if you have trouble identifying it. To make it healthier, you should first marinate it with healthy spices like turmeric, coriander along with curd so that the chicken absorbs all its nutrients and becomes tastier. After that, you could try cooking it in a pressure cooker so that the chicken is soft and tender to eat. Baking or grilling it in a microwave is also an healthy option that you can consider.

If you are looking for healthy recipes, then here are some that you can try:

1. Chicken and oats soup

2. Chicken tikka masala

3. Chicken stew

Frozen chicken

These days with the advent of cold-storage a lot of people have started consuming frozen chicken. After removing it from the freezer, thaw it in the refrigerator. Doing this anywhere else will cause bacteria to build-up. Also, once you’ve thawed a frozen chicken you should never refreeze it. So, thaw only the amount of chicken you need at that point in time.

Image source: Getty images

Published : January 19, 2015 5:21 pm | Updated:August 9, 2015 8:45 pm

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