Kentucky Fried Cancer

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times: “Red meat is bad, but white meat is healthier.” Chicken has had a golden health halo for decades, gobbled down by people who think swapping beef for birds is some kind of upgrade. But new research just blew that halo to pieces — and it should force us to ask: why are we still eating animals at all?

According to a 20-year study by Italy’s National Institute of Gastroenterology, people who eat more than 300g of chicken or poultry per week — that’s about four portions — are twice as likely to die from gastrointestinal cancers. Not just a little bump in risk. Double. And we’re not talking about one rare cancer here. Stomach, bowel, pancreas — eleven different types. All linked to what the industry still dares to call “lean protein.”

And it doesn’t stop there. That same study found that eating more than 300g of chicken a week raised overall mortality risk by 27%. That’s a death sentence most people are still queueing up to buy — grilled, fried, or rotisserie-style.

The researchers weren’t entirely sure whether the risk was due to the chicken itself, how it’s cooked, or the pharmaceutical cocktail farmed animals are pumped with. Spoiler: it’s probably all of the above. This is a system that turns living beings into cheap meat as fast as possible, with no regard for long-term consequences — not for them, and not for you.

So why isn’t this headline news?

Because chicken is the world’s most consumed meat. It’s big business. It’s everywhere. It’s branded as clean, convenient, and modern. Meanwhile, cancer rates are climbing — particularly in young people — and we’re acting like that’s some kind of unsolvable mystery.

Red meat was demonised years ago. Everyone knows about its links to cancer and heart disease. But chicken? Chicken still gets a pass. And the industry knows it.

But the science is catching up, and it’s not just about cutting out flesh — it’s about what we replace it with.

Plant-based diets aren’t fringe — they’re the solution

A survey from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine found that half of US adults already know that eating a plant-based diet can reduce chronic disease risk. And 65% of people said they’d be willing to try it — if they had the right information.

So what’s the problem?

Only 1 in 5 people say their doctor ever mentioned plant-based eating. That's a massive failure from a healthcare system that claims to be evidence-based.

Instead, we have a public slowly waking up to the truth, while institutions and advertisers keep dragging their feet. Most adults still think they need animal products for protein — even though the same survey showed 57% believe you can build muscle on a plant-based diet. (Which, of course, you can — ask any number of vegan athletes.)

People are ready. They just don’t have the support. No one’s holding their hand when they walk past the meat aisle. No one’s in their kitchen showing them how to throw together a lentil curry instead of reheating some processed chicken breast.

And yes — we’re going to talk about processed food.

One of the most common knee-jerk excuses against plant-based eating is: “But those fake meats are ultra-processed!” Meanwhile, nobody blinks at the shrink-wrapped, chemical-soaked, drug-laced carcass they’re about to grill.

Let’s be clear: not all processing is created equal.

A new study from the University of Turku, Finland, dismantles the anti-vegan “processed” argument. Researchers found that current food classification systems are wildly inadequate when it comes to evaluating plant-based products. They focus on how a food is made, not what’s in it or how it affects your body.

Some tofu and tempeh products — made with minimal processing or beneficial fermentation — are lumped in with junk food simply because they’re not sold in their raw, natural form. Meanwhile, the microbes in fermented plant foods can enhance nutrient absorption. They make the beneficial compounds more available to your body. That’s the kind of processing we should be celebrating.

Compare that to the processing behind a chicken nugget — made from animals bred to suffer, fed a cocktail of antibiotics, and then deep-fried in saturated fat. Yet somehow the chicken gets a pass, and tempeh doesn’t?

The study also pointed out that ingredients like spices — often added to plant-based products — are health boosters, not liabilities. Yet the more ingredients something has, the more likely it gets slapped with the “ultra-processed” label. The whole classification system is backwards.

Let’s drop the double standards.

It’s time to stop pretending that chicken is a health food. It's not. It's just the latest lie from a long line of lies meant to keep you hooked on animals as food — no matter the cost to your body or your conscience.

It’s also time to stop attacking plant-based alternatives with one-size-fits-all health criticisms. Not every meat alternative is perfect — but we know what actually causes disease. We know what fuels cancer. We know what clogs arteries. And we know what kind of diet offers the chance to prevent and even reverse chronic conditions.

If more than half of people say they’d go plant-based with the right support, then the next step is obvious: give them the support. Demand doctors tell the truth. Demand schools and hospitals serve real food. Stop selling death as a healthy lifestyle. Because you can keep pretending chicken is a health food. Or you can face the facts — and finally put the bird down.