I've only had chickens for 6 months. Here are some things I have noticed. My laying chickens are well proportioned, active, do not eat constantly - in other words they are fit and trim.

However, my cornish rocks were constantly eating even at night when the layers had gone to sleep, they were inactive and wouldn't even walk around when I let them out of their pen - they were eating machines on legs.

What I noticed when I butchered the older cornish rocks was that their internal cavity was full of fat, their organs were hidden under layers of fat, their liver was yellowish from all the fat. Now they were very delicious but not the picture of health due to the fact they were so over weight.

This made me think long and hard. Is this what we look like inside if we are over weight? I would think so! I'm over weight by about 50 lbs and this has really made me think about my health. I am now eating much better and keeping my fat intake to no more than 10% of total calories.

I wonder if other over weight people were to see the inside of an over weight chicken (or human for that matter) would it change the way they think about their diet or bring reality home to them that this is what they look like!

-- Anita in NC (anitaholton@minspring.com), February 20, 2002

Answers

Anita, Very interesting observation. I,too, could loose some and have been eating healthier and more from scratch. We can only imagine what all the chemicals do on top of our bad eating habits. Good luck toward healthier eating.

-- Maureen in GA (volfamily52@aol.com), February 20, 2002.

I too weigh about 50 pounds too much. Last week when I was carrying a 50 pound sack of chicken feed from the trunk of the car to the chicken house, I realized that this was the same amount of extra weight my body has to haul around all the time. Can't be good for anything; heart, joints, lungs etc.

-- Nancy (nannyb@huntel.net), February 20, 2002.

With all due respect, how do people allow themselves to get so overweight in the first place??? I like to eat just as much as the next person, but my country lifestyle allows me to keep reasonably trim. Maybe it's because I don't have a TV. On the other hand, maybe blubber is in and slim is out.

-- bruce (niobrara55@hotmail.com), February 20, 2002.

Bruce - Take into consideration that many people have health problems (ie, thyroid or other glandual conditions) or mobility problems. Also consider genetics.

-- Lisa in WI (llehman16nospam@hotmail.com), February 20, 2002.

Bruce-consider too, women tend to gain weight easier than men and have a harder time getting rid of it. It's not that we allow it to happen-it just kind of creeps up on you and slaps you on your butt,thighs or where ever it's in the mood. Pregnancy can be a real gainer that men can never understand. I ate healthier than I ever have while pregnant-never drank pop, tea, coffee, milk-only water, never used salt or butter,ate lean meats and little bread and still managed to pack on some magor pounds. Hormones can do strange things to you. No one chooses to be overweight and some body types make it harder to control no matter how hard that person tries.

-- Terri in WV (mrs_swift_26547@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

OOPS! typo-I'll correct myself before someone else does-major.

-- Terri in WV (mrs_swift_26547@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

I and my family have changed our eating habit also. But only we are watching our carbohydrate and sugar intake, which means cutting out a lot of corn, potato, and refined flour products as well as keeping a watch on our sugar intake.

The reason we are doing this type of a diet is cause we look back at pre 1900 life and realize that those people didn't have these products available to them year round and most everybody was slim and trim. Also we cut down to two meals a day, brunch and supper. No longer breakfast, lunch, and then supper. Of course I realize that if you have to work for someone else you cannot have a brunch break. But if the work industry would change everybodies lunch to brunch, I believe everybody would be healtheir.

Now I know somebody is going to say "Yeah, those people back then didn't live very long either". My thought is that with the diet they had and with the medical technology that we have now, they would live just as long as we are now and maybe a lot longer.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), February 21, 2002.

r.h., be careful. If you cut out carbs, you have protein and fat left. Diets of mostly protein and fat are death to kidneys and gall bladders.

-- Laura Rae Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), February 21, 2002.

Aww, Come on now. That is just a myth that a WOMAN came up with as an excuse.... Women gain easier than men and have a harder time losing it. Just kidding (wished we had graemlins..I joke a lot).

I'm "technically" OK with my weight but I'm embarrassed of my gut when I have my shirt off. The shame of it is that society has gotten used to the obesity thing and thinks nothing of it. Regardless of physical appearance, it's just not healthy and can lead to many different health concerns.

-- Mike in Pa (smfine@yahoo.com), February 21, 2002.

Dieting is for the birds. The way to keep weight off is to nip it in the bud before it gets out of control! Food is one of life's simple, wonderful pleasures, and one shouldn't have to turn it into a daily chore.

Next time your jeans start to feel a bit snug, get your old 10-speed out and go for a spin! Or hike around your land and remember why you fell in love with it to begin with.

Forget the aerobics class, you'll just resent it anyway. Exercise doing something that's FUN for you! Have your kids teach you how to roller blade.

But food! Food is just too heavenly to pass up. I'll exercise that creme brulee freshly made with goats milk and blueberries off ANYDAY before even THINKING about skipping it!

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), February 22, 2002.

Two reasons while dieting is a bad idea for all except those dangerously overweight:

Reducing your food input also reduces your metabolism, so dieting just makes your body want to store more of what little you are eating as fat, so you don't starve to death during this "famine" that has obviously developed.

Dieting involves worry - worry about calorie counts, fretting about weight lost and the time it's taking, worry about personal beauty and acceptance. A lot of dieting is wrapped up in fretting of some sort and again and again studies have shown than stress, especially low- grade, chronic stress such as this, bathes the body in stress chemicals. One of the things that stress chemicals do is cause the body to put on more fat. You know, that "famine" thing again. The body adds up less food and more stress and says "Whoa Nellie, all hell must be breaking loose out there. Better store something up in case we are exiled and have to walk to another country, or the crop failure persists, or enemy forces catch up with us or whatever it is that's causing this." This is also a key reason why "stress eaters" always seem to add those brownies directly to their hips - not only is comforting food usually high in fat and sugar, it is taken with a (un)healthy dose of cortisol and other stress cocktails to make sure it sticks. Just think of stress as the opposite of those fat-blocker supplements!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), February 22, 2002.