Supermarket rotisserie chicken has come to be the “healthy” and inexpensive diner choice for many Americans. An entire, cooked chicken can be as little as five dollars, and they are lined up under heat lamps right near the registers. Nearly a billion of them are sold each year.

Of course, as is often the case, the price we pay for these chickens has nothing to do with the dollars. Most rotisserie chicken isn’t nearly the health food it’s presented to be, and the massive industrial chicken is far from wholesome food production.

Rotisserie Chicken Is Bad for Your Health.

More than likely, supermarket rotisserie chicken isn’t going to be a healthy choice for dinner. While the fact that it isn’t fried might mean less fat, there are plenty of other issues to be concerned about.

• Sodium-heavy solutions – Most rotisserie chicken is injected with solutions full of sugar and sodium to keep it moist and pull customers back to it. A small 6-ounce of chicken from some stores can account for half an adult’s sodium intake for the day.
• Bacteria-friendly temperatures – While chicken is generally cooked every few hours in supermarkets, it only takes that long for it to become a breeding ground for bacteria if the heating stations aren’t properly managed. Plus, they are being heated in plastic containers leaching goodness knows into the food.
• Antibiotic resistance – As with other animals from factory-farmed conditions, cheap chicken is going to have been given antibiotic feed and doses of antibiotics to keep it alive until it can be slaughtered. This antibiotic stuff then creates health issues for the humans that eat them in that antibiotics stop being effective.
• Local communities – Those who live near chicken houses are very familiar with the horrid smells that emanate from them. There are massive piles of chicken manure. There are tons of soiled bedding with feathers and urine. There are scores of dead and rotting chicken carcasses of the birds who don’t make it to slaughter. It puts harmful dust in the air and creates uncomfortable living conditions for humans as well.

Rotisserie Chicken Is Bad for the Environment.

In addition to being bad for your health, rotisserie chicken is bad for the environment. After all, most—likely all—of these chickens are coming from large, factory farms that have done no favor to the planet.

• Mistreated animals – While some people are set on being meat-eaters, it’s likely even those people don’t want the animals they eat to have horrible lives and gruesome deaths. Cheap chicken means factory farms which means those birds live in overcrowded, overheated, dark chicken houses where disease and premature death (not for food production) are rampant.
• Manure concentrations – With factory farms comes an overabundance of manure. Chicken houses are huge producers of it, not to mention dead chickens, feathers, and soiled bedding. All of this creates a biological time bomb of unhealthiness. It’s unsafe. When animals do their business in healthy conditions, their poop has a chance to be absorbed and used by the earth. But, in these concentrations…
• Polluted rivers and streams – Due to such vast quantities of chicken waste, the industry has found a way to rid itself of it. Farmers will spread chicken manure and other waste products on their fields for fertility. The problem is that this creates a water runoff problem that pollutes local rivers, streams, and lakes. That, of course, affects all of the animals relying on clean, fresh water in their ecosystem.
• Feed production – Because mass-produced chickens are raised in chicken houses, they don’t have access to the things chickens normally eat: seeds, bugs, grains, and even plants. However, chicken producers have to produce feed for the factory, so they are growing massive fields of GMO corn and soy. And, corn and soy fields are not something the planet currently needs more of.

Celebrate Something Else

With all that in mind, doesn’t it seem more appropriate to celebrate something else? And, that should be done with something much healthier for you and the environment.

Planet B Not Found Tee by Tiny Rescue: Climate Collection

Related Content:

• This is How Animal Agriculture Causes Deforestation
• Chicken Run 2 Trailer Unveils a Feathered Mission Impossible
• How Climate Alerts on Food May Reduce Meat Consumption
• Meat Consumption in the United Kingdom at All-Time Low, Data Shows
• 5 Reasons to Support Cultivated Meat

Easy Ways to Help the Planet:

• Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based Recipe app on the App Store, to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
• Reduce Your Fast Fashion Footprint: Take initiative by standing up against fast fashion Pollution and supporting sustainable and circular brands like Tiny Rescue that raise awareness around important issues through recycled zero-waste clothing designed to be returned and remade repeatedly.
• Support Independent Media: Being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
• Sign a Petition: Your voice matters! Help turn petitions into victories by signing the latest list of must-sign petitions to help people, animals, and the planet.
• Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest news and important stories involving animals, the environment, sustainable living, food, health, and human interest topics by subscribing to our newsletter!
• Do What You Can: Reduce waste, plant trees, eat local, travel responsibly, reuse stuff, say no to single-use plastics, recycle, vote smart, switch to cold water laundry, divest from fossil fuels, save water, shop wisely, Donate if you can, grow your food, volunteer, conserve energy, compost, and don’t forget about the microplastics and microbeads lurking in common household and personal care products!