What foods are good for you? Is it a meal from a luxury hotel? Favourites from your neighbourhood? Or lovingly prepared homemade dishes? After discovering how farm animal welfare affects your health and happiness, we would like to invite you to learn about how good food begins with high-quality healthy ingredients, free from antibiotics and hormones that can impact your physical well-being.
Here are five points of interest outlining why antibiotic and hormone-free meats are the best choices for you and your loved ones.
Hormone-free meats are more likely to be undamaged and disease-free
Did you know that farm animals receiving hormones are more likely to be raised with less living space, causing them to be smaller and weigh less? So, then farmers use hormones to increase their size and weight. This practice, however, is not as popular as it once was, mainly because the increased risk of disease and harm among the animals is not worthwhile when compared to raising the same animals naturally, without hormones, to the same weight.
You can taste the difference
Furthermore, you might be aware that hormone-free meats taste different to those raised with hormones. How? Because the flesh from animals raised on hormones in crowded spaces are different from those raised more freely. The hormone-free animals are likely to have more space to move and better, more nutritious foods, allowing them to develop and grow as nature intended. This results in healthier, more proportionate muscles and leaner, more tender meat compared to those raised in lesser conditions on hormones.
Antibiotic-free meats are less likely to be contaminated by drug-resistant bacteria strains
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that using antibiotics in animals, no matter at what stage, can increase the risk and danger of drug resistance and bacterial infections among consumers. So, in 2017, the WHO reviewed the guidelines for using antibiotics when raising livestock for human consumption and recommended that those in the livestock and food industries stop unnecessarily using antibiotics. They promoted raising animals naturally to prevent serious animal diseases from infecting humans and to concentrate on using antibiotics for treating humans.
Further to that, antibiotic use usually occurs when animals are being raised in crowded conditions. The animals are easily stressed, which can lead to a lowered immune system. This means they get sick more easily as well, especially since they’re probably in unsanitary and unhygienic conditions, breeding grounds for disease. Using antibiotics to prevent disease like this is an unnecessary overuse of these drugs. Also, it can be considered animal cruelty as well.
The less the hormones, the better
Another advantage of eating hormone-free meats is the positive impact on our health. Although there is yet no evidence as to the effects of long-term consumption of hormone-treated meat, experts suggest foods free from, or containing minimal amounts of, hormones are better for a person’s health. And let us not forget that our own bodies already produce enough hormones naturally.
Happy animals, happy consumer
In the end, a farm animal’s happiness and healthiness is not just about livestock. It is also about all of us as consumers avoiding contaminated foods and unnecessary additives to stay healthy in the long run. When we place the importance of animal welfare and happiness closer to us than we thought possible, we show how much we value our well-being and the health of those we care about.
These are the five ways avoiding antibiotics and hormones in your food is good for you and your family. At U-Farm, we are dedicated to raising chickens free from antibiotics and hormones in farms that also protect our livestock from disease and contamination.
The chickens from U-Farm are not treated with hormones or antibiotics while being raised to ensure safety. They are certified as such by NSF International (National Sanitation Foundation), a world-class institution that conducts comprehensive inspections widely accepted by the food and agriculture industries.
NSF promotes and supports animal care that is safe, where animals are protected and have a good quality of life. So, you can be sure that the poultry from U-Farm’s Benja Chicken in Thailand is 100% safe and suitable for everyone in the family.
Find out more about Benja Chicken at www.benjachicken.com.
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