Now the government wants to take your chicken, too – a new study claims your favorite protein is killing you, linking those innocent nuggets to double the cancer risk.
At a Glance
- Italian study claims eating more than 300g of chicken weekly doubles risk of death from digestive cancers
- Research tracked nearly 5,000 people in their 50s over two decades
- Men appear more vulnerable than women to poultry-related cancer risks
- High-temperature cooking methods and industrial poultry production practices are suspected culprits
- Study has significant limitations including lack of data on cooking methods and exercise levels
The Government’s Latest War on Your Dinner Plate
Just when you thought the nanny state couldn’t get any more ridiculous, along comes a new study telling us that chicken – yes, the lean protein health experts have been pushing on us for decades – is now apparently trying to kill us. According to Italian researchers, eating more than four servings of chicken weekly could double your risk of dying from digestive cancers like bowel and stomach cancer. But before you toss out your family’s favorite meal, let’s look at what’s really clucking behind these claims.
This study tracked nearly 5,000 participants, mostly in their 50s, over two decades and found that those consuming more than 300 grams of poultry per week (that’s about four servings) had a 27% increased risk of death from any cause. For digestive cancers specifically, the risk more than doubled compared to those eating less than one portion weekly. The researchers didn’t stop at just scaring chicken lovers – they also claimed men are particularly vulnerable, being 2.6 times more likely than women to die from these digestive cancers.
Does eating more POULTRY increase mortality?! A new study out of Italy suggests it does…
This one used a food frequency questionnaire on 4,869 Southern Italians (heyo!) with a 19-year follow-up.
They categoriezed weekly poultry intake into four groups:
🍗 <100g
🍗 100-200g
🍗… pic.twitter.com/3HAGcuRRMx— Mike Roberto (@MicroBerto) April 24, 2025
What’s Actually Behind These Finger-Lickin’ Fears?
The study authors suggest several potential mechanisms for this supposed chicken catastrophe, including carcinogenic compounds formed during high-temperature cooking, industrial poultry feeds, and hormones or medications used in modern poultry farming. But wait – shouldn’t we have seen this cancer epidemic decades ago, considering America’s long-standing love affair with chicken? The researchers themselves admit their study has what they call a “potentially serious limitation” in not accounting for cooking methods or participants’ exercise levels.
“Regularly eating chicken could double your risk of dying from 11 different types of cancer, including bowel and stomach, a study has suggested.” – Italian scientists
It’s also worth noting that the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has previously classified red meat as “probably carcinogenic to humans” but has made no such determination for poultry. Yet suddenly we’re supposed to panic about chicken while the traditional warnings about red meat are seemingly taking a back seat. This inconsistency should make anyone with common sense raise an eyebrow at these new chicken claims.
The Never-Ending Food Fear Carousel
Remember when eggs were going to kill us all with cholesterol? Then they were superfoods. Coffee causes cancer! Wait, no, coffee prevents cancer! The constant flip-flopping on nutrition advice has become a predictable routine that serves mainly to confuse Americans and sell more research grants. Now chicken joins the long list of foods that were perfectly fine until suddenly they weren’t. What’s truly astonishing is how these dietary fear campaigns seem perfectly timed with other agendas.
“We believe it is beneficial to moderate poultry consumption, alternating it with other equally valuable protein sources, such as fish. We also believe it is essential to focus more on cooking methods, avoiding high temperatures and prolonged cooking times.” – study authors
Just as lab-grown meat ventures are desperately seeking investment and climate alarmists are targeting animal agriculture, suddenly traditional protein sources are being portrayed as death on a plate. The timing couldn’t be more convenient for those pushing expensive fake meat alternatives or insect protein powders. Meanwhile, the same establishment voices expressing grave concern about your chicken consumption remain curiously silent about the mysterious ingredients and processing methods used in ultra-processed fake meat products.
Common Sense in a World Gone Mad
Before you panic and empty your freezer of chicken, consider this: humans have been consuming poultry for thousands of years without civilization-ending cancer epidemics. The Mediterranean diet, widely considered among the healthiest in the world, includes moderate amounts of chicken. What’s changed isn’t the chicken itself but how we raise it, process it, and prepare it. Rather than eliminating this affordable protein source from your family’s table, perhaps the real takeaway is to seek out higher-quality chicken, avoid ultra-processed chicken products, and use gentle cooking methods.
“Our results showed that men have a higher risk than women of dying from [gastrointestinal cancer] for the same proportion of poultry consumed” – study authors
The constant barrage of contradictory health warnings doesn’t serve public health – it undermines it by creating nutrition whiplash and distrust in all dietary guidance. Americans need reliable, consistent advice based on solid evidence, not headline-grabbing studies with significant limitations that serve primarily to frighten people about yet another food. Trust your common sense, buy the best quality food you can afford, prepare it with care, and maybe take these chicken little claims with a grain of salt – at least until they tell us salt will kill us again next week.
