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The Energy Advantage

Top Tip to Energize your life

Talking Turkey

It's that time of year again! No matter how much stressful dashing around you do, Calorie intake usually ends up being far higher than energy expenditure. Whatever Christmas may mean to you, it usually involves a lot of eating. Warnings against over indulgence are common just now, but there is nothing new about celebratory feasting, especially at this time of year. No matter how much you over eat on THE day, you will simply be following a pattern of behaviour that dates back thousands of years - way before Christmas itself.

Christmas is only one of many festivals, which have served to cheer up the bleak mid-winter when the days are at their shortest and gloom can affect your mood. For those who could afford it, conspicuous consumption was also the way to demonstrate wealth. Tables set for feasting in late medieval times would often include gilded swans, boars' heads, roasted dormouse dipped in honey and rolled in poppyseeds. Roast peacock was a popular centrepiece. The feathered skin was stripped off and the flesh roasted before it was sewn back on again so that the bird could be presented in all its splendour. A frozen turkey from a supermarket freezer stuffed with a packet mix sage and onion stuffing doesn't quite have the same panache!

If you enjoy eating turkey, why not buy a bird that has been produced for flavour and not just profit. Turkeys are semi-wild birds and will object to being reared intensively indoors. They react by attacking each other and so turkey chicks have the tips of their beaks cut off with a red hot blade - a mutilation which, not surprisingly, causes long term suffering. The high stocking rate of turkeys and their purified diet leads to disease, which is routinely treated with antibiotics. The rapid growth rate of the birds and the fact that they are bred to produce an unnaturally large amount of breast meat means that they suffer badly from being top heavy. There is a lot of evidence that turkeys end their short lives (26 weeks - although their natural lifespan is around 10 years) in great pain and distress. These heavy birds are then tied and hung upside down by their legs to a slow moving slaughter line, where they can hang, quite legally for up to six minutes. Most birds are machine plucked by wet pluckers. They are then a wet product with the potential to grow bacteria and so must either be eaten from chilled in a few days, or frozen immediately without maturing.

Turkeys destined for the frozen market are injected after slaughter with polyphosphates, which mean that when the bird is then dunked in a water bath it will soak up 40% water. When you look at the price of a frozen bird, you may think you are getting a cheap deal when in fact you are getting a lot of water and only 60% turkey. I saw an advert for polyphosphates in a trade magazine, which boasted "why sell meat when you can sell water."

It is well known that meat becomes more tender and flavourful if hung in a cold store. The same is true of poultry - around half the quality and flavour of the bird is developed during the hanging process. However, in intensive production, time is money - so this stage is by-passed. Also the bird can only be hung if it has been handplucked dry. The free-range system is ideal as the birds keep themselves incredibly clean because they live outside and are in such good condition due to their lifestyle and diet. This year, stuff the frozen, mass produced turkey and invest in the flavour of the real thing. It may not be cheap, but the enjoyment of good quality meat in your sandwiches on a Boxing Day walk will linger long after the bill has been paid.

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