Chicken Cravings

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For three days I’ve been craving for chicken. So much so, that even this morning before I woke up I dreamed about eating fried chicken.

As most of my family and friends, and some of the readers of this blog, know, my diet is mostly vegetarian. (I give a rationale here.) There was a time that I lived vegan but I didn’t find it personally sustainable, even though I believe it to be the ideal. To live a healthy vegan lifestyle one needs a vast variety of fresh produce. Unfortunately most grocers do not cater for bachelors; produce is usually sold in bundles made up for families, not for single people. So as a bachelor I find that lots of food spoils before I can eat it. While a vegetarian diet (I’m primarily ovo-lacto vegetarian) also requires a variety of fresh foods, it is a little more sustainable for a single guy. On this diet I never crave for meat. Or rather, I almost never crave for meat. I do not keep meat in my home (apart from occasional tinned fish) and cannot remember when the last time I had cooked meat was.

It is not that I never eat meat. I’m very practical about these things. If I am to visit people that made a meal where the main dish contains meat I will oblige, and if I happen to be out in town and there happens to be no palatable vegetarian options I will not starve myself. Still, my idea of a lovely meal is not a bloody steak; rather a creamy vegetarian pasta dish or a good curry.

My sudden grave urge for chicken was quite unusual – even dreaming of eating chicken, more unusual still. At first I thought that I might be lacking protein so yesterday I prepared myself some eggs. This did nothing to quench my craving. I do not know what poultry might have that fowl eggs do not, but I can attest that consuming eggs did not make the craving subside. Since the hunger for chicken continued unswervingly I decided that there must be some nutritional element that is lacking from my current diet, and my body is telling me that I can find it in poultry.

So for lunch today I went to a take-away restaurant close to my workplace that opened recently. They specialise in fried chicken and pizza. I ordered from the set menu two of their chicken and pizza combos and, admittedly, I ravished the chicken, even though I usually prefer pizza over meat.

I’m happy to say that the craving disappeared.

I’ve been feeling a little sick lately; mostly a slight sore throat and a runny nose. A common folk remedy for colds and the flu is chicken soup. I don’t know what it is about chicken soup that helps with seasonal afflictions, but I wonder if my body, which have been feeling a little down, needed that nutritional ingredient. To find out if there is something about chicken (or chicken soup) that is remedial I did a quick Internet search. It turns out that chicken soup with its other ingredients, but also the extract of chicken alone, has an anti-inflammatory action. Apparently, at least one amino acid released from chicken during preparation is similar to actylcysteine, which is a drug prescribed for respiratory ailments. (You can view a CNN-article about it and another from a health website.)

Apart from the sore throat I’ve also increased my exercise regime lately and my muscles are somewhat tender; i.e. slightly inflamed. The craving for chicken may have been my body’s suggestion for an all round remedy, not only for an inflamed throat, but also for inflamed muscles; plus the need for extra amino acids because of the increased exercise.

Speaking of chickens, have you ever heard of Mike the Headless Chicken? Mike was a chicken that survived for 18 months after his head was chopped of. The farmer that decaputated the chicken was so impressed with his will to live, that he gave him grain and water with an eyedropper. Mike actually gained some weight during this time and according to witnesses continued to act like a normal chicken. Apparently enough of his brainstem (a part of the chicken's neck) remained for him to continue to function pretty much normally. See the YouTube video below or follow the link above to the website devoted to the life-loving Mike.