Yesterday, I received numerous emails from clients and friends telling me about Oprah’s free coupons for the new KFC Grilled Chicken. A free dinner: 2 pieces of chicken, 2 sides and a biscuit. It was such a huge promotion, this free meal, that the Oprah.com site experienced record high traffic.

Oprah seemed to think this was healthier than the fried version of KFC. Oprah apparently liked the idea of “grilled” vs. fried along with their claims of less fat and salt. Is it healthier? How does one go about figuring out what is healthy or healthIER?

Here are some ways I evaluate food to determine if a food is hazardous to your health.

#1 READ THE INGREDIENTS!
It took me a while, after some searching, I was able to find the ingredients on the KFC website. Not the “Nutrition Information” which just tells calories, fat grams and other manipulated info, the ingredients!
Here are the ingredients in the new KFC “grilled chicken” from their website. I put the hazardous ingredients in Bold so you can find them easily:

KFC® Grilled Chicken: Fresh Chicken Marinated with: Salt, Sodium Phosphate, and Monosodium Glutamate Seasoned with: Maltodextrin, Salt, Bleached Wheat Flour, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Monosodium Glutamate, Spices, Palm Oil, Natural Flavor, Garlic Powder, Soy Sauce (Soybean, Wheat, Salt), Chicken Fat, Chicken Broth,Autolyzed Yeast, Beef Powder, Rendered Beef Fat, Extractives of Turmeric, Dehydrated Carrot, Onion Powder, and Not More Than 2% Each of Calcium Silicate and Silicon Dioxide Added as Anticaking Agents. Contains Wheat and Soy.

Looks like this food is swimming in MSG! If you’re not concerned about MSG? Perhaps you should be! Here’s a link to a short piece about the Hidden Dangers of MSG

Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oils are on my “never eat” list. I’m sure that Dr. Oz would agree with me. Hydrogenated oils are unhealthful at any level. This is a great example of how meaningless the term “Trans Fat Free” can be. Oprah obviously got sucked in, just like millions of eaters every day.

Also, keep in mind that cotton is not a food crop, its heavily sprayed with pesticides and is extremely high in inflammatory Omega 6 fats. Cottonseed oil is not an ingredient fit for human consumption in my book!

Looking beyond ingredients, let’s ask a few more questions about Oprah’s grilled chicken.
Where were these chickens raised? In a factory farm? What were these chickens fed? Genetically modified corn or soybean meal with pesticide residues?Were they fed antibiotics to make them grow faster? Chickens are meant to run around outside and eat bugs and peck around on the ground? Did they ever see the light of day? Were their beaks clipped off? Factory Farms create huge environmental problems here in the US and in countries like Mexico and others. In addition to creating huge sources of pollution, they make for ideal breeding grounds for new strains of flu.

Perhaps we should change the name from KFC to KFFC: Kentucky Factory Farmed Chicken!

What can you do if you feel that Oprah was not doing her viewers a favor by offering a free meal of KFC? Ask Oprah do a show on the health hazards of MSG and the environmental hazards of factory farming! Tell her, no thanks for the free meal. Let her know at www.oprah.com