Do chickens have skin?

By NAN BROWN
As published June 6, 2007

Healthy eating is a way of life here in the Brown household and has been for quite some time. It has been a progressive process, however, developed over a period of several years.

I’ve always been a dieter from the time I felt I was a tad too chubby as a teenager and decided to join Weight Watchers (WW). The WW plan back in the 70’s was a far cry from its points system of today. I remember eating tuna fish three to five times a week as it was part of the plan, and as a result I developed such an aversion to the stuff that I can’t stomach it even to this day.

I also remember eating three or four hot dogs without buns at one sitting – again a WW requirement. Nowadays eating that way could kill a person with all the calories, fat and sodium found in most hot dogs.

Shortly after Jack and I were married I tried the Beverly Hills diet – do you remember that one? Basically for the first two weeks all you could eat was pineapple, hence another aversion which I have fortunately overcome in the past couple of years, for I am once again enjoying pineapple occasionally in limited quantities.

I recall having to give up that diet because I developed a very sore mouth from all the acid in the fruit.

Speaking of a sore mouth, my self-imposed summertime lunch staple for years has been a plateful of fresh-from-the-garden sliced tomatoes topped with cottage cheese. I ate it at work five days a week each summer for as long as the tomatoes or my mouth held out. I never realized tomatoes were so acidic.

Of course, cottage cheese is not a good choice any more due to the imposition of the low sodium diet I’m on in light of my recent diagnosis of heart failure. It was shocking to read the label on my favorite cottage cheese and realize it is so high in sodium.

It’s been a real eye-opener to discover just how much sodium there is in most foods, especially canned goods and frozen items – but I’ll save that subject for another column.

Life changed dramatically for us when I was diagnosed with diabetes in my late 20’s. That’s when our focus turned to the sugar and fat content of foods. At first I was so naïve about the disease. I just couldn’t understand why I had it because I had never been a big fan of sweets, except perhaps for ice cream. Of course after becoming more educated about it I realized there was no correlation between eating sweets and developing diabetes.

Over the years we have started thinking about foods differently and the new eating habits we developed as a result are now ingrained in our everyday lives.

It’s funny how our tastes change over time, and I’m sure this is the case with a lot of people. For example, we’re so accustomed to drinking skim milk now that we don’t like whole milk any more as it tastes like heavy cream to us. We can’t even handle 2% milk – it’s just too rich.

Living in the heart of Lancaster County for the past 3½ years has presented its own set of dietary challenges. Anyone familiar with this area knows the wide selection of delicious foods available, especially of the Pennsylvania Dutch variety. I am proud to say we have managed well despite the many temptations.

Jack and I had an interesting discussion just the other day about chicken barbeques which are used as fundraisers around here for several different organizations. We’ve never stopped at one because, well frankly, we don’t enjoy the smell emanating from the grills as we drive by – it’s always kind of a greasy, burning odor.

We passed a sign on a back road referring to the upcoming chicken barbeque the Bird-In-Hand Fire Company was having that Saturday, and I commented to Jack that the chicken itself might taste better than the cooking process smells. He said something about the skin probably tasting good and being crispy despite being a bit greasy, and I looked at him and said, “Skin? What skin? Do chickens have skin?”

He glanced over at me and then we both started laughing because as far as we’re concerned chickens don’t have skin since we never eat it. In fact, all we ever buy are boneless, skinless breasts, so I guess the same question could also be posed about chickens having bones.

We both admit we’ve never met a cow or pig we didn’t like; however, we do opt for the leanest cuts of beef and pork. And yes, we do know cows and pigs have skin. We’re just not sure about chickens.