SAMA HOOLE: Chicken was lean, stringy, required long cooking, not particularly desirable. It was acceptable protein when the egg production ended. Nothing more.

Chickens were domesticated 8,000 years ago in Southeast Asia.

For 7,900 years, humans kept chickens for one reason: eggs.

Chicken meat was eaten only when the hen stopped laying. Usually after 3-5 years. The bird had earned its retirement in the cooking pot.

Chicken was lean,… pic.twitter.com/srGkAzo5F0

— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) December 10, 2025

Chickens were domesticated 8,000 years ago in Southeast Asia. For 7,900 years, humans kept chickens for one reason: eggs. Chicken meat was eaten only when the hen stopped laying. Usually after 3-5 years. The bird had earned its retirement in the cooking pot. Chicken was lean, stringy, required long cooking, not particularly desirable. It was acceptable protein when the egg production ended. Nothing more. 1950s: The low-fat era begins. Saturated fat becomes the enemy. Beef and pork are suddenly "dangerous." Chicken becomes "healthy lean protein." 1960s: Factory farming begins breeding chickens specifically for meat. The Cornish Cross is developed - grows from chick to slaughter weight in 6 weeks instead of 16 weeks. These birds are bred for: - Massive breast meat (consumers want lean protein) - Rapid growth (more production cycles per year) - Docile temperament (easier factory farming) They're so far removed from ancestral chickens that they can barely walk under their own weight. Their skeletons can't support the meat mass. Many develop heart failure before reaching slaughter age from the metabolic strain. 1980s: "Chicken breast and rice" becomes the default fitness meal. Bodybuilders everywhere trim the fat, eat the lean muscle, call it optimal. Your great-grandparents would have fed that part to the dog. The fattiest parts - the thighs, the skin, the liver - those were the valuable bits. The breast was just convenient bulk. We've spent 60 years promoting the least nutritious part of the chicken as a health food while demonising the parts humans actually valued for millennia. Chicken wasn't a health food until we decided fat was poison.

Before that, it was just the consolation prize when your laying hen retired.