Looking to make better chicken soup?

This is from the Evening Standard's entertainment guide:

With its premium price tag, shoppers expect organic chicken to be both tastier and healthier than cheaper battery-farmed birds.

But organic poultry is actually less nutritious, contains more fat and tastes worse than its mass-produced equivalent, research has shown.

Tests on supermarket chicken breasts showed that organic versions contained lower levels of health-boosting omega 3 fatty acids than other varieties, including non-organic free-range poultry.

The compounds, present in high levels in oily fish, are thought to be responsible for a host of health benefits, from combating heart disease to boosting intelligence.

Organic chicken, which typically costs nearly three times as much as battery-farmed poultry, also contained lower levels of anti-oxidants – compounds which mop up harmful molecules called free radicals that have been linked to cancer, heart disease and strokes.

If that wasn't enough, the chicken – from birds which are raised as naturally as possible and are given antibiotics only when they are actually ill – contained up to twice as much cholesterol.

Organic chicken even fared poorly in blind taste tests, gaining the lowest marks for succulence.

(Hat tip: Lucianne.com)

Tags: chicken soup, organic food, chickens, antibiotics