How healthy is chicken breast?

There are a few ways that chicken breast benefits your body. Photo / Christopher Testani, The New York Times

It’s a protein powerhouse. But it has other strengths, too.

All cuts of chicken are great for you, but on a number of metrics, the humble breast takes top prize. Along with containing nutrients that are involved in repairing the body’s tissues, building immunity and boosting energy, chicken breast is lower in saturated fat than thighs, legs and wings, making it a smart choice for people concerned about their heart health.

Here are a few ways that chicken breast benefits your body.

It’s one of the best food sources of protein

On a per-calorie basis, there aren’t many whole foods richer in protein than chicken breast. “You’d have to eat protein powder to get more protein,” said Dave Bridges, a biochemist and associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan.

There are no carbohydrates and little fat in chicken breast, especially if you remove the skin, said Heidi Silver, the director of the Diet, Body Composition and Metabolism Core at Vanderbilt University. One 100g serving of boneless, skinless chicken breast contains about 160 calories and 32g of protein. That’s almost half the recommended daily amount for the average 184kg adult. (Some research suggests that people who do regular strength or endurance training may benefit from consuming more protein per day.) In comparison, a similar serving of farmed Atlantic salmon contains about 206 calories and 22g of protein.

In addition to building muscle, protein is essential for repairing cells, making antibodies that fight disease and producing the enzymes that keep systems running. “The entire body is built from protein,” Silver said.

It’s better for your heart

Chicken breast is very low in saturated fat – the kind associated with high cholesterol and other risk factors for heart disease, Bridges said. One 100g serving has just one gram. Chicken also contains a modest dose of oleic and linoleic acids, two kinds of fat that have been shown to support heart health, he added.

Simply adding more chicken to your diet won’t necessarily reduce your risk of heart disease, Bridges said, but substituting chicken for red and processed meats (like bacon or hot dogs) might.

It’s full of B vitamins

Chicken breast contains more than half the recommended daily amount of vitamin B3, also known as niacin, and more than 70% of the recommended amount of vitamin B6.

“These nutrients do a whole bunch of different things,” Silver said. For one, they are essential for brain health. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to make dopamine, serotonin or melatonin – the chemicals that regulate our mood, sleep, attention and more. “We need them for memory, for learning, for processing words and information,” she said.

B vitamins are also essential for DNA production, and they help to transform food into energy, said Lee Murphy, a nutrition instructor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

What’s the best way to eat it?

If it’s an option, Bridges recommended buying organic. To receive organic certification, the Department of Agriculture requires poultry farms to give chickens access to the outdoors and room to move around, and to provide organic feed. There is some evidence that these types of chickens contain slightly more beneficial fats and fewer saturated ones, Bridges said.

The breast isn’t the only part of the chicken worth eating, Silver added. Dark meat cuts, like the thighs and drumsticks, are fattier, but they also tend to have higher levels of some vitamins and minerals, like vitamin B12, iron and zinc.

To preserve chicken’s heart health benefits, Silver recommended sticking with a lower-fat cooking method, such as baking, grilling, poaching or air frying.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Isobel Whitcomb

Photographs by: Christopher Testani

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