Let’s figure out how justified the fears of doctors are and how harmful chicken legs are.
What is Dark Chicken Meat?
The dark color of the meat is due to the presence of a large number of blood vessels in the corresponding muscles of the bird. The more a particular muscle works, the more veins and arteries must be in it to supply it with blood, the darker the meat will be.
The chicken is a young bird. Accordingly, she rarely flaps her wings, and her pectoral muscles do not perform particularly active work. The meat on the chest thus turns out to be white and rather tender. With legs – it’s another matter. Because of the great love of walking, the chicken must have strong muscles on its legs. That is why chicken legs, which are also useful for the body, will in any case be darker and tougher in terms of the composition of the meat.
By the way, domestic pigeons, which in any case fly more chickens, and the meat on the chest is as dark as on the legs. And because of the functions performed, dark chicken meat differs from white meat both in composition and in its properties.
Composition, calories and health effects
The composition of dark chicken meat contains more fat than chicken breast. This is understandable: it is the legs of the bird that need energy support, and it is from the fatty layer that this energy is obtained. So, 100 grams of dark chicken meat contains 8,12 grams of fat, 19,7 grams of protein and does not contain any carbohydrates at all.
Of course, together with the fat, the composition of chicken legs abundantly supplies us with cholesterol, and when fried in oil – a fairly large amount of carcinogens. All this is a huge harm to chicken legs and thighs, because of which some nutritionists do not recommend eating dark chicken meat at all.
Further, the calorie content of a chicken leg is 157 kcal, which makes it very valuable for athletes, but also dangerous for the figure of those who move very little. If we add here the harm of chicken skin, which is also very oily, then the composition of dark chicken meat can really be scared. But it is not all that bad!
