Arsenic in Meat Chickens

This is part of an email I got this morning from Marjory Wildcraft, author of  Grow Your Own Groceries. 

"I pointed out the chickens and mentioned to the parents “did you know that Tyson Foods is the worlds largest producer of chicken?”  They didn’t know that of course.  It was my opening and I pushed on.  “Yes, it’s a tough business with a very thin profit margin of only about three percent”. 
 
The husband and wife looked at each other wondering where this conversation was going. 
 
I continued, “in the chicken business the most important, biggest thing, is the weight of the birds – the total sale amount depends on the total weight.   
 
So a common practice in the larger chicken operations is to add a tiny amount of arsenic to the chickens feed.  It’s not enough to kill the chickens; it is just a tiny amount.  But it gets into the chickens bodies and causes the cells of the chickens to swell and retain water – and wholla! The chickens weigh more.  So a little bit of arsenic helps cut down on the cost of feed, and turns out to be a profitable thing to do.    
 
The thing is though, when you eat that chicken meat, you get the arsenic in your cells.  Your cells swell and retain water.  And you are thinking you are eating healthy because you choose chicken right?  But by eating that chicken you will never be able to lose weight.”
 
The two of them stood there a moment, thinking. 
 
The husband says slowly “they also feed those animals growth hormones to get them fatter and bigger more quickly and we are eating that too.  And they give them anti-biotics…  ”

Now what do you think about eating chickens as part of healthy diet?  Of course, we all know I am bit crazy for spreading the inconvenient truth.