Thursday, Jan. 29, 2004
Musclemen Fret About Chickenless Diet
HANOI (Reuters) - Bodybuilders in Vietnam are squawking about the absence of chicken in their diets after a bird flu outbreak hit supplies of the cheap source of protein.
“We now have to use beef and fish, but beef has high fat and fish is poor in protein,” Ly Duc, a bodybuilder with seven Asian gold medals, told the Vietnam News Thursday. Duc typically eats six meals a day, comprising 1.2 kg of chicken and 16 egg whites.
While health experts say well cooked chicken and eggs are safe, the cull or death of more than four million chickens in Vietnam has led to scarce supplies.
In the meantime, Duc and other musclemen are paying out more for alternatives. Pork and beef prices have risen during the flu epidemic, which has killed at least six people in Vietnam and two in Thailand. Some 10 countries have reported bird flu outbreaks.
Duc said his daily food bill has doubled. “Now my wife has to spend 90,000 dong ($5.75) for 1 kg of beef,” he lamented.
First the tuna has too much mercury and will kill you, and now the chicken is disease ridden and will kill you. Factor in mad cow for the beef, and the general unpopularity and religious prejudices against pork, and I say theres a world conspiracy with a goal to make us all soy eating vegans. Its a plot, man, a plot!!!
