What Those White Stripes on Chicken Breasts Mean for Your Health

Chicken has long been marketed as a lighter dietary alternative to red meats like beef, pork, and lamb. But as Thrillist reports, consumers shouldn’t necessarily be so quick to label poultry products as healthier food choices. Thanks to modern farming methods, chicken has come a long way from its origins as Southeast Asian jungle fowl, and some chicken sold in stores has more than three times the fat it’s supposed to. Consumers can spot this attribute in the stripes of white tissue running through the meat.

“White striping” occurs when factory farmers breed birds to grow faster and larger, a practice Compassion in World Farming brought to light in a video. This can lead to adverse health effects for chickens, including muscular tissue disorders. Sometimes the disorders manifest in white lines that cut through the meat, creating a striped or “wooden” appearance.

The condition isn’t just bad news for chickens. In 2013, scientists from the University of Bologna in Italy reported that chicken with white striping exceeded normal fat content by 224 percent. But that doesn’t mean meat-eaters should drop poultry from their diets for good. Chicken still tends to have less saturated fat than red meat, and products with the muscular disorders are rare on the shelves. Nutritionists also once believed that eating chicken was better for one's cholesterol level compared to other meats, but a 2019 study suggested that high consumption of chicken and red meats both raised blood cholesterol levels, and that plant-based proteins did not have that effect.

That being said, shoppers looking to cut extra saturated fat from their meals should learn to spot white striping so they can avoid purchasing affected products at the supermarket. Speaking of smart choices, you may want to rethink those fast-food chicken sandwiches and chicken nuggets, too.

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A version of this story was published in 2017; it has been updated for 2025.