The great sausage swindle

I see chicken sausage and turkey sausage everywhere these days. Great, right?! Well, maybe not as great as you'd think. It seems like sausage made from poultry would be an obviously healthier choice than beef or pork sausage, but unfortunately, the benefits of choosing these kinds of products are overblown more often than not. Case in point: my shopping experience this afternoon.

I was at my local Stop and Shop, picking up some ingredients for an Italian pasta dinner tomorrow night and, keeping with tradition, I planned to make sauce with meatballs and sausage. Looking at the options for sausage, I thought for a moment about getting chicken sausage. Although I don't like to sacrifice too much of the authenticity of a meal for a better nutrient profile, I also don't mind making subtle changes where I can. I picked up a package of chicken sausage and a package of pork sausage from the same company, flipped them over and compared the nutrition labels. What do you know? The calorie content was almost exactly the same (110 vs. 100 calories per 2 oz. serving) as was the fat content. That sure made my decision easier. I took the pork sausage and put the imitation healthy sausage back.

It's true that the chicken sausage did not bear any claims about healthfulness or fat content, but it's my suspicion that most shoppers would assume, without any such explicit claims, that the chicken sausage would just have to be better than the pork sausage. And I doubt everyone would take the time to make the label comparison that I did. The point of this rant is to provide a warning. Just because a product is made with chicken, turkey, or some other meat with a healthful aura, does not automatically mean it is any lower in fat or calories than the original version. If you are trying to choose leaner meats (good for you!), please make sure you read the package labels and make sure you are getting the benefits you think you are.

P.S. I'm sure there are some legitimately more-healthful varieties of sausage out there, so don't discount them entirely. And if you've seen some, please share your find with the rest of us!