Are Wings Healthy?

OK, full disclosure, I am not a doctor although I do sometimes play one on Wingaddicts episodes and I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express one time back in the 90’s. I am not the person you should emulate if a “healthy lifestyle” is your goal. Just look at my profile! Haha, I’m a man of excess. If it feels good, do it. And do it a lot! There, now we’re all on the same page.

When we first started Wingaddicts in Feb 2020, I had friends tell me “be careful!” Those wings have a lot of calories and other nefarious "bad-for-you" ingredients.

“Nah! How bad could it be? It’s chicken! Chicken is protein and if I add in the bleu cheese, celery and carrots, I’m hitting all the major food groups. Oh, and they're small!” That’s my (seemingly logical) reply.

Well, thousands of wings later . . . along with thirty extra pounds, a little gout (although that could be attributed to the alcohol), and a monthly bottle of Amlodipine pills for my new high blood pressure readings (also, probably alcohol), I’ve finally decided to look into the actual health benefits of our favorite food.

Whoa.

So, I may have overlooked the oils, butters, sugars, and high levels of sodium that are added to those beautiful healthy little chicken wings. Whatever.

And right when I considered the consequences of our wing-eating gluttony for a micro-second,  I came upon an old article from Time, where a scientist who studies bioactive compounds in plants (not sure what that means, but it sounds legit) concluded that hot sauce is actually GOOD FOR YOU! Especially combined with a little fat!!! Does anybody else hear angel harps right now?

Apparently capsaicin, the active ingredient in peppers that makes them spicy, gives hot peppers “antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects.” This scientist applied capsaicin directly to cancer cells and the growth of cells reduced. Their conclusive theory is that “capsaicin triggers something called apoptosis, which is a cell suicide that encourages the turnover of cells, some with mutations, to be recycled into new cells,” according to Time. And, this "cocktail of bioactive compounds" in peppers works better when blended, cut or cooked because the capsaicin is released from the pepper tissue. Pair it with fat, like oil — or the chicken fat in Buffalo wings — and the benefits increase because capsaicin is fat-soluble.

Of course, they also tell you to go easy on the sugar-based wing sauces, but we have selective hearing. We never expected to cure cancer when we started Wingaddicts but it's one of those positive unintended consequences. You're welcome.

The truth is, if we want perfectly healthy keto chicken wings we can bake or cook raw wings in an air fryer and either add a low sugar buffalo sauce or any type of rub. Bleu cheese is fine too. We’ll need to product a healthy-conscious Wingaddicts video just to demonstrate but in the meantime, I stick by my motto; “Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess.” 

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Wings up!