Orange County Register

The guy who picked up the phone at El Toro Gourmet Meats barely had time to talk. A throng had shown up Monday for the first day of fresh turkeys going on sale. When would be a better time to talk? “Sometime after Thanksgiving,” the burly-sounding meat man said.

A small but loyal coterie of holiday eaters prefers to cook a fresh turkey for Thursday’s big feed, even though frozen ones could be bought at a supermarket far in advance, and for a lot less money. Fresh, free-range turkeys can cost 2-3 times as much as birds raised in a barn.

Price notwithstanding, is a free-range turkey — that is, one that’s allowed to roam around outside — better for you than one raised in close quarters in the barn, or “grow house”? Many advocates and farmers of free-range poultry say free-range turkeys taste better. And the fact that these birds aren’t in close contact with their own waste all the time, and aren’t given antibiotics (to prevent disease), growth hormones (for plumper meat) or cheaper feed means that they’re inherently more nutritious. Conventional growers may point to a Swedish study that indicated a higher prevalence of bacterial infections among free-running hens.

El Toro gets all of its turkeys from Shelton’s of Pomona. The family-run company raises its turkeys on two farms near Fresno. Company president Gary Flanagan says the birds are raised indoors for the first few weeks, then let outside for the rest of their lives, which run 14-18 weeks, depending on their size, before they’re sent to slaughter.

“A typical supermarket turkey is raised in the grow house its entire lifetime, and never sees the light of day,” Flanagan said. “When they’re confined, it’s like 10 guys living in a two-bedroom apartment. When one guy gets a cold, they all got one. When we let them grow outside, they have less health issues.”

The marketing department of a conventional grower I contacted said all turkeys get a little cramped, because as they age their wingspans get longer quickly. Then he referred me to the National Turkey Federation’s web site (EatTurkey.com), which makes the grow houses seem like cozy ski lodges, and the outdoors fraught with peril:

“Turkeys are raised in scientifically designed, environmentally controlled barns that provide maximum protection from predators, disease and bad weather. Turkeys are not raised in cages, instead, they roam freely around the barn. No one cares for a turkey more than the turkey grower.”

Flanagan said both kinds of turkeys are fed essentially the same diet (grains, including corn, and some vitamin and mineral supplements), but free-rangers get more-expensive soybean meal early in life, as opposed to animal protein for the indoor birds.

Wait. Was that corn in  there? Yep. UC Irvine dietitian Mary Jean Christian says corn contains omega-6 fats, which have been linked to heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

“The presence of corn in the U.S. diet is extremely pervasive in all its forms, not only cornmeal and corn oil, but the high-fructose corn syrup,” said Christian, the diabetes program coordinator at UCI’s Joslin Diabetes Center. “There’s a whole scandal of the contents of corn in our diet, that it’s somehow contributing to this epidemic of obesity and related chronic diseases.”

Even terms like “free range,” ”cage free” and “organic” may have caveats and be misleading. The Healthy Eats blog has a handy label “decoder,” here.

Now that you’re a little wiser about what kind of turkey to pick out, here’s a recap on guidelines for preparation and handling of your feast, plus tips on how to indulge in moderation:

• Thanksgiving dinner and its 5,000 calories
• Advice for keeping off the pounds this Turkey Day
• How do I prepare and cook a turkey safely?

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